2. 1984
This autobiographical novel of WWI that inspired multiple film adaptions evokes “the horrors of modern warfare has lost none of its force” (The Times, London).
In 1914, as the world descends into war, twenty-year-old Paul Baümer and his classmates enlist in the German army. Full of youthful excitement and visions of adventure, they quickly find themselves caught in a whirlwind of death and brutality. Though
...8. Anthem
Anthem takes place in a dark, dystopian future. Collectivism and socialist economics have driven mankind to a technological standstill. The individual is not acknowledged in this society, the word "I" having been eliminated from speech altogether. Rand explores the tension between collectivism and individualism and equates the errors or triumphs of these with socialism and capitalism.
11. The bean trees
12. Beloved
Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary...
14. Black Boy
A special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author's grandson.
When it exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, Black Boy was both praised and condemned. Orville Prescott of the New York Times wrote that "if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read them maybe, someday, in
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