Books on Justice & Injustice

James Baldwin said, "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." In this collection, we've compiled texts that explore the idea of what justice is — and how it can thrive.

The Woman in White

by Wilkie Collins

Publication year 1860

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Gender Identity, Justice, Truth & Lies

Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Classic Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Gothic Literature, Victorian Era, World History, Historical Fiction

The Woman in White is a sensation novel by Wilkie Collins, a prominent Victorian novelist known for helping to establish the modern mystery and detective genres. The Woman in White was published in serialized form in All the Year Round, a periodical run by Collins’s friend and mentor Charles Dickens, from November 26, 1859, to August 25, 1860. This was Collins’s fifth novel, set from 1849 to 1851, a decade before it was published. The... Read The Woman in White Summary

The Women of Brewster Place

by Gloria Naylor

Publication year 1982

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Gender Identity, Race, Community, Femininity, Justice

Tags Historical Fiction, Relationships, African American Literature, Women`s Studies, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Classic Fiction

First published in 1982, The Women of Brewster Place is Gloria Naylor’s debut novel and remains the African American author’s best-known work. The Women of Brewster Place was awarded the National Book Award for Best First Novel and was adapted into a miniseries in 1989 and a television show in 1990. Described as “a novel in seven stories,” the text consists of seven chapters that act as short stories, each one detailing the life of a Black woman living... Read The Women of Brewster Place Summary

The Woods

by Harlan Coben

Publication year 2007

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Conflict, Fear, Grief, Guilt, Hope, Love, Memory, Future, The Past, Family, Social Class, Good & Evil, Justice, Loyalty & Betrayal, Safety & Danger, Trust & Doubt, Truth & Lies

Tags Horror & Suspense

... Read The Woods Summary

The Word is Murder

by Anthony Horowitz

Publication year 2017

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Justice, Truth & Lies, Revenge

Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, British Literature

The Word Is Murder is a murder mystery by prolific author Anthony Horowitz, published in 2017. It is the first entry in the Hawthorne & Horowitz series, which combines the detective novel with metafiction. Horowitz functions as both author and character, accompanying the fictional Daniel Hawthorne on his investigations. Their investigation blends the mystery genre with meditations on the creative process, the nature of plot, and what makes a character likable or relatable.Horowitz first achieved... Read The Word is Murder Summary

The Wretched of the Earth

by Frantz Fanon

Publication year 1961

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Race, Justice, Colonialism

Tags Race & Racism, Existentialism, Afro-Caribbean Literature, Colonialism & Postcolonialism, European History, Sociology, World History, Psychology, Psychology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Social Justice, Classic Fiction, Politics & Government

The Wretched of the Earth (1961) is a nonfiction book by Frantz Fanon, a French West Indian psychiatrist and philosopher. Together with such texts as Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1988), and Homi Bhabha’s The Location of Culture (1994), The Wretched of the Earth is a founding text of modern postcolonial studies. It is also Frantz Fanon’s most internationally acclaimed book, translated into more than 25 languages, though he is... Read The Wretched of the Earth Summary

The Wrong Daughter

by Dandy Smith

Publication year 2024

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Conflict, Fear, Forgiveness, Grief, Guilt, Hate & Anger, Love, Memory, Revenge, Mental Health, Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, Midlife, Death, The Past, Place, Family, Siblings, Self Discovery, Community, Beauty, Fate, Good & Evil, Justice, Loyalty & Betrayal, Order & Chaos, Power & Greed, Safety & Danger, Trust & Doubt, Truth & Lies

Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Dramatic Literature

... Read The Wrong Daughter Summary

The Year We Disappeared

by Cylin Busby

Publication year 2008

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Fear, Good & Evil, Justice

Tags Crime & Law, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Biography

Cylin and John Busby’s The Year We Disappeared is a true crime memoir originally published in 2008. An expanded, 10th-anniversary edition was published in 2018. The book falls into both the memoir and true crime genres and is told from the perspective of the victims rather than a third party, such as a reporter. The Busby’s story was also featured on CBS’s newsmagazine, 48 Hours. It originally aired in 2010.Plot SummaryIn the summer of 1979... Read The Year We Disappeared Summary

The Young Landlords

by Walter Dean Myers

Publication year 1979

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Friendship, Perseverance, Race, Coming of Age, Fathers, Social Class, Community, Justice

Tags Realistic Fiction, Coming of Age, Children`s Literature

Walter Dean Myers first published his middle grade novel, The Young Landlords, in 1979. Like most of the 100 books Myers penned before his death in 2014, the story centers on Black youth. The Young Landlords is particularly personal to Myers, however, because he writes about the neighborhood in Harlem, New York, where he grew up, describing the sort of activities and individuals he encountered as a youth. The main character, 15-year-old Paul Williams, pays... Read The Young Landlords Summary

They Went Left

by Monica Hesse

Publication year 2020

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Family, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, Fear, Grief, Guilt, Hate & Anger, Love, Memory, Death, Marriage, Siblings, War, Good & Evil, Justice, Truth & Lies

Tags Historical Fiction, World War II, Military & War, World History

... Read They Went Left Summary

Thick: And Other Essays

by Tressie Mcmillan Cottom

Publication year 2019

Genre Essay Collection, Nonfiction

Themes Race, Beauty, Justice

Tags Creative Nonfiction, Gender & Feminism, Race & Racism, Social Justice, Politics & Government, African American Literature, Women`s Studies, Sociology

Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Thick: And Other Essays (2019) is a collection of personal essays that explore race, gender, and class in the US. McMillan Cottom is a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an influential public intellectual whose writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Thick situates McMillan Cottom’s personal experiences within sociological and structural analysis to link her experiences to... Read Thick: And Other Essays Summary

Thirst

by Varsha Bajaj

Publication year 2022

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Justice, Perseverance, Femininity, Family, Social Class, Colonialism, Community, Economics, Education

Tags Social Class, Realistic Fiction, Children`s Literature, Social Justice, Modern Classic Fiction, Indian Literature

... Read Thirst Summary

This Earth of Mankind

by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Publication year 1980

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Conflict, Indigenous Identity, Family, Race, Social Class, Colonialism, Education, Politics & Government, Good & Evil, Justice, Self Discovery

Tags Historical Fiction, Colonialism & Postcolonialism, Asian Literature, Social Class, Education, Asian History, Race & Racism

Pramoedya Ananta Toer—a famous Indonesian editor, essayist, and social activist—wrote This Earth of Mankind (1980)—the first book of his series The Buru Quartet—while imprisoned in the Buru Concentration Camp following a military coup that overthrew Sukarno, the first democratically elected president of Indonesia. Incarcerated for 14 years and prevented from having writing material, Toer memorized the books of his series and recited them to his fellow inmates each day until his release in 1979. The... Read This Earth of Mankind Summary

This Inevitable Ruin

by Matt Dinniman

Publication year 2024

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Family, Justice, Science & Technology

Tags Science Fiction, Fantasy

Matt Dinniman’s This Inevitable Ruin (2024) is the seventh novel in the bestselling Dungeon Crawler Carl LitRPG science fiction series. The story continues the journey of Carl, a former US Coast Guard member, and his intelligent cat, Princess Donut, while they fight to survive a deadly, galaxy-wide game show that has transformed Earth into a dungeon. As Carl, Donut, and their allies enter the game’s next level, a massive battle called Faction Wars on the... Read This Inevitable Ruin Summary