The 100 best easy books about race and colonialism

No. 11 on this list. Deep Rivers · José María Arguedas · 1958

Taught in schools: UNAM Escuela Nacional Preparatoria – programas de Literatura (Mexico)

The central work of indigenist literature in Latin America and a cornerstone of Peruvian fiction.

No. 12 on this list. The Blue Lotus · Hergé · 1936

Ranked 18th in Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century, above many canonical novels, and has Wikipedia articles in 40 languages. It is the Tintin album most discussed in comics studies and is widely read across Europe.

No. 13 on this list. Tracks · Louise Erdrich · 1988

A central work in Erdrich's interconnected cycle and widely taught in American literature courses. Considered one of her strongest early novels.

No. 14 on this list. Monster · Walter Dean Myers · 1999

Steve Harmon is sixteen years old and on trial for felony murder. He may have acted as a lookout for a Harlem drugstore robbery that left the owner dead — or he may not have. The question hangs over Walter Dean Myers's 1999 novel, which Steve narrates in the only form that makes sense to him: a screenplay. He writes himself as the protagonist, titles the film Monster — the word the prosecutor used to describe him — and cuts between courtroom scenes and flashback journal entries while his mother cries in the gallery and his lawyer calculates the odds. The form is not a gimmick. A screenplay externalizes action and dialogue while burying interiority in stage directions, and that gap is exactly where Myers puts the book's central problem: we watch Steve perform innocence without ever being certain whether we are watching performance or truth. The trial exposes Harlem's carceral machinery — the way young Black men get classified, processed, and destroyed — but Monster refuses to let that machinery fully explain Steve. He asks, on the last page, who he is. Myers doesn't answer. Readers will spend time after the last page deciding whether that's evasion or honesty, and what it says about how they read a defendant's face.

No. 15 on this list. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon · Jorge Amado · 1958

Gabriela is among the defining works of Brazilian literature and appears regularly on Latin American literature syllabi worldwide. It established Jorge Amado's international reputation and is one of the most-translated Brazilian novels ever published. While not as universally taught as García Márquez, it occupies a secure place in world literature curricula.

No. 16 on this list. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman · Ernest J. Gaines · 1982

The novel is widely taught in American high schools and colleges as a key text of African American and Southern literature, and it is a staple of civil rights curricula, though below the top canon.

No. 17 on this list. Brown Girl Dreaming · Jacqueline Woodson · 2014

Brown Girl Dreaming is standard reading in American middle school and high school curricula, particularly in units on memoir, poetry, and Civil Rights-era literature. It appears on numerous recommended reading lists for young adults and is included in many school districts' required reading programs. Its canonical status is strong within YA and middle-grade education but has not yet reached the broader university literary canon.

No. 18 on this list. The Rock of Tanios · Amin Maalouf · 1993

Prix Goncourt winner. Important work of Francophone and Lebanese literature.

No. 19 on this list. Roots: The Saga of an American Family · Alex Haley · 1976

Roots is widely taught in American history and literature courses, and the 1977 miniseries made it a national event. It is a staple of African American literature curricula, though less universal than Beloved.

No. 20 on this list. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born · Ayi Kwei Armah · 1968

Included in: Heinemann African Writers Series

A founding text of postcolonial African fiction. Widely taught.

No. 21 on this list. Wild Seed · Octavia E. Butler · 1980

Recognized as one of Butler's finest novels and a major work of Afrofuturist fiction. Widely taught in university courses.

No. 22 on this list. A Lesson Before Dying · Ernest J. Gaines · 1993

The novel is widely assigned in American high school and college courses on African American literature and Southern fiction. It stands below the central canon but well above commercial fiction.

No. 23 on this list. Ti-Jean and His Brothers · Derek Walcott · 1958

A foundational work of Caribbean drama, widely taught in postcolonial literature courses. Less known outside that context than Walcott's poetry.

No. 24 on this list. In the Blood · Suzan-Lori Parks · 1999

Widely taught in American drama and African American literature courses. Recognized as one of Parks's major works and a significant contemporary American play.

No. 25 on this list. The Unvanquished · William Faulkner · 1938

The Unvanquished is a recognized part of Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha cycle, taught in American literature courses as an accessible entry point into Faulkner's work and as a study of Civil War-era Southern society. It is less canonically prominent than The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, or Absalom, Absalom!, and the database shows 0 Open Syllabus appearances, suggesting its current academic footprint is modest. Still, as a work by a Nobel Prize winner with an enduring place in the Faulkner corpus, it sits comfortably in the 60–70 range.

No. 26 on this list. In Desert and Wilderness · Henryk Sienkiewicz · 1911

While not achieving the universal canonical status of Sienkiewicz's Quo Vadis, In Desert and Wilderness maintains strong regional canonical status in Poland and Central Europe as a beloved young adult classic. The novel appears regularly in Polish school curricula and remains in print across multiple languages. Its adventure narrative and historical setting have sustained readership for over a century, though it lacks the worldwide recognition of works like Treasure Island or The Jungle Book that occupy similar generic territory.

No. 27 on this list. Lost in the City · Edward P. Jones · 1992

The nation's capital that serves as the setting for the stories in Edward P. Jones's prizewinning collection, Lost in the City, lies far from the city of historic monuments and national politicians. Jones takes the reader beyond that world into the lives of African American men and women who work against the constant threat of loss to maintain a sense of hope. From "The Girl Who Raised Pigeons" to the well-to-do career woman awakened in the night by a phone call that will take her on a journey back to the past, the characters in these stories forge bonds of community as they struggle against the limits of their city to stave off the loss of family, friends, memories, and, ultimately, themselves. Critically acclaimed upon publication, Lost in the City introduced Jones as an undeniable talent, a writer whose unaffected style is not only evocative and forceful but also filled with insight and poignancy.

No. 28 on this list. The Night Watchman · Louise Erdrich · 2021

Ranked by literary regard among eligible works in the current catalogue. This position reflects the available catalogue evidence.

No. 29 on this list. Binti · Nnedi Okofor · 2015

Hugo and Nebula Award winner. A significant work of Africanfuturist fiction, increasingly taught in university courses.

No. 30 on this list. The Studs Lonigan Trilogy · James T. Farrell · 1935

Ranked on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels (1998) and collected by the Library of America, it remains the standard example of American urban naturalism. It is taught less than it was at mid-century.