Abigail Dean

The story of how each of the Gracie children have coped and failed to cope with their childhood.

Angela Carter

A novel that follows the development of Melanie as she becomes aware of herself, her environment, and her own sexuality.

Alice Munro

A fictional retelling of the life of the 19th century Russian mathematician and writer Sofia Kovalevskaya.

Amrita Pritam

Pinjar is widely considered one of the outstanding works of Indian fiction set during the period of the Partition of India.

Angie Thomas

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping novel about one girl's struggle for justice.

Bernardine Evaristo

The lives and struggles of 12 very different characters - mostly women, black and British - who tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Brenda Navarro

The story that unfolds in the aftermath of a child's disappearance.

Brit Bennett

A story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing.

Can Xue

Comical, topical, romantic, and often surreal stories of life on the ground in modern China.

Candice Carty-Williams

A novel about the life and loves of Queenie Jenkins, a vibrant, troubled 25-year-old British Jamaican woman who is not having a very good year.

Carol Ann Duffy

A collection of poems that subverts the predominant notion of men and their thoughts as being superior and more valuable.

Lucia Berlin

Unforgettable and original collection of stories.

R.F. Kuang

Incredible dark academia story of science, rivalry and loyalty.

Elena Ferrante

A four-part series about female friendship.

Elif Shefak

A one-woman story about a sex worker in Istanbul.

Elizabeth Gilbert

The lives of young and older women living in New York in the 1940s.

Emma Cline

Powerful interpretation of ambiguous emotional vectors, and the catastrophic directions in which they can lead.

Han Kang

A novel about modern day South Korea, but also about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand each other.

Isabel Allende

A memoir and a tribute to by Isabel Allende’s deceased daughter Paula Frías Allende, who fell into a porphyria-induced coma in 1991 and never recovered.

Jeanette Winterson

A coming-of-age story about a lesbian girl who grows up in an English Pentecostal community.

Natalia Ginzburg

An Italian literary classic describing life under Fascism in pre-war Italy.

Jenny Offill

A fragmentary novel about modern marriage.

Joanne Ramos

A story about women serving as surrogates for wealthy clients.

Khadija Mastur

The book brings into focus the claustrophobic lives of women whose entire existence was circumscribed by the four walls of their homes, and the outside world remained a dream.

Ludmila Ulitskaya

An excellent introduction to contemporary Russian female writers, this is the life story of a Russian booklover.

Lynne Reid Banks

The story of a young unmarried and pregnant woman, who moves into a London boarding house, befriending a young man in the building.

Maaza Mengiste

An exploration of female power, and what it means to be a woman at war.

Marilyn French

Set in 1950s America, the story follows the fortunes of Mira Ward, a conventional and submissive young woman in a traditional marriage, and her gradual feminist awakening.

Marilynne Robinson

The story of Ruth and her sister Lucille, who are cared for by their eccentric Aunt Sylvie after their mother commits suicide.

Meena Kandasamy

The raw material of domestic abuse leads to a meditation on writing and a searing examination of a woman's place in contemporary Indian society.

Meg Wolitzer

A novel about power and influence, ego and loyalty, womanhood and ambition.

Nguyěn Phan Qué Mai

Family epic set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.

Meiko Kawakami

Stories of three women, all related but vastly different, in how they see themselves and how they define womanhood.

Naomi Alderman

Women developing the ability to release electrical jolts from their fingers, thus leading them to become the dominant gender.

Natalie Diaz

This collection is suffused with poems about romantic, erotic love. It is an anthem of desire against erasure.

Nino Haratischwili

The saga of a Georgian family living on the fringes of the Russian and Soviet empires.

Octavia Butler

A book about a society broken into enclaves, all fighting for their survival.

Rachel Cusk

A fable of human destiny and decline, enacted in a closed system of intimate, fractured relationships.

Rachel Kushner

A story about what it means to be poor and female in America.

Rebecca Tamás

A thrilling, visceral and totally unexpected collection that is part poetry book, part questionnaire, and part spell book.

Sigred Nunez

A moving story of love, friendship, grief, healing, and the magical bond between a woman and her dog.

Téa Obhert

An allegory to illustrate the complexities of Balkan history.

Toni Morrison

A story of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grew up following the Great Depression.

Valeria Luiselli

The story of children separating from the parent, crossing borders, facing death, being detained.

Valerie Martin

An eerily mesmerising inquiry into slavery's venomous effects on the owner and the owned.

Vigdis Hjorth

This is an existential scream of a novel about loneliness (and the postal service!).

Yaa Gyasi

A novel of breath-taking sweep and emotional power that traces 300 years in Ghana.

Sandra Newman

1984, but from Julia’s point of view!

Rachel Khong

A story that spans three generations and makes us reflect on whether genetics makes us who we really are.

Frankie Miren

A powerful novel about women’s bodies, sex, relationships, and mental health.