Social Justice in Fiction: A Reading List

This week’s Riot Recommendation is sponsored by One Glorious Ambition: The Compassionate Crusade of Dorothea Dix, A Novel by Jane Kirkpatrick. Growing up in household full of pain and tragedy, Dorothea Dix thought she was destined for nothing more than teaching and to raising her two younger brothers. She opened her first school for girls when she was fifteen and by twenty-three, was a best-selling author living an orderly and disciplined Boston life. But a visit to a prison to teach Sunday School to women in 1841 launched a new path for Dorothea, one that would turn her personal hardships into great strides for the less fortunate. Dorothea fought for the lives of those with mental illness, the poor and prisoners. Her political savvy, rare amongst women in her time, challenged those who made the rules in the almshouses, debtor prisons and private homes where mentally ill people were often chained and forgotten. Those tragic souls changed Dorothea, too, illuminating the path of peace within her own suffering and bring her “a happiness which goes with you.” _______________________ Inspired by Jane Kirkpatrick’s fictional account of activist Dorothea Dix’s life, we asked you to share your favorite works of fiction that feature social justice and characters who are deeply moved or take action to correct injustice. Here’s a collection of your recommendations from Facebook, Twitter, and the comments. Bleak House by Charles Dickens The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Eventide and Plainsong by Kent Haruf The Help by Kathryn Sockett Arthur & George by Julian Barnes Mudbound and When She Woke by Hillary Jordan The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood Little Brother and Homeland by Cory Doctorow The Lorax, The Sneetches, and Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Night by Elie Weisel The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Native Son by Richard Wright The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury The Jungle by Upton Sinclair The Cider House Rules by John Irving The Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Lamb by Christopher Moore Mr. g by Alan Lightman Beloved by Toni Morrison The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy Next by Michael Crichton Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam Wicked by Gregory Maguire The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingslover Jennifer Government by Max Barry Sold by Patricia McCormick Traveling Light by Katrina Kittle July’s People by Nadine Gordimer Five Smooth Stones  by Ann Fairbairn The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky It’s a pretty long list, but I’m sure a few titles were left off. What would you add? __________________________ Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise. To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.