Searching for Novels w/ Historical Issues in a Region

[Afro_Akuma]

Hello everyone. I'm trying to find a fiction novel that deals with historical issues in a particular region, e.g. Memoirs of a Geisha (Japan), The Kite Runner (Pakistan). The only problem is that in this search, I cannot use any novel that I have read. The dilemma: how can I know whether the contents of a book are suitable for the search if I have never read it?

And no, I cannot judge the book by its cover.

Can anyone suggest novels that fit the theme?

 

[loseyourname]

Sons and Lovers is a good one. It deals with the effects of industrialization on the working classes in England during the late 19th century and is also simply one of the greatest novels ever written (no. 9, I believe, on the Modern Library's top 100 list last century, and one of my personal favorites).

 

[honestrosewater]

The Grapes of Wrath comes to mind, but I haven't read it. I figured I would mention it in case anyone else here has read it; From what I know about it, it fits the theme.

By the mid-1930s, the drought had crippled countless farm families, and America had fallen into the Great Depression. Unable to pay their mortgages or invest in the kinds of industrial equipment now necessitated by commercial competition, many Dust Bowl farmers were forced to leave their land. Without any real employment prospects, thousands of families nonetheless traveled to California in hopes of finding new means of survival. But the farm country of California quickly became overcrowded with the migrant workers. Jobs and food were scarce, and the migrants faced prejudice and hostility from the Californians, who labeled them with the derisive epithet “Okie.” These workers and their families lived in cramped, impoverished camps called “Hoovervilles,” named after President Hoover, who was blamed for the problems that led to the Great Depression. Many of the residents of these camps starved to death, unable to find work.
When Steinbeck decided to write a novel about the plight of migrant farm workers, he took his task very seriously. To prepare, he lived with an Oklahoma farm family and made the journey with them to California. When The Grapes of Wrath appeared, it soared to the top of the bestseller lists, selling nearly half a million copies. Although many Oklahomans and Californians reviled the book, considering Steinbeck’s characters to be unflattering representations of their states’ people, the large majority of readers and scholars praised the novel highly. The story of the Joad family captured a turbulent moment in American history and, in the words of critic Robert DeMott, “entered both the American consciousness and conscience.”
- http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/grapesofwrath/context.html

If you trust the analyses of SparkNotes (or other sites like it), you could probably find something suitable by browsing through their http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/index.html. I imagine there are several novels about slavery in America, like Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

I don't know if you would consider Homer's Iliad and Odyssey to be 'novels' or to have any truth to them, but that's the best that I can do. The only other stories that I've read and seem to fit the theme are plays and don't necessarily strive to be historically accurate ('histories' of Sophocles, Shakespeare) - depends on how strict your rules are, I guess.

 

[EnumaElish]

The Kite Runner (Pakistan).

Actually it's Afghanistan.

 

[Integral]

Try Trask by Don Berry

 

[EnumaElish]

http://www.erroluys.com/BrazilPage1.htm, , Angela's Ashes, Hemingway novels taking place during the 20th century European wars. . I'm trying to remember a novel I have read about the prosecution of a jew in imperial Russia and novels on early industrialization in France.