Context: My partner primarily reads non-fiction, especially books about corruption, fraud, historical activist movements, etc. Recently I was telling about a fiction author I was reading, and how she used the difference between African conceptions of time and European concepts of time to do interesting things with the pace of the narrative. I was also telling them about how I enjoy reading books from people who have very different lives and perspectives than I do because I feel like it expands my worldview. We started talking about fiction that they’ve previously read, and they realized that they haven’t really read a fiction book in over a decade, and all of the ones they read were sort of “American classics” written by men (like Jack Kerouac, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ray Bradbury, Jack London, Kurt Vonnegut, etc.)
They have decided to read at least one fiction book this year by an author who isn’t a 20th century white American man. However, my partner isn’t interested in the kind of books that I read (a lot of gothic romance/horror and alien/sci-fi) and they’re quite picky, so I’m struggling to come up with a recommendation.
Here is the list of qualifiers they’ve come up for a book they want:
– Must be written by a woman or person of colour, preferably published in the 21st century.
– Preferably a book that is a cultural critique with serious themes (bonus points if it’s a critique of capitalism), rather than a cozy or wholesome book.
– Has a linear narrative that is fairly easy to follow. So no unreliable narrators, reverse narratives, fragmented narratives, etc.
– No fantastical settings. My partner has some aphantasia and struggles to picture things in their mind that they haven’t seen/experienced before. This makes books with fantasy or far-away world settings frustrating for them. They tried reading Lord of the Rings many, many years ago, but gave up because so much of it involves being able to visually conceptualize what Middle Earth looks like. So it needs to be set in either our world or a world similar to our own. It’s okay if it has a diverse or historical landscape (like if they’re in a desert or swamp, a far-away country, a well-known ancient civilization, etc.) as long as it’s based in our reality. But a total fantasy world or an alien planet won’t work.
– Minimal sci-fi, magical, or supernatural concepts. For similar reasons as before, they struggle to visually conceptualize certain things that are too far from reality. But common tropes that they’ve seen before in other media are okay, like time travel or ghosts.
– Minimal romance and absolutely no sex scenes.
– No family dramas, or that have frequent scenes of fights between family members.
– No themes or scenes of domestic violence.
– No novels where the main character repeatedly makes bad decisions due to their own intentional ignorance, negligence, or impulsivity.
– No gratuitous scenes where animals are harmed (although mentions of hunting for food are okay).
– No historical fiction about WWI or WWII.
Sorry if that was a lot of information. But I’m hoping that someone out there has a suggestion?
by MinimumSweaty5250