The 100 best books about war and conflict by women

No. 11 on this list. Diving into the Wreck · Adrienne Rich · 1973

The title poem appears in virtually every major American poetry anthology and is standard reading in feminist literature, American poetry, and contemporary poetry courses. The collection sits firmly in the literary canon, comparable to Beloved (85) in academic reach if not in the broadest syllabi. No database data was returned, but Rich's place in American poetry curricula is well established.

No. 12 on this list. The Conservationist · Nadine Gordimer · 1974

Mehring, a wealthy Johannesburg industrialist, has purchased a farm outside the city—less for profit than as refuge from his collapsing marriage, his estranged radical son, and his unsatisfying affair. When a dead Black man is found on his land, hastily buried by police who cannot identify the body, Mehring treats it as bureaucratic nuisance rather than moral crisis. He prides himself on being a progressive landowner who pays fair wages and respects his workers, yet his liberalism cannot acknowledge the corpse as ancestral claim or historical reckoning. Gordimer narrates through Mehring's evasive consciousness, her prose registering the minutiae of farm management—cattle diseases, pasture conditions, labor arrangements—while circling obsessively around the burial site he tries to forget. The narrative crosscuts between his weekend visits and the farm's rhythms in his absence, where workers Jacobus and Solomon maintain routines inflected by meanings Mehring cannot access. When floods exhume the body, the workers perform proper burial rites, restoring him to the land in ceremonies that supersede Mehring's title deeds. Gordimer withholds resolution: Mehring remains uncomprehending, his ownership revealed as legal fiction layered atop deeper claims the novel anatomizes but does not resolve.

No. 13 on this list. Persepolis · Marjane Satrapi · 2000

Persepolis is one of the most widely taught graphic narratives in schools and universities, a standard text in courses on memoir, comics and the modern Middle East. It sits beside Art Spiegelman's Maus at the core of the graphic-memoir curriculum.

No. 14 on this list. The Man Who Loved Children · Christina Stead · 1940

After Randall Jarrell's landmark 1965 introduction rescued it from obscurity, the novel achieved masterpiece status, appearing on TIME's 100 Best English-language Novels 1923-2005. It remains continuously in print and features prominently in Women's Studies curricula. However, it lacks the universal recognition of Fitzgerald, Joyce, or Faulkner, occupying a tier below absolute canonical dominance despite critical consensus on its brilliance.

No. 15 on this list. The Lottery and Other Stories · Shirley Jackson · 1949

The title story 'The Lottery' is one of the most anthologized and taught short stories in the American canon, appearing in virtually every introduction-to-fiction textbook. The collection itself appears regularly on American short-story syllabi. Jackson's work has experienced a major critical reassessment since the 2010s, elevating her from genre curiosity to recognized American master.

No. 16 on this list. The Unwomanly Face of War · Svetlana Alexievich · 1985

Taught in schools: Lithuanian literature curriculum (lietuvių kalba ir literatūra), UNAM Escuela Nacional Preparatoria – programas de Literatura (Mexico)

Widely taught in university courses on Eastern European literature, WWII history, and oral history methodology, though not a fixture of secondary school curricula in the West. The 2015 Nobel Prize dramatically expanded its global reach and translation into forty-plus languages. Its canonical standing is growing rather than settled.

No. 17 on this list. Blasted · Sarah Kane · 1995

Now recognized as one of the most important British plays of the late twentieth century. A landmark of in-yer-face theater and a standard text in contemporary drama courses.

No. 18 on this list. History: A Novel · Elsa Morante · 1974

Included in: Bokklubben World Library

One of the most important Italian novels of the twentieth century. Controversial at publication but now widely recognized as a masterpiece.

No. 19 on this list. A Thousand Acres · Jane Smiley · 1992

A Thousand Acres won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 and secured major recognition as a contemporary American realist masterpiece. It occupies a prominent place in contemporary literary canon, particularly within discussions of feminist revision of literary inheritance and the domestic novel.

No. 20 on this list. Selected Poems of Wisława Szymborska · Wisława Szymborska · 1998

Szymborska is a staple of world poetry courses and a Nobel laureate, and this collection is the standard English edition of her work. Its place is secure, though below Hamlet or Gatsby in universal syllabus presence.

No. 21 on this list. The Word for World Is Forest · Ursula K Le Guin · 1972

A fixture in SF studies, environmental humanities, and postcolonial literature courses at universities worldwide. Le Guin's work overall is more canonically established than this single novella — it appears regularly on SF syllabi and ecocriticism reading lists, taught alongside texts like Octavia Butler's Kindred and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, though without the 2000+ syllabus presence of Beloved or The Great Gatsby.

No. 22 on this list. Sing, Unburied, Sing · Jesmyn Ward · 2018

Sing, Unburied, Sing appears on 71 university syllabi — a solid midrange presence, placing it in the 46th percentile of works in the database. It is widely taught in contemporary American literature, Southern literature, and African American literature courses, though it has not yet achieved the deep canonical entrenchment of Morrison or Faulkner. Its teaching presence reflects a novel still being absorbed into the curriculum in the decade since its 2017 publication, with significant room for that footprint to grow.

No. 23 on this list. Lust, Caution · Eileen Chang · 1979

Lust, Caution holds a firm place in the canon of modern Chinese literature, regarded as one of Eileen Chang's most psychologically penetrating works. Its stature was significantly amplified internationally following Ang Lee's acclaimed 2007 film adaptation, which drew global attention to Chang's fiction and cemented the novella's place among essential works of twentieth-century Chinese literature.

No. 24 on this list. Cassandra · Christa Wolf · 1983

Cassandra is required reading in German literature curricula across European universities and is a standard text in courses on feminist rewritings of classical myth. The data signals return no syllabus figures, but Wolf's status as the defining literary voice of the GDR and her international recognition ensure the book appears on World Literature, Women's Writing, and Postwar European Fiction syllabi consistently. It is not a fixture of Anglophone undergraduate curricula in the way Beloved or The Great Gatsby is, placing it below 80 on canonical status.

No. 25 on this list. Human Acts · Han Kang · 2014

Han Kang's Nobel Prize in 2024 elevated this novel's global profile significantly, but it appears on only 59 university syllabi (44th percentile in Open Syllabus) and has Wikipedia articles in just 5 languages. Curricular adoption outside Korean literature courses remains limited, though the Nobel will accelerate its integration into world literature programs.

No. 26 on this list. The Dressmaker · Beryl Bainbridge · 1973

Shortlisted for the 1973 Booker Prize and widely regarded as exemplary of Bainbridge's distinctive voice in postwar British fiction. While not achieving the absolute canonical status of genre-defining works, The Dressmaker is consistently included in discussions of late 20th-century British psychological fiction.

No. 27 on this list. One of Ours · Willa Cather · 1923

Claude Wheeler opened his eyes before the sun was up and vigorously shook his younger brother, who lay in the other half of the same bed. "Ralph, Ralph, get awake! Come down and help me wash the car." "What for?" "Why, aren't we going to the circus today?" "Car's all right. Let me alone." The boy turned over and pulled the sheet up to his face, to shut out the light which was beginning to come through the curtainless windows. Claude rose and dressed, - a simple operation which took very little time. He crept down two flights of stairs, feeling his way in the dusk, his red hair standing up in peaks, like a cock's comb. He went through the kitchen into the adjoining washroom, which held two porcelain stands with running water. Everybody had washed before going to bed, apparently, and the bowls were ringed with a dark sediment which the hard, alkaline water had not dissolved. Shutting the door on this disorder, he turned back to the kitchen, took Mahailey's tin basin, doused his face and head in cold water, and began to plaster down his wet hair.

No. 28 on this list. Under the Net · Iris Murdoch · 1954

Ranked 95th on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, included on TIME's All-TIME 100 Novels, and taught on 141 university syllabi (54th percentile). It is the Murdoch novel most often assigned in courses on postwar British fiction.

No. 29 on this list. Woman on the Edge of Time · Marge Piercy · 1976

Widely taught in feminist literary studies, utopian fiction, and American literature courses since its 1976 publication, the novel holds a firm place in academic syllabi as a landmark of feminist science fiction. No syllabus count data is available, but its sustained presence across women's studies and speculative fiction curricula for five decades marks it as canonical within those fields, comparable in reach to other key feminist texts of the second wave.

No. 30 on this list. Pas pleurer · Lydie Salvayre · 2014

Winning the Prix Goncourt in 2014 secured Pas pleurer's position in contemporary French literature, though its canonical standing remains emergent rather than established. The novel addresses the enduring literary theme of the Spanish Civil War while contributing to the francophone tradition of linguistic experimentation with exile and bilingualism, placing it in conversation with Camus, Modiano, and postcolonial French writers.