Books written by female authors (1876)
31.
ChinaDescription:
From one of China's most celebrated contemporary novelists comes this riveting tale of a young woman's emotional and sexual awakening. Set in the turbulent decades of the Cultural Revolution and the Tian'anmen Square incident, A Private Life exposes the complex and fantastical inner life of a young woman growing up during a time of intense social and political upheaval. At the age of twenty-six, Ni Niuniu has come to accept pain and loss. She has suffered the death of her mother and a close friend and neighbor, Mrs. Ho. She has long been estranged from her tyrannical father, while her boyfrien... continue
32.
A Question of Power by Bessie Head EN
Country: Africa / 
South Africa
South Africa
Description:
"When Elizabeth learns the devastating truth about her mother, locked away for defying Apartheid, she flees South Africa and begins a new life in Botswana, at Motabeng, the village of the rain-wind. But Elizabeth is tormented by two men, Dan and Sello, who represent for her a private vision of hell into which she sinks deeper and deeper. This novel interweaves one woman's terrifying experience of insanity with the madness and cruelty of life in a divided society. A Question of Power is the unforgettable study of an individual - and a race - whose identity has been annihilated, and their result... continue
33.
A Remarkable Rotuman Woman by Jacinta Tonga EN
FijiDescription:
Petera Veu was born out of wedlock and into a time when girls lived lives of quiet, domestic servitude. But Petera Veu had other ideas. Like the Fijian island of Rotuma in which she was raised, Petera didn't quite fit in with her surroundings. She picked fights, stole food, rebuked priests and generally spoke her mind whenever possible. Determined, independent and, at times, downright intractable, Petera Veu lived life on her own terms. A Remarkable Rotuman Woman is Jacinta Tonga's memoir of her late grandmother, the indomitable Petera Veu, and speaks of traditional life in the South Pacific, ... continue
34.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka EN
GermanyDescription:
When their recently widowed father announces he plans to remarry, sisters Vera and Nadezhda realise they must put aside a lifetime of feuding in order to save him. His new love is a voluptuous gold-digger from the Ukraine half his age, with a proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, who stops at nothing in her single minded pursuit of the luxury Western lifestyle she dreams of. But the old man, too, is pursuing his eccentric dreams - and writing a history of tractors in Ukrainian. A wise, tender and deeply funny novel about families, the healing of old wounds, the tria... continue
35.
A Simple Story : Dancing for His Life by Leila Gierriero EN
Country: South America / 
Argentina
Argentina
Description:
'Everything in him seemed to shout this is what I am made of: there is nothing that I cannot do.' The Malambo is no ordinary dance. A murderous feat of endurance, it inspires fear and awe in the young working-class men who dance it. Whoever is crowned Champion at the annual competition in the remote Argentinian town of Laborde is treated as a demigod for the rest of his life - yet once he wins, he must never perform again. Twenty-eight-year-old Rodolfo, who grew up poor and hungry in a flat with a leaking tin roof, has dreamed of winning at Laborde ever since he was a boy. Journalist Leila Gue... continue
36.
A Sky So Close to Us : A novel by Shahla Ujayli EN
SyriaDescription:
A multigenerational tale of love, loss, exile, and rebirth, shortlisted for the 2016 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. As children sleeping on the rooftop of their ancestral family home in Raqqa on warm summer nights, Joumane and her sisters imagine the sky is so close they can almost touch it. Years later, Joumane lives as an expatriate in Jordan, working for a humanitarian agency, while her sisters remain trapped in war-torn Syria. Living alone as she fights her own battle with cancer, she contemplates the closeness of the same sky, despite the sharply delineated borders that now separ... continue
37.
A Small Corner of Hell by Anna Politkovskaya EN
Country: North America / 
United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Chechnya, a 6,000-square-mile corner of the northern Caucasus, has struggled under Russian domination for centuries. The region declared its independence in 1991, leading to a brutal war, Russian withdrawal, and subsequent "governance" by bandits and warlords. A series of apartment building attacks in Moscow in 1999, allegedly orchestrated by a rebel faction, reignited the war, which continues to rage today. Russia has gone to great lengths to keep journalists from reporting on the conflict; consequently, few people outside the region understand its scale and the atrocities—described by eyewit... continue
38.
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid EN
Country: North America / 
Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda
Description:
Lyrical, sardonic, and forthright by turns, this memoir is a brilliant look at colonialism and its effects in Antigua, by the author of "Annie John."
39.
A Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska EN
Country: Europe / 
North Macedonia
North Macedonia
Description:
Zlata and Srebra are 12-year-old twins conjoined at the head. It is 1984 and they live in Skopje, which will one day be the capital of Macedonia but is currently a part of Yugoslavia.A Spare Life tells the story of their childhood, from their only friend Roze to their neighbor Bogdan, so poor that he one day must eat his pet rabbit. Treated as freaks and outcasts--even by their own family--the twins just want to be normal girls. But after an incident that almost destroys their bond as sisters, they fly to London, determined to be surgically separated. Will this be their liberation, or only mor... continue
40.
A Spell of Good Things : A novel by Ayobami Adebayo EN
NigeriaDescription:
A dazzling story of modern Nigeria and two families caught in the riptides of wealth, power, romantic obsession, and political corruption from the celebrated author of Stay with Me • "A stunning debut novel ... in the lineage of great works by Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Eniola is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. Because his father has lost his job, Eniola spends his days running errands for the local tailor, collecting newspapers, begging when he must, dreaming of a big future. Wuraola is a golden girl, the perfect child of a... continue