I understand the term “non-white” isn’t a perfect term. It can often be subjective, and have a million different meanings outside the US, but there’s not a great alternative – so to clarify, I would love to read books by authors who are from or who’s race/ethnicity/background is from the middle east, asia, africa, and central & south america
I have read and loved all Khalid Hosseini’s books, *loved* Martyr, just finished Butter (made me so hungry I ordered and ate an entire pizza, not once, but twice over the course of reading it).
I would really love to continue reading books by non-white authors – all the discourse I’ve been hearing around books lately has been over Adult Braces and Lena Dunham and I find it so frustrating and tone deaf and boring.
by Foreign-Potato-9535
9 Comments
Anything by Hanif Abdurraqib!
Edit: corrected a misspelling
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
*A Fine Balance* by Rohinton Mistry
Amy Tan’s books are beautiful. I’m rereading Joy Luck Club right now.
Ion Curtain by Anya Ow is like… what if China had the universal cultural power that the US has, where Mandarin is the lingua franca instead of English and Chinese culture is the expectation? But also in space! It’s great.
The Story of Zahra by Hanan Al-Shaykh. It’s about a woman trying to escape a brutal life in Lebanon.
Cities of Salt by Abdul Rahman Munif. It follows a remote community in the Gulf area, and what happens with the discovery of oil and the moving in of well, white people.
Any book by Nnedi Okorafor. She’s Nigerian American and her books are so interesting with how they make use of Nigerian culture, myth, etc.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Based on what you’ve liked, I think you’d like “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong, and from latin america, “Our Share of Night” by Mariana Enriquez, and “Pedro Paramo” by Juan Rulfo. I do want to wholeheartedly recommend Han Kang but she is very different stylistically than what you’ve mentioned.
Read Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. All his books are good if you enjoy crime.