Society & Class

Examinations of class, power, and the structures we live within.

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Dubliners

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories portraying the lives of ordinary people in Dublin at the beginning of the twentieth century. The stories follow children, adolescents, adults, and elderly characters as they confront family obligations, unfulfilled ambitions, religious expectations, and the limitations of their social environment. Some experience moments of sudden insight that reveal the compromises and disappointments shaping their lives, while others remain trapped by fear, habit, or economic necessity. Joyce presents Dublin as a city where political stagnation, social conventions, and the influence of the Catholic Church affect even the most private decisions. His restrained prose captures the significance of everyday encounters and seemingly minor events. The collection explores paralysis, longing, and the desire for escape, offering a powerful portrait of individuals who recognise the possibility of change but often struggle to act upon it.

Lack of Light

Nino Haratischwili

The Lack of Light follows four women—Nene, Ira, Dina, and Keto—whose friendship begins in a Tbilisi courtyard during the final years of the Soviet Union. As they grow up, Georgia undergoes dramatic political and social transformations, including independence, civil conflict, and the rise of criminal networks. Each woman pursues a different future, but their lives remain bound together by shared memories, personal loyalties, and the consequences of choices made during their youth. Years later, a photographic exhibition devoted to Dina prompts Keto to revisit their intertwined histories and reconsider the events that shaped their friendship. Haratischwili portrays a generation coming of age amid uncertainty, where private hopes collide with political violence and social instability. The novel explores friendship, memory, loss, and the lasting impact of a society struggling to define itself after the collapse of an empire.

The Hacienda

Set in Mexico in the aftermath of the War of Independence, The Hacienda follows Beatriz, a young woman whose father was executed and whose family home was destroyed during political upheaval. When wealthy landowner Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes marriage, she accepts, hoping to secure a safe home and a fresh start. However, after moving to his remote estate, Hacienda San Isidro, Beatriz begins experiencing terrifying visions and unexplained disturbances. As she investigates the property’s dark history, she seeks help from Padre Andrés, a young priest hiding secrets of his own. Blending Gothic horror, historical fiction, and forbidden romance, Isabel Cañas explores women’s vulnerability within patriarchal society, the lingering effects of colonialism, and the struggle for independence in a world shaped by power and superstition.

Witness

What does it mean to witness someone else’s suffering—and what responsibility comes with seeing the truth? Set in contemporary New York City, Witness brings together ten stories about people caught between the desire to care for one another and the uncomfortable truths that make connection difficult. A young girl tries to navigate tensions within her family as the home she knows faces an uncertain future. A man struggles with memories he cannot escape. A woman living with the aftermath of violence searches for a way forward. Across these lives, ordinary encounters become moments of revelation, exposing the quiet decisions that can shape a family, a friendship, or an entire community. Jamel Brinkley writes about the spaces between people: the affection that survives disappointment, the secrets that fracture trust, and the moments when silence becomes its own kind of betrayal. His characters are neither wholly innocent nor easily condemned; they are human, complicated, and often uncertain about what doing the right thing actually requires. Tender, unsettling, and deeply observant, Witness explores grief, belonging, inequality, and the moral weight of looking away. It asks whether truly seeing another person is enough—or whether we must also find the courage to act.

United States 2023

Yellowface

Rebecca F. Kuang

How far would you go to become the writer you believe you deserve to be? June Hayward has spent years watching her university friend Athena Liu enjoy the literary success she desperately craves. When Athena dies unexpectedly, June steals her unpublished manuscript, makes a few changes, and publishes it under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. The novel becomes a sensation, bringing June fame, fortune, and the recognition she has always wanted. But as questions about authorship and cultural appropriation begin to surface, maintaining her carefully constructed identity becomes increasingly dangerous. With biting humour and escalating suspense, Yellowface exposes the darker side of the publishing industry, exploring racism, jealousy, literary ambition, and the ethics of telling stories that are not yours.

United States 2023

Venice Requiem

Khalid Lyamlahy

On a cold January day in 2017, a young Gambian refugee named Pateh Sabally drowns in Venice’s Grand Canal while tourists and passers-by watch. Some even hurl insults at him. Horrified by this tragedy, a young writer sets out to reconstruct Pateh’s final days and understand the circumstances that led to his death. Moving through Venice’s literary history, from Thomas Mann to Marcel Proust, the narrator confronts an uncomfortable question: what does it mean to celebrate beauty and culture while turning away from human suffering? Blending fiction, investigation, and literary reflection, Khalid Lyamlahy offers a powerful meditation on migration, racism, indifference, and the moral responsibility of witnessing another person’s pain. Venice Requiem is both a tribute to a forgotten life and an indictment of a society that too often fails to recognise the humanity of those on its margins.

Discontent

Beatriz Serrano

Marisa appears to have everything she should want: a beautiful apartment in central Madrid, a promising career at an advertising agency, and a convenient arrangement with her attractive neighbour. In reality, she despises her job, finds her colleagues unbearable, and struggles to discover any meaning in her carefully constructed life. She spends her working hours hiding from coworkers, watching YouTube videos, and taking tranquillizers to cope with the relentless monotony of corporate existence. Her carefully maintained professional image, built partly on lies and other people’s work, begins to crumble when she is forced to attend a company team-building retreat. Surrounded by manipulative bosses, irritating colleagues, and artificial attempts at bonding, Marisa approaches a personal breaking point. Through biting humour and uncomfortable honesty, Beatriz Serrano captures the alienation of a generation that followed society’s promises of success only to find itself exhausted and unfulfilled. Discontent is a darkly comic exploration of workplace burnout, loneliness, and the desperate desire to escape a life that looks successful from the outside but feels empty within.

A Disappearance in Fiji

A Disappearance in Fiji

Set in Fiji in 1914, A Disappearance in Fiji follows Akal Singh, a 25-year-old Indian police sergeant whose promising career in Hong Kong has been derailed by a professional mistake. Transferred to the British colonial outpost of Fiji as punishment, Akal feels isolated and longs to return to India or Hong Kong. His prospects change when an Indian woman named Kunti disappears from a sugarcane plantation, prompting accusations of kidnapping and attracting unwanted public attention. Assigned to investigate, Akal encounters conflicting accounts from plantation owners, Indian indentured labourers, and Indigenous Fijians. As he uncovers inconsistencies in their stories, he begins to suspect that the disappearance reveals something far more troubling than a simple missing-persons case. Blending historical mystery with social commentary, Rao explores colonial racism, caste prejudice, and the exploitation of indentured Indian workers. Through Akal’s investigation, the novel reveals the inequalities underpinning colonial Fiji while examining how a detective’s understanding of justice can change when he confronts the realities of those living under oppressive systems.

I Love Russia

Elena Kostyuchenko

I Love Russia brings together investigative reporting and personal essays to portray a country through the lives of people often excluded from its official narrative. Journalist Elena Kostyuchenko writes about sex workers, LGBTQ+ people, residents of neglected institutions, and communities affected by violence and political repression. Her reporting also follows the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, examining the human realities behind state propaganda and military aggression. Rather than presenting Russia as a single, uniform society, Kostyuchenko reveals its contradictions through the experiences of individuals whose stories challenge dominant political narratives. The book explores the complicated relationship between love for one’s country and the responsibility to criticise its government, presenting journalism as an act of witnessing, resistance, and moral commitment.

Colony

In The Colony, Emelie, exhausted by her demanding urban life, escapes to the Swedish countryside, where she encounters a mysterious group of seven people living together outside conventional society. Each member carries personal wounds, disappointments, or a desire to escape the expectations of the modern world. Their unusual community offers the possibility of a different way of living, built around shared responsibilities and distance from mainstream life. Yet as Emelie becomes more involved, the boundaries between freedom, belonging, and dependence grow increasingly complicated. Norlin examines the human longing for connection and the temptation to create an alternative society when existing structures feel unbearable. The novel asks whether a community can truly escape the inequalities and conflicts of the world it leaves behind.

Name of the Rose

Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose is a historical mystery set in an Italian Benedictine abbey in 1327. William of Baskerville, a Franciscan friar with a sharp analytical mind, arrives with his young assistant Adso of Melk just as a series of mysterious deaths begins to trouble the monastery. As William investigates, he discovers that the abbey’s extraordinary library contains forbidden knowledge and that disagreements over religious doctrine have created dangerous rivalries among the monks. The investigation becomes a struggle over the relationship between faith, reason, and the control of information. Eco combines medieval history, detective fiction, and philosophical debate to explore censorship, institutional authority, and the power of books. The novel asks whether knowledge can remain free when institutions fear the consequences of questioning established beliefs, revealing how the pursuit of truth can become dangerous in a world governed by rigid authority.

A Spell of Good Things

A Spell of Good Things

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

Set in contemporary Nigeria, A Spell of Good Things follows two young people from vastly different social backgrounds whose lives become entangled amid growing political tensions, family pressures, and personal struggles. Ẹniọlá is a sixteen-year-old boy whose family has fallen into poverty after his father loses his job as a teacher. Once accustomed to a more comfortable life, he now struggles to pay his school fees and preserve his dignity. He runs errands, works for a local tailor, and occasionally begs on the streets, all while holding on to his dreams of a better future. Wúràọlá, meanwhile, comes from a wealthy and influential family. A talented young doctor in her first year of practice, she is exhausted by the demands of her profession and trapped in an increasingly troubling relationship with Kúnlé, the son of a powerful politician. Although her privileged background offers financial security, it cannot protect her from the pressures and dangers of her personal life. When a local politician takes an interest in Ẹniọlá and violence erupts during a family celebration, the lives of the two young people become unexpectedly connected. Their stories unfold against a backdrop of political corruption, social inequality, and a society approaching a moment of crisis. Through these intersecting narratives, Adébáyọ̀ examines the relationship between wealth and power, the vulnerability of women, and the ways social class shapes people’s opportunities and choices. The novel reveals how the struggles of seemingly different individuals are connected by the structures surrounding them, offering a nuanced portrait of contemporary Nigerian society.

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About this theme

Books: 140
Countries: 54

Countries with this theme

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Congo, Democratic Republic

Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

Dominican Republic