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The Best Fiction About Empowered Women
Tales of brave women breaking down gender barriers.
Published on March 17, 2023
My Brilliant Friend
Elena FerranteThere are few (if any) better novels in recent years about the delicate and precious complexities present in female friendships. This international sensation also became the first foreign-language show produced by HBO.
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories
Carmen Maria MachadoCarmen Maria Machado’s collection of stories is so wonderfully weird. Genre-bending, uncanny, and often very funny, each of these unusual stories has something poignant to say about being a person and about being an artist, and in particular about what it’s like inhabiting a female body.
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret AtwoodMargaret Atwood’s dystopian classic isn’t just an argument for women’s rights, but more generally a brilliant commentary on the effects of dehumanization, of putting law above love, and of the dangers of picking sides and uncritically sticking with them in the first place.
The Island of Sea Women: A Novel
Lisa SeeA story of female friendship that spans from the late 1930s to 2008 and tells a fictionalized account of a little-known history. Young-sook and Mi-ja, two female divers from the Korean island Jeju, have their relationship and much more torn apart by multiple wars, and they struggle to heal through the decades. Meticulously researched.
Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner)
Bernardine EvaristoAs the name suggests, Bernadine Evaristo’s Booker Prize-winning novel is one of many voices. Each of the book’s 12 chapters is told by a different voice, from a Black lesbian playwright, to a nonbinary social media influencer, to an investment banker. Their intersecting lives are vastly different, but their stories overlap in the exploration of sexuality, gender, race, and class. Set in England, it’s a refreshing look at the country’s cultural climate, with a taste of Britain’s trademark wit.
A Short History of Women
Kate WalbertThis story begins in the early 20th century, with the death of a British suffragist. This moment reverberates through the stories of the suffragist’s descendants. A look at how feminism changed through a century.
The Wife: A Novel
Meg WolitzerA searing portrayal of American marriage and the sacrifices, betrayals, and gender roles it entails, complete with a twist ending that puts the entire story in perspective.
Remote Control
Nnedi OkoraforThe newest science fiction thriller from Nnedi Okorafor (“Who Fears Death,” “Binti,” “Akata Witch”) weaves together a tale of female empowerment and the importance of community, set against a futuristic backdrop that incorporates Okorafor’s Nigerian heritage. In it, a young girl named Fatima’s life is forever changed after an alien artifact transforms her into Death’s adopted daughter. With a new name — Sankofa — she walks the earth, with no one but a fox as a companion, in search of answers. What will be the future of Death’s daughter?
The Blazing World: A Novel
Siri HustvedtTired of people not taking her art seriously due to sexism, Harriet Burden pulls off an elaborate hoax in which she has men take credit for her work to prove a cutting point. But how deep do the deceptions go? An art world whodunnit, with many delicious thrills.
Plain Bad Heroines: A Novel
Emily M. DanforthThis story within a story starts at the turn of the 20th century, telling the tale of two students at the Brookhants School for Girls, Flo and Clara. Their mutual obsessions with each other and scandalous, sapphic memoirist Mary MacLane lead them to start a secret club, the Plain Bad Heroines, shortly before their mysterious deaths. A century later, Brookhants becomes the center of another cursed adventure, as a movie based on a queer, feminist novel about the school’s “cursed” history begins filming there. It’s an all around mischievously fun celebration of the female spirit.
Krik? Krak!
Edwidge DanticatA collection of short stories that was nominated for the National Book Award. Each story explores what effects oppression has on generations of people, but especially for women.
Girls Burn Brighter: A Novel
Shobha Rao“Girls Burn Brighter” is a stunning story that demonstrates how the power of female friendship can survive even the worst hardships. Poornima and Savitha are poor friends living in a rural Indian village, working together in an attempt to make ends meet. When a terrible incident tears them apart, they travel the world to reunite, never losing the fire that burns within and propels them forward.
Almost Famous Women: Stories
Megan Mayhew BergmanIf “Almost Famous Women” isn’t an apt description of women’s history on average, we don’t know what is. Bergman creates well-rounded portraits of complex and often difficult women, while giving their remarkable lives their due.
Little Women
Louisa May AlcottThe March sisters have been delighting readers for over a century in this classic, and the recent Oscar-winning adaptation has brought them back to the forefront of our consciousness. The sisters face setbacks every day, yet the novel is so full of hope and love. A real treasure.
The Women in the Castle: A Novel
Jessica ShattuckHow do ordinary people become complicit in the Nazi regime? Three very different German women meet and start to piece their lives together through the fall of Nazi Germany. Author Jessica Shattuck breaks the usual mold of World War II historical novels with stunning success.
Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China
Pearl S. BuckPearl S. Buck tells the incredible story of a Tzu Hsi, a concubine who rose the ranks to lead the Qing Dynasty. She navigates her life’s twists and turns with sly prowess, making herself the most favored of all the emperor’s concubines before his death. Her self-sustaining power lasted for 50 years, a long leap from her origins as a humble villager. Buck brings the details of her journey to life in vivid color.
The Sun and Her Flowers
Rupi KaurRupi Kaur’s second collection of poetry is written into five beautifully illustrated chapters, each of which is representative of a flower’s life cycle:Wilting, Falling, Rooting, Rising, and Blooming. It’s a visceral interpretation of the love and relationships throughout the life of a woman, with the sun representing a woman and the flowers the relationships she experiences throughout her life.