James Baldwin said: “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
Keeping up this newsletter has been especially difficult with recent events. But I’m a lover of books, even the difficult books that can be brutal, but also show me light in the darkness. Here’s a small list of some books that have done that for me.
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht: Living in the Balkans after a horrific war that split the country, a young doctor travels to give vaccines to children. She learns during her journey that her grandfather has died. Intertwined with the present and the past, this novel examines the sturdiness of stories and how one endures war.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: The miniseries has recently come out, I know, but the novel is something marvelous. Set in both a town in France and in Germany, two people come of age during World War II, connected by the new radio contraption.
The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami: I’m not sure if this one fits, but then again, it is about the Spanish colonization of the Americas, told from the viewpoint of the one slave from that journey, a Moor named Estebanico. In the 1600s, a group of Spanish explorers went to the New World to establish colonies and find gold. The few that returned to Spain gave an account to the king. This novel is Estebanico’s account, detailing the parts that were omitted to the crown.
The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam: There were so many images from this novel that haunt me to this day. With several characters woven into the backdrop of the occupation of Afghanistan, this novel brings to life the numerous stories of people in a war-torn country, and their ways to cope.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: Incredibly famous, I know, and an amazing story set in Korea during Japanese occupation. With it’s spanning of generations and the changes that occur politically, the novel gives its focus to one woman, Sunja, and the choices she makes to help her family survive.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende: Another multi-generational novel, Allende’s story is one under fascism in a South American country, where a family lives both in reality and in the spiritual realm.
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste: Following the story of Hirut, a young woman in Ethiopia during the 1935 invasion by Italy, this novel portrays the lesser-known narrative of the woman-soldiers from that time.
Secret Son by Laila Lalami: In this novel, three young men are friends growing up in Morocco. The protagonist, Youssef, hopes for more for his life, and he gets close when his supposedly-deceased father returns. Lalami’s arc in this story reveals the tragic arc for how a person can turn to fringe groups.
My platform here has been for the purpose of sharing my little space of history that people rarely know about. Reading is one of the way we fight against the dehumanization of others.
If you are an American citizen or resident wishing for a cease-fire please go to USCPR for easy information to contact your representatives.
I’ll end this with Toni Morrison: "This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal."
"Reading is one of the way we fight against the dehumanization of others." Thank you for bringing this lens to your work. Words can and do change the world - and not just when we're writing them, but when we're reading them and embodying them.