Literature & Fiction 2000 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa The Feast of the Goat 《公羊的节日》 Mario Vargas Llosa The grotesque spectacle and collapse of a dictator's rule. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2017 A Luminous Republic Andrés Barba A Luminous Republic 《光明共和国》 Andrés Barba The order of white civilization and the fear of what lies outside it. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1951 The Conformist Alberto Moravia The Conformist 《同流者》 Alberto Moravia An ordinary man drifts into complicity with tyranny. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1945 Animal Farm George Orwell Animal Farm 《动物农场》 George Orwell A political fable, and a critique of central planning. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2004 Runaway Alice Munro Runaway 《逃离》 Alice Munro Nobel-winning stories about women who run away and the predicaments they face. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2004 Chance Alice Munro Chance 《机缘》 Alice Munro A woman scholar, femininity, and the paradox of reason. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1906 Beneath the Wheel Hermann Hesse Beneath the Wheel 《在轮下》 Hermann Hesse A repressive school system and the souls it tames. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1919 Demian Hermann Hesse Demian 《德米安（彷徨少年时）》 Hermann Hesse Spiritual awakening, self-awareness, and learning to think for oneself. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1922 The Kiss to the Leper François Mauriac The Kiss to the Leper 《给麻风病人的吻》 François Mauriac The misery of a traditional marriage, and a portrait of human nature. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1925 The Desert of Love François Mauriac The Desert of Love 《爱的荒漠》 François Mauriac A Nobel laureate's study of a broken family and the scarcity of love. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1923 Genitrix François Mauriac Genitrix 《母亲大人》 François Mauriac Victims of patriarchy and a twisted bond between mother and son. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1927 Thérèse Desqueyroux François Mauriac Thérèse Desqueyroux 《苔蕾丝·德斯盖鲁》 François Mauriac A French classic about a wife who poisons her husband, and the mind behind it. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2005 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro Never Let Me Go 《莫失莫忘（别让我走）》 Kazuo Ishiguro A dystopia about clones making peace with a society that harvests them. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1963 The Wall Marlen Haushofer The Wall 《隐墙》 Marlen Haushofer Solitude behind an invisible wall, and the psychology of the Cold War. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1919 The Moon and Sixpence W. Somerset Maugham The Moon and Sixpence 《月亮与六便士》 W. Somerset Maugham Ideals against reality, and the line between genius and ordinary life. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1970 Accidental Death of an Anarchist Dario Fo Accidental Death of an Anarchist 《一个无政府主义者的意外死亡》 Dario Fo A political farce aimed at the machinery of the state and its power. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1956 Giovanni's Room James Baldwin Giovanni's Room 《乔瓦尼的房间》 James Baldwin Marginal life and sexual repression among gay men in Paris. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2011 Greek Lessons Han Kang Greek Lessons 《失语者》 Han Kang A Nobel laureate's novel of lost language and inward searching. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1971 A Happy Death Albert Camus A Happy Death 《快乐的死》 Albert Camus Camus's first novel on the void of existence and the impulse to rebel. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1892 Ward No. 6 Anton Chekhov Ward No. 6 《第六病室》 Anton Chekhov Intellectuals under despotism, caught between resistance and resignation. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1940 The Tartar Steppe Dino Buzzati The Tartar Steppe 《鞑靼人沙漠》 Dino Buzzati Political melancholy, rumour, and the slow drain of an empty daily life. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1920 Fear Stefan Zweig Fear 《恐惧》 Stefan Zweig A psychological thriller of adultery and manipulative control. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1991 Simple Passion Annie Ernaux Simple Passion 《简单的激情》 Annie Ernaux A Nobel laureate's autofiction of desire and personal memory. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1972 The Persian Boy Mary Renault The Persian Boy 《波斯少年》 Mary Renault Alexander the Great's campaigns seen through the eyes of a Persian eunuch. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2014 A Whole Life Robert Seethaler A Whole Life 《大雪将至（完整的一生）》 Robert Seethaler One ordinary man's quiet, complete life. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1984 Bloodchild Octavia E. Butler Bloodchild 《血孩子》 Octavia E. Butler An award-winning sci-fi tale of submission and parasitic power. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2006 The Lost Daughter Elena Ferrante The Lost Daughter 《暗处的女儿》 Elena Ferrante Deconstructing motherhood, and a woman's loss of her own self. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2000 By Night in Chile Roberto Bolaño By Night in Chile 《智利之夜》 Roberto Bolaño An intellectual's cowardice, evasion, and complicity with a regime. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2011 Tokyo Refugees Tetsuzo Fukuzawa Tokyo Refugees 《一个贫穷的年轻人》 Tetsuzo Fukuzawa Youth poverty and the psychological damage it leaves behind. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1938 Kanoko Okamoto 老妓抄 《老妓抄》 Kanoko Okamoto Taisho-era Japanese aesthetics and a woman's point of view. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2009 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller The Hunger Angel 《呼吸秋千》 Herta Müller A Nobel laureate's account of survival in a wartime labour camp. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction Digenis Akritas anonymous Digenis Akritas 《狄吉尼斯·阿克里特》 anonymous A Byzantine frontier epic of the clash between Christianity and Islam. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five 《五号屠场》 Kurt Vonnegut The Dresden bombing and a blackly comic stand against war. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1959 A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller Jr. A Canticle for Leibowitz 《莱博维兹的赞歌》 Walter M. Miller Jr. Post-apocalyptic sci-fi on the cycle of civilization and forgotten history. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction c. 458 BC Oresteia Aeschylus Oresteia 《俄瑞斯忒亚三部曲》 Aeschylus A classic mythic tragedy of civic law and ethical conflict. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction Divan of Hafez Hafez Divan of Hafez 《设拉子夜莺》 Hafez Persian lyric poetry and the expression of the inner life. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2017 Kim Ae-ran 外面是夏天 《外面是夏天》 Kim Ae-ran Realist fiction about ordinary lives in contemporary Korea. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 2023 bai-lu 梨子小姐与自己相处 《梨子小姐与自己相处》 bai-lu Refusing mental burnout, and learning to live at peace with oneself. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Literature & Fiction c. 392 BC Assemblywomen Aristophanes Assemblywomen 《公民大会妇女》 Aristophanes A classical comedy imagining Athens without private property. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
World History 2015 Eiji Oguma 活着回来的男人 《活着回来的男人》 Eiji Oguma An ordinary Japanese soldier's life story, and how people become raw material. World History AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1899 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness 《黑暗的心》 Joseph Conrad Colonial plunder and the shattering of a grand narrative. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Philosophy Hermann Hesse 阅读是安静的自我觉醒 《阅读是安静的自我觉醒》 Hermann Hesse Active reading, sustained attention, and the nourishment of the mind. Philosophy AZM's list
Literature & Fiction 1975 Letter to a Child Never Born Oriana Fallaci Letter to a Child Never Born 《给一个未能出生的孩子的信》 Oriana Fallaci The nature of motherhood, existentialism, and an argument for life. Literature & Fiction AZM's list
Society & Civilization 2019 Min Jihyoung 她厌男，她是我女友 《她厌男，她是我女友》 Min Jihyoung An ordinary Korean man and a feminist: the gap between their worlds. Society & Civilization AZM's list
Society & Civilization 1929 A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf A Room of One's Own 《一间自己的屋子》 Virginia Woolf The money and private space a woman needs in order to write. Society & Civilization AZM's list
Literature & Fiction Iliad & Odyssey Homer Iliad & Odyssey 《荷马史诗（伊利亚特奥德赛）》 Homer The wrath of Achilles and Odysseus's long voyage, the source of Western literature. Literature & Fiction XMS's list
Literature & Fiction Aeneid Virgil Aeneid 《埃涅阿斯纪》 Virgil An epic of duty, as Aeneas carries a divine command to found a nation. Literature & Fiction XMS's list
Literature & Fiction Ars Amatoria Ovid Ars Amatoria 《爱经（爱的艺术）》 Ovid A Roman poem on courtship and love, once banned for its candour. Literature & Fiction XMS's list
Literature & Fiction Satyricon Petronius Satyricon 《萨蒂利孔》 Petronius A picaresque satire of excess and luxury in Nero's Rome. Literature & Fiction XMS's list
Literature & Fiction 1353 The Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio The Decameron 《十日谈》 Giovanni Boccaccio Plague-time tales that mock a corrupt Church and celebrate human wit. Literature & Fiction XMS's list
Literature & Fiction 1812 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Lord Byron Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 《恰尔德·哈罗尔德游记》 Lord Byron A Byronic wanderer's travels and his longing for liberty and revolt. Literature & Fiction XMS's list