Friday, July 26, 2024

The 30 greatest dystopian books

One title on Forbes's list of the thirty greatest dystopian books of all time:
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (2017)

A novel that marries the dystopian and Magical Realism genres, Exit West explores the lengths people will go through to escape political turmoil. The narrative unfurls as a couple meets and marries in the Middle East, and as their country descends into chaos, learn of a magical door that can transport them to a new territory—for a price. The couple discover the true cost of freedom as the new world becomes victim to many of the issues they thought they had escaped from in this moving political allegory. This book is recommended for readers of complex political thrillers, lovers of magical realism and slow burning dystopias.
Read about the other entries on the list.

Exit West is among Ore Agbaje-Williams's seven top books featuring very complicated friendships, Gian Sardar's eight of the best novels about war-torn love, C Pam Zhang's top ten novels about moving and Helen Phillips's six notable novels involving alternate realities.

--Marshal Zeringue