To Understand the Present, Read These 10 Political Novels from the Past

Fiction has a way of probing the reality of a particular moment in history that you can’t always get from pure fact. Whether it’s a tale of historical fiction or something altogether imagined but imbued with political truth, the best political novels tend to resonate on a deep emotional level, affecting the reader and imparting a sense of the stakes beyond what can be gleaned from mere dates, figures and even the events themselves.

To that end, here’s a brief list of must-read political novels from the past hundred years that have something vital to impart about the world we live in today. They span a range of countries and contexts, but all address the world’s most looming issues in unique and engaging ways. This list is by no means intended to be comprehensive, so feel free to let us know what essential titles we’ve missed.

It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

Published in 1935, It Can’t Happen Here follows the rise of an authoritarian system in the United States led by a populist figure promising to restore “greatness” by returning the country to traditional values, suspending habeas corpus, deporting immigrants and suppressing the media. Described by his opponents as “vulgar, almost illiterate…a public liar easily detected,” Lewis modeled his tyrant after the fascists of his day—Hitler and Mussolini—but it makes for frighteningly familiar reading now.

A Thief and a Guardian by Megha Majumdar

Just released and freshly declared a finalist for the National Book Award, Majumdar steps into near-future India, where rising temperatures and waters have made life just shy of unlivable. There, we follow one family’s attempt to recover stolen “climate visas” to the United States as they navigate the scramble for survival faced by all but the billionaires. Almost as disconcerting as what it has to say about where we’re headed as a planet are her intimations of how we will react as individuals when the security we take for granted is stripped away.

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

In 1949, a Bedouin-Palestinian girl was raped and murdered by a gang of Israeli soldiers. Nearly 70 years later, a woman from Ramallah becomes obsessed with the killing and begins an investigation that brings her into confrontation with the contemporary restrictions imposed on Palestinians by Israel. A harrowing examination of the relentless conflict, it suggests the persistence of the past and the futility of violence.

A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s works were so threatening to the powers that be during the 1970s that he was imprisoned for two years before fleeing into exile. A Grain of Wheat revolves around a key moment in Kenya’s fight for colonial independence and explores the complex human fallout of such political turmoil. It raises powerful questions about who oppressed peoples want to be after they’ve cast off their chains.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

For 40 years, Iran has held a notorious place on the world stage, and right now it’s amidst intense internal battle over the future of its society. In her acclaimed two-part graphic novel, Satrapi takes us back to the fallout of the Islamic Revolution that resulted in the dissolution of civil rights, particularly for women, and follows one girl’s attempt to define herself and build a life as a woman in Iran and an exile abroad.

Libra by Don DeLillo

We’re living in peak conspiracy theory culture, and the granddaddy of all such theorizing centered around the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. In his 1988 novel Libra, DeLillo follows the life of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and the (supposedly) fictional CIA plot to kill JFK. A blend of fact and fiction, it makes for a highly engaging vacation into the mind of conspiracy and the paranoia that pervades in politically tumultuous times.

The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut

Leveraging a similar, if aesthetically unique, fusion of fact and fiction, Chilean author Benjamin Labatut’s celebrated dive into the life and work of physicist and computer scientist John von Neumann follows the research that took us from the atomic bomb to artificial intelligence. The reader is propelled through the quest to develop humankind’s most dangerous innovations and is left with an uneasy sense that what is around the corner may not be the scientific triumph it’s cracked up to be.

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

Few borders on the map cause as much political strife as the line separating Mexico from the United States. Luiselli imagines a pair of families whose lives become ensnared by the border situation and the divisions it imposes. As the multi-perspective narrative burns toward its conclusion, it suggests troubling questions about the value of art in the face of a hard reality.

I Am China by Xiaolu Guo

With the U.S. receding from its global leadership and China stepping in, now is a good time to learn more about the latter. Overtly political fiction produced within the country tends to face repression, so we must often look to its writers abroad. In Xiaolu Guo’s I Am China, politics and exile are at the forefront through the portrayal of a love story between a poet and a punk guitarist seeking asylum in Britain.

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

You might be wondering, if we’re going with Orwell, why not 1984? It certainly is apt for our times. And you would be right, but it is also too obvious. Instead, I’m suggesting his memoir from the Spanish Civil War. Technically, it’s not a novel, but its portrayal of the fight against fascism, and the infighting among anti-fascist forces is poignant, thrilling, timely and often hilarious. It provides a vital glimpse into what happens when a country tears itself apart and the world is on the brink of all-out war.