The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Sometimes there will be controversy surrounding certain books that deal with difficult topics. However, most of the time, as disturbing as they might be, they are highly satisfying books to read.

So, we bring you four important pieces of literature that tackle difficult, often unspeakable, topics.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Highly celebrated, this is anything but an easy book. The novel delves heavily into everything it touches: illicit love affairs, deaths, sexual abuse, and horrific forms of betrayal that lead to disasters—all with the backdrop of Indian culture and broken post-independence identity.

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

A fictional account of the holocaust, The Storyteller is still staggeringly honest in the impossible dilemmas and situations it tackles. Forgiveness isn’t often that difficult or profound of a theme, but here what’s presented is “the unforgivable”. So, the questions asked are difficult ones to answer, textually and metatextuality, that is: where do you draw the line between forgiveness and justice, punishment and mercy, and personal accountability and national catastrophes. 

Beloved by Toni Morrison

A Pulitzer winner, this novel is poetically written, but the content is nowhere near tame poetry. Graphically depicting slavery with all its horrors and irreparable repercussions, Beloved is about a mother who kills her own child to save her from a terrible fate. It’s inspired by real-life events, but doesn’t stop there in its explorations. With the dead and the living, it captures the well-rounded lives and selves that still experienced beauty in life despite everything they’ve faced.

This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun

The book’s narrative is based on the testimony of a former inmate at Tazmamart, a Moroccan secret jail for political prisoners. The protagonist is a fictional character based on real-life accounts. The novel, despite how difficult it is to read, is devoid of attempts to make stable political statements or indulge in physical tortures. Rather, it’s about survival through the absence of all the rightful comforts of life.