Literary Fiction Political

A powerful allegorical tale about humanity and dignity and the ease with which we can justify brutality. Two mysterious strangers appear at a hotel in a small country town. Where have they come from? Who are they? What catastrophe are they fleeing? The townspeople want answers, but the strangers are unable to speak of their trauma. And before long, wary hospitality shifts to suspicion and fear, and the care of the men slides into appalling cruelty.

El humor se convierte en el arma que se defiende de la opresión, la injusticia, y la violencia. El gran solitario de Palacio es una obra sobre México, y sin embargo tiene algo del efecto globalizador que caracterizó al Boom latinoamericano: escrita en México, París, y Madrid, se publicó por primera vez en 1971 en Argentina; y de alguna manera representa una realidad que se ha repetido una y otra vez en la historia de Latinoamérica.

New York, 2005. Chinese expatriate Feng Danlin is a fiercely principled reporter at a small news agency that produces a website read by the Chinese diaspora around the world. Danlin's explosive exposés have made him legendary among readers - and feared by Communist officials. But his newest assignment may be his undoing: investigating his ex-wife, Yan Haili, an unscrupulous novelist who has willingly become a pawn of the Chinese government in order to realize her dreams of literary stardom.

Ceridwen Dovey's debut novel is a stunning literary achievement and an acute character study of three men held captive after a military coup. All linked closely with the deposed president, the portraitist longs for his pregnant wife, the chef takes solace in preparing meals for the new regime, and the barber lives with the knowledge that he'd often held a razor to the throat of the man responsible for his brother's death.

At once a coming-of-age tale and a heart-rending love story, Wild Ginger explores the devastating experience of the Cultural Revolution, which defined Anchee Min’s youth. The beautiful, iron-willed Wild Ginger is only in elementary school when she is singled out by the Red Guards for her "foreign-colored eyes". Her classmate Maple is also a target of persecution. The novel chronicles the two girls’ maturing in Shanghai in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Chairman Mao ruled absolutely and his followers took up arms in his name.

In the 1980s, a man is pulled up out of the Indian Ocean in Port Pallid, South Africa, claiming to have been kidnapped as a baby. So begins the odyssey of Jimfish, who defies the usual classification of race that defines the rainbow nation. His journey through the last years of Apartheid will extend beyond South Africa to the wider world, where he will be an unlikely witness to the dying days of the 20th century.

Ben has just returned from a war waged against a nameless enemy. To avoid being nabbed by police and forced to work in a factory, he’ll need to find a wife. But to do that, he must wear a bachelor’s suit—and the tailor won’t make one for him.

Gogol's great comic masterpiece paints an hilariously satirical picture of provincial life in 19th century Russia. Its publication in 1847 not only provided inspiration for succeeding generations of Russian writers, but fanned the already flickering flames of social discontent which were eventually to flare up and consume Russia in the revolution of 1917.

Mitte der Achtzigerjahre. Berlin und ganz Deutschland teilt eine Mauer. Elias Effert ist Theatermann: Stückeschreiber, Regisseur, Liedermacher. Gerade haben ihm die Kunstwächter in der DDR gesagt, dass sie ihn nicht brauchen. Er kann gehen. Nur einer holt ihn auf dem Bahnsteig in Westberlin mit Blumen ab: Joachim, Chef eines großen Westberliner Theaters. Er will helfen. Aber Effert ist skeptisch und hält sich an Caroline, eine West-Freundin, die er aus Zeiten als erfolgreicher Ost-Künstler kennt. Sie ist bereit, ihn aufzunehmen.

Gebäude lassen sich abtragen und neu aufbauen, Erinnerungen nicht. Jan und seine Eltern sprechen nicht viel über das Heute und erst recht nicht über das Gestern. Erst als Herr Kern auftaucht, gerät das fragile Gleichgewicht der Familie ins Wanken: Welche Beziehung führte Jans Mutter mit dem Vater von Herrn Kern? Und was haben die Kerns mit der Kunst von Georg Baselitz zu tun? Immer weiter arbeitet sich Jan durch das Schweigen mehrerer Generationen, taucht ein in die Geschichte der Baselitz-Brüder, die Geschichte seiner Eltern und begreift, dass die Gegenwart nicht nur aus der eigenen Vergangenheit besteht.

In this powerful novel of love and family, a doctor named Paris follows a nurse to a country on the brink of civil war. When a confrontation does break out, they are swept up by rebel forces and separated. The nurse, Helen, is pregnant; she escapes, but Paris is left behind, imprisoned by rebels as war rages. A narrative of brutal power about parental bonds, forgiveness, and identity, The Colonial Hotel recasts for the 21st century the ancient story of Paris, Helen, and Oenone.

Il 7 ottobre 1967 Ernesto Che Guevara resta imbottigliato con un piccolo gruppo di guerriglieri in una "quebrada" della foresta. Consegnatosi ai soldati, il Che viene trasportato nel vicino paesino di La Higuera dove è rinchiuso nel locale della scuola. Il 9 ottobre a un soldato scelto a sorte tocca il compito di uccidere il ferito, il cui cadavere viene poi trasportato all'ospedale di Vallegrande per essere mostrato a fotografi e giornalisti.

Uscito nel 1976, "Un borghese piccolo piccolo" racconta la crudele, sanguinosa vicenda di Giovanni Vivaldi, impiegato di un ministero romano che, nell'Italia spietata del boom economico, tenta di farsi largo nel mondo tra sotterfugi e piccole furbizie, ed è pronto a tutto pur di garantire al figlio quel benessere che lui ha potuto solo sfiorare.

Mein Sohn, trotz allem... Fus und Gillou, 10 und 7, sind sein ganzer Stolz. Doch als seine Frau stirbt, steht er mit seinen Jungs allein da. Die Arbeit als Monteur, Haushalt, Erziehung: Er gibt sein Bestes, bringt die Jungs zum Fußball, zeltet mit ihnen in den Ferien. Die ersten Jahre läuft alles glatt. Nur Fus wird in der Schule schlechter, sodass er danach nicht in Paris studieren kann. Der Vater tröstet sich damit, dass sein Ältester nicht wegzieht - bis er entdeckt, dass der 20-Jährige neuerdings mit einer rechtsextremen Clique rumhängt.

In the Cambodian hinterlands, a lone Western prisoner suffers through a hot, muddy, interminable sentence. Wasted by repeated torture, lack of sleep, malnutrition, and psychotropic drugs, he has been abandoned. His years of exemplary service to his government mean nothing. No one is coming for him.

Quello che tutti in Italia si attendono, fin dal crollo delle Torri Gemelle, accade. II Palazzo di Giustizia esplode e crolla. Sotto le macerie, centinaia di morti e una bomba ancora innescata: è lo Schedario, la raccolta dei documenti riservati delle inchieste più delicate e ancora ignote al pubblico, un archivio di dossier in grado di fare saltare ogni istituzione.

Mary Shields is a moody, acerbic probation officer dealing with some of Glasgow’s worst cases, and her job is on the line. Liam Macdowall was imprisoned for murdering his wife, and he’s published a series of letters to the dead woman, in a book that makes him an unlikely hero - and a poster boy for Men’s Rights activists. Liam is released on licence into Mary’s care, but things are far from simple. Mary develops a poisonous obsession with Liam and his world, and when her son and Liam’s daughter form a relationship, Mary will stop at nothing to impose her own brand of justice.

Abbey Mei Otis's short stories are contemporary fiction at its strongest: taking apart the supposed equality that is clearly just not there, putting humans under an alien microscope, putting humans under government control, and more. Otis has long been fascinated in using strange situations to explore dynamics of power, oppression, and grief, and the 12 stories collected here are at once a striking indictment of the present and a powerful warning about the future.

Tales of the Out & the Gone reflects the astounding evolution of America's most provocative literary anti-hero. The first section of the audiobook, War Stories, offers six stories enmeshed in the vola-tile politics of the 1970s and 1980s. The second section, Tales of the Out & the Gone, reveals Amiri Baraka's increasing literary adventurousness, combining an unpredictable language play with a passion for abstraction and psychological exploration.

Ishmael Reed's electrifying first novel zooms readers off to the crazy, ominous kingdom of HARRY SAM - a miserable and dangerous place ruled for thirty years by Harry Sam, a former used car salesman who wields his power from his bathroom throne. In a land of a thousand contradictions peopled by cops and beatniks, black nationalists and white liberals, the crusading Bukka Doopeyduk leads a rebellion against the corrupt Sam in a wildly uproarious and scathing satire....