Born in Albania in 1979, Lea Ypi grew up believing that her communist country was free—even as members of her family understood freedom very differently.

When the regime collapsed, promises of democracy and opportunity were followed by instability, inequality and violence. These experiences forced her to reconsider what freedom actually means.

In Free, Ypi combines childhood memories, family secrets and political philosophy to examine life under both communism and capitalism without offering easy answers.

In this interview with Dua Lipa, Ypi discusses identity, ideology and why freedom is more complicated than simply escaping one political system for another.

Published in 2006, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun brings the Nigerian-Biafran War of the late 1960s to life through the experiences of several interconnected characters.

The novel follows Ugwu, a village boy employed by a university professor; Olanna, who leaves a privileged life in Lagos to join her lover; and Richard, an English writer drawn to Nigeria and Olanna’s twin sister, Kainene. As war begins, their relationships and beliefs are tested by violence, displacement, hunger, and loss.

Adichie combines historical events with intimate human stories to explore colonialism, class, ethnic identity, political idealism, love, betrayal, and moral responsibility. The novel also preserves the memory of a conflict that remains deeply significant in Nigerian history.

In this Service95 Book Club conversation, Dua Lipa and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discuss the novel’s characters, its parallel love stories, and its treatment of class, colonialism, politics, and conflict. Adichie also reflects on her research, writing process, and the importance of remembering those affected by the war.

Published between 2000 and 2003, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is an autobiographical graphic novel about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War.

The story follows Marjane from childhood into early adulthood as political upheaval transforms her family, education, and everyday life. After being sent to Europe for safety, she must navigate adolescence, isolation, cultural difference, and questions about where she belongs.

Through bold black-and-white illustrations, humour, and personal reflection, Satrapi explores political repression, war, religion, family, identity, exile, and the struggle for individual freedom. Her experiences challenge stereotypes by presenting Iranian history through the eyes of an outspoken and questioning young woman.

This trailer introduces the acclaimed animated film adaptation of Persepolis, co-directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud. The film brings the graphic memoir’s distinctive visual style to the screen and highlights Marjane’s journey through revolution, war, migration, and self-discovery.

Published in 1997, Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is a Booker Prize-winning novel set in Kerala, India. It follows fraternal twins Estha and Rahel, whose lives are shaped by a family tragedy that separates them for 23 years.

Moving between the twins’ childhood in 1969 and their reunion as adults, the novel gradually reveals the events that changed their family forever. Its nonlinear structure shows how memories, emotions, and seemingly small choices can have lasting consequences.

Roy uses vivid, inventive language to explore family, caste, forbidden love, social inequality, trauma, and the unwritten rules that determine who may be loved—and how. By presenting events through the twins’ perspectives, she captures both the imagination of childhood and the pain of understanding the adult world.

In this TED-Ed animation, educator Laura Wright examines Roy’s distinctive storytelling, the novel’s social and historical setting, and the ways it challenges India’s social conventions. The video introduces the book’s major themes and explains why its structure and language have made it an important work of contemporary literature.

Published in 1987, Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that examines the lasting physical and psychological effects of slavery. Set after the American Civil War, it combines historical fiction with elements of memory, myth, and the supernatural.

The novel follows Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman living with her daughter Denver at 124 Bluestone Road, a house haunted by a troubled spirit. When a mysterious young woman named Beloved arrives, memories that Sethe has tried to suppress begin to return.

Morrison explores motherhood, freedom, identity, memory, community, and the ways trauma can pass from one generation to another. By focusing on the inner lives of formerly enslaved people, she presents slavery not simply as a historical institution but as an experience with enduring human consequences.

In this TED-Ed animation, educator Yen Pham examines the novel’s haunting, nonlinear storytelling and its portrayal of slavery’s dehumanising effects. The video also considers how Morrison uses fragmented memories and supernatural elements to express experiences that conventional historical accounts cannot fully capture.

Published in 1967, Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude follows several generations of the Buendía family in the fictional Colombian town of Macondo. The novel helped bring Latin American literature and magical realism to a global audience.

Macondo begins as an isolated settlement founded by José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán. Over the following century, their descendants experience love, ambition, war, political conflict, technological change, prosperity, and decline—often repeating the choices and mistakes of earlier generations.

García Márquez combines everyday life with ghosts, prophecies, impossible events, and other extraordinary occurrences. Through this distinctive style, the novel explores solitude, family, memory, colonialism, political violence, and the tendency of individuals and societies to repeat history.

In this TED-Ed animation, educator Francisco Díez-Buzo examines the novel’s magical realism, circular treatment of time, and relationship with Latin American history. The video explains how García Márquez transformed the story of one family and one imaginary town into an influential exploration of human experience.

Published in 1958, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart portrays Igbo life in what is now Nigeria during the late nineteenth century, before and during the arrival of British colonial rule.

The novel follows Okonkwo, a respected leader and successful farmer in the community of Umuofia. Driven by a fear of weakness and failure, he struggles to express affection and respond thoughtfully to change. When Christian missionaries and colonial authorities arrive, both Okonkwo’s position and the stability of his community are threatened.

Achebe explores masculinity, family, tradition, religion, justice, cultural conflict, and the destructive effects of colonialism. By presenting Igbo society from within, including its language, customs, proverbs, achievements, and contradictions, the novel challenges earlier European representations of Africa.

In this Crash Course Literature episode, John Green introduces Igbo society and examines Okonkwo’s character, his fear of appearing weak, and the decisions that lead to his downfall. The video also considers how the arrival of missionaries and British colonial power begins to transform the community.

Published in 1949, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four presents a dystopian society in which the ruling Party controls information, language, history, and even private thought.

The novel follows Winston Smith, an employee at the Ministry of Truth whose job is to rewrite historical records so that they always support the Party. Secretly questioning the regime and its leader, Big Brother, Winston begins searching for truth, freedom, and genuine human connection.

Orwell explores surveillance, propaganda, censorship, totalitarianism, conformity, and the manipulation of language and memory. Ideas such as Newspeak, doublethink, and the memory hole demonstrate how controlling language and information can limit people’s ability to question authority or imagine alternatives.

In this TED-Ed animation, educator Noah Tavlin explains what the term “Orwellian” really means. The video shows that it refers particularly to the deceptive manipulation of language and truth—not simply to anything authoritarian or unpleasant—and connects this idea to Orwell’s warnings about political power.

Published in 1925, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway takes place over a single day in post-First World War London. The novel follows Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares to host an evening party while reflecting on her past, her relationships, and the choices that shaped her life.

Alongside Clarissa’s story is that of Septimus Warren Smith, a war veteran suffering from severe psychological trauma. Although the two characters never meet, their experiences are connected through the novel’s exploration of memory, isolation, identity, and the value of life.

Using stream of consciousness and shifting perspectives, Woolf moves between the inner thoughts of different characters. The novel explores time, mortality, mental health, gender, class, social expectations, and the lasting effects of war beneath the polished surface of British society.

This Schooling Online video introduces the personal and historical context that shaped Woolf’s novel, including modernism, changing gender roles, postwar British society, and attitudes towards mental health. Understanding this context helps explain the novel’s experimental style and its criticism of established social institutions.

Published in 1922, James Joyce’s Ulysses takes place in Dublin over the course of a single day: 16 June 1904, now celebrated internationally as Bloomsday.

The novel follows three principal characters: Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, and Molly Bloom. As Stephen and Bloom move separately through Dublin, their ordinary activities, conversations, memories, and private thoughts gradually connect.

Modelled loosely on Homer’s Odyssey, the novel transforms an ancient epic journey into a day of everyday urban life. Across its eighteen episodes, Joyce experiments with stream of consciousness, parody, drama, newspaper language, music, and many other literary styles. The novel explores identity, home, relationships, religion, nationalism, mortality, and the richness of ordinary human experience.

In this TED-Ed animation, educator Sam Slote explains why Ulysses is considered both a modernist masterpiece and a famously difficult book. The video introduces its Homeric parallels, shifting styles, inventive language, humour, and detailed portrayal of Dublin, helping readers understand why the novel continues to inspire the annual celebration of Bloomsday.

Published in 1915, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a modernist novella that begins when travelling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes to discover that he has been transformed into a giant insect-like creature.

Rather than questioning how the transformation occurred, Gregor immediately worries about missing work and failing to support his family. Confined to his room and unable to communicate, he becomes increasingly isolated as his family struggles with fear, resentment, and financial pressure.

Through Gregor’s strange situation, Kafka explores alienation, identity, family obligation, work, shame, and the way people can be valued according to their usefulness. The novella combines absurdity, dark humour, and psychological realism to reveal how quickly sympathy can disappear when someone becomes dependent on others.

This animated Book Tutor video introduces the novella’s plot, characters, and central conflict. It helps viewers consider Gregor’s transformation not only as a physical event, but also as a symbol of isolation, dehumanisation, and the pressures created by work and family expectations.

Published in 1666, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World is one of the earliest extended works of speculative fiction written by a woman.

The story follows a young woman transported into a parallel world inhabited by talking animal-like beings. She becomes its Empress and begins reshaping its political, religious and scientific institutions.

Cavendish uses this fantastic setting to question the scientific theories of her time, particularly the belief that observation and experimentation could provide certain knowledge of nature.

The novel also explores female authority, imperial ambition, imagination and absolute power. Cavendish even enters her own fictional world as the Empress’s intellectual companion.

This video introduces Cavendish’s extraordinary imagined universe and considers how The Blazing World anticipates modern science fiction, alternate worlds and the multiverse.

Published in 1666, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World is one of the earliest extended works of speculative fiction written by a woman.

The story follows a young woman transported into a parallel world inhabited by talking animal-like beings. She becomes its Empress and begins reshaping its political, religious and scientific institutions.

Cavendish uses this fantastic setting to question the scientific theories of her time, particularly the belief that observation and experimentation could provide certain knowledge of nature.

The novel also explores female authority, imperial ambition, imagination and absolute power. Cavendish even enters her own fictional world as the Empress’s intellectual companion.

This video introduces Cavendish’s extraordinary imagined universe and considers how The Blazing World anticipates modern science fiction, alternate worlds and the multiverse.

Published in 1666, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World is one of the earliest extended works of speculative fiction written by a woman.

The story follows a young woman transported into a parallel world inhabited by talking animal-like beings. She becomes its Empress and begins reshaping its political, religious and scientific institutions.

Cavendish uses this fantastic setting to question the scientific theories of her time, particularly the belief that observation and experimentation could provide certain knowledge of nature.

The novel also explores female authority, imperial ambition, imagination and absolute power. Cavendish even enters her own fictional world as the Empress’s intellectual companion.

This video introduces Cavendish’s extraordinary imagined universe and considers how The Blazing World anticipates modern science fiction, alternate worlds and the multiverse.

Published in 1666, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World is one of the earliest extended works of speculative fiction written by a woman.

The story follows a young woman transported into a parallel world inhabited by talking animal-like beings. She becomes its Empress and begins reshaping its political, religious and scientific institutions.

Cavendish uses this fantastic setting to question the scientific theories of her time, particularly the belief that observation and experimentation could provide certain knowledge of nature.

The novel also explores female authority, imperial ambition, imagination and absolute power. Cavendish even enters her own fictional world as the Empress’s intellectual companion.

This video introduces Cavendish’s extraordinary imagined universe and considers how The Blazing World anticipates modern science fiction, alternate worlds and the multiverse.

Published in 1857, Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary transformed the modern novel through its psychological precision and unsparing portrayal of provincial life.

Disillusioned by marriage, Emma Bovary pursues romance, luxury and social status in an increasingly desperate escape from boredom.

Through free indirect discourse, Flaubert blends Emma’s thoughts with an ironic narrative voice, revealing how romantic fantasies distort her reality.

The novel examines marriage, infidelity, consumerism, debt and women’s restricted lives. Its publication prompted a landmark obscenity trial.

This video explores how Madame Bovary helped establish literary realism and shaped modern psychological fiction.

Published in 1666, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World is one of the earliest extended works of speculative fiction written by a woman.

The story follows a young woman transported into a parallel world inhabited by talking animal-like beings. She becomes its Empress and begins reshaping its political, religious and scientific institutions.

Cavendish uses this fantastic setting to question the scientific theories of her time, particularly the belief that observation and experimentation could provide certain knowledge of nature.

The novel also explores female authority, imperial ambition, imagination and absolute power. Cavendish even enters her own fictional world as the Empress’s intellectual companion.

This video introduces Cavendish’s extraordinary imagined universe and considers how The Blazing World anticipates modern science fiction, alternate worlds and the multiverse.

Published in 1666, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World is one of the earliest extended works of speculative fiction written by a woman.

The story follows a young woman transported into a parallel world inhabited by talking animal-like beings. She becomes its Empress and begins reshaping its political, religious and scientific institutions.

Cavendish uses this fantastic setting to question the scientific theories of her time, particularly the belief that observation and experimentation could provide certain knowledge of nature.

The novel also explores female authority, imperial ambition, imagination and absolute power. Cavendish even enters her own fictional world as the Empress’s intellectual companion.

This video introduces Cavendish’s extraordinary imagined universe and considers how The Blazing World anticipates modern science fiction, alternate worlds and the multiverse.

Published in 1666, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World is one of the earliest extended works of speculative fiction written by a woman.

The story follows a young woman transported into a parallel world inhabited by talking animal-like beings. She becomes its Empress and begins reshaping its political, religious and scientific institutions.

Cavendish uses this fantastic setting to question the scientific theories of her time, particularly the belief that observation and experimentation could provide certain knowledge of nature.

The novel also explores female authority, imperial ambition, imagination and absolute power. Cavendish even enters her own fictional world as the Empress’s intellectual companion.

This video introduces Cavendish’s extraordinary imagined universe and considers how The Blazing World anticipates modern science fiction, alternate worlds and the multiverse.

Published in 1789, Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is one of the most influential autobiographies associated with the British abolitionist movement.

Equiano describes being kidnapped as a child, transported across the Atlantic and sold into slavery. After years of enslavement, naval service and travel, he purchased his freedom in 1766 and built a life as a sailor, merchant, writer and campaigner.

Combining personal testimony, travel narrative and political argument, Equiano exposes the violence and injustice of the transatlantic slave trade. His account explores freedom, identity, faith, resilience and the struggle to be recognised as fully human.

This British Library video examines Equiano’s autobiography, the book tour through which he promoted it and its important contribution to the campaign to abolish the slave trade.

Voltaire (1694–1778) was a French Enlightenment writer and philosopher known for challenging intolerance, injustice and abuses of political and religious authority.

In his satirical novel Candide (1759), the young protagonist travels through a world marked by war, natural disaster, exploitation and cruelty. These experiences gradually undermine the optimistic belief that everything happens for the best.

At the end of the novel, Candide concludes that “we must cultivate our garden.” The garden represents more than agriculture: it suggests concentrating on useful work, personal responsibility and the part of life we can genuinely improve instead of becoming overwhelmed by abstract theories or problems beyond our control.

This School of Life video explores Voltaire’s practical philosophy and considers how cultivating our own “garden” can help us create purpose, remain grounded and make meaningful changes in everyday life.

Voltaire (1694–1778) was a French Enlightenment writer and philosopher known for challenging intolerance, injustice and abuses of political and religious authority.

In his satirical novel Candide (1759), the young protagonist travels through a world marked by war, natural disaster, exploitation and cruelty. These experiences gradually undermine the optimistic belief that everything happens for the best.

At the end of the novel, Candide concludes that “we must cultivate our garden.” The garden represents more than agriculture: it suggests concentrating on useful work, personal responsibility and the part of life we can genuinely improve instead of becoming overwhelmed by abstract theories or problems beyond our control.

This School of Life video explores Voltaire’s practical philosophy and considers how cultivating our own “garden” can help us create purpose, remain grounded and make meaningful changes in everyday life.

Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) was a Japanese poet of the Edo period who transformed the short poetic form that later became known as haiku.

Bashō travelled extensively across Japan, observing landscapes, seasons and everyday life. His most famous work, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, combines poetry and prose to record both a physical journey and a search for deeper understanding.

Using precise images and simple language, Bashō’s poetry finds meaning in brief, ordinary moments. His work reflects ideas of attentiveness, simplicity, solitude and impermanence, showing how close observation of nature can change our understanding of ourselves.

This School of Life video introduces Bashō’s life and philosophy and considers how his poetry can teach us to slow down, pay attention and recognise beauty in the everyday.

Published in 1666, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World is one of the earliest extended works of speculative fiction written by a woman.

The story follows a young woman transported into a parallel world inhabited by talking animal-like beings. She becomes its Empress and begins reshaping its political, religious and scientific institutions.

Cavendish uses this fantastic setting to question the scientific theories of her time, particularly the belief that observation and experimentation could provide certain knowledge of nature.

The novel also explores female authority, imperial ambition, imagination and absolute power. Cavendish even enters her own fictional world as the Empress’s intellectual companion.

This video introduces Cavendish’s extraordinary imagined universe and considers how The Blazing World anticipates modern science fiction, alternate worlds and the multiverse.

Published in 1666, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World is one of the earliest extended works of speculative fiction written by a woman.

The story follows a young woman transported into a parallel world inhabited by talking animal-like beings. She becomes its Empress and begins reshaping its political, religious and scientific institutions.

Cavendish uses this fantastic setting to question the scientific theories of her time, particularly the belief that observation and experimentation could provide certain knowledge of nature.

The novel also explores female authority, imperial ambition, imagination and absolute power. Cavendish even enters her own fictional world as the Empress’s intellectual companion.

This video introduces Cavendish’s extraordinary imagined universe and considers how The Blazing World anticipates modern science fiction, alternate worlds and the multiverse.

Published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote is widely regarded as one of the earliest and most influential modern novels.

The story follows Alonso Quixano, an ageing gentleman whose obsession with tales of chivalry leads him to reinvent himself as the knight Don Quixote. Accompanied by his practical companion, Sancho Panza, he sets out to defend justice and restore honour—often mistaking ordinary people and objects for heroic enemies and adventures.

Blending comedy, adventure and social criticism, Cervantes explores the conflict between imagination and reality. The novel also examines idealism, friendship, identity, storytelling and the power of books to shape how people understand the world.

In this TED-Ed video, educator Ilan Stavans considers why the adventures of this clumsy but courageous knight have continued to inspire readers for more than four centuries.

Written around 1595–1596, William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy in which the human and magical worlds collide over the course of one chaotic night.

The play follows four young Athenians who flee into a forest because of conflicting romantic relationships and parental expectations. There they encounter Oberon and Titania, the fairy king and queen, and the mischievous Puck, whose use of a magical flower creates confusion, mistaken identities, and unexpected attractions.

At the same time, a group of amateur actors rehearses a play for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Their enthusiastic but clumsy performance adds another layer of comedy, particularly after Puck transforms the weaver Nick Bottom and Titania falls under a spell.

Shakespeare uses magic, humour, and dramatic confusion to explore love, jealousy, imagination, authority, transformation, and the uncertain boundary between illusion and reality. The forest becomes a place where ordinary social rules are temporarily overturned and no character remains fully in control.

In this TED-Ed animation, educator Iseult Gillespie explains the play’s overlapping plots, magical setting, comic reversals, and treatment of love as an irrational and transformative force. The video also considers how Shakespeare questions authority and invites audiences to wonder whether life itself might resemble a dream.

Born into the French royal family, Marguerite de Navarre became one of the Renaissance’s most influential writers, intellectuals and patrons.

Her unfinished masterpiece, The Heptameron, follows ten travellers stranded by floods in the Pyrenees. Inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron, they entertain one another by telling stories supposedly based on real events.

The tales examine love, marriage, desire, deception, religious hypocrisy and sexual violence. After each story, the travellers debate its meaning, often revealing sharp disagreements between male and female perspectives.

Through these competing voices, Marguerite questions conventional judgments about women while showing how storytelling can conceal, expose or reshape the truth.

This video introduces The Heptameron and considers why its treatment of gender, consent and female experience remains both groundbreaking and contested.

Born in Rotterdam and educated in the Netherlands, Desiderius Erasmus became one of Renaissance Europe’s most influential scholars.

Writing with wit rather than solemn argument, he criticised corrupt institutions, empty learning and people’s talent for deceiving themselves.

His best-known work, In Praise of Folly, lets Folly deliver a comic speech celebrating human stupidity while exposing the vanity of scholars, rulers and religious leaders.

This video introduces Erasmus’s satire and asks an uncomfortable question: are foolishness and self-deception essential parts of being human?

Born in Venice and raised at the royal court in Paris, Christine de Pizan became one of medieval Europe’s most remarkable writers.

Widowed while still young, Christine turned professional writing into a means of supporting herself and her family—an extraordinary achievement for a woman of her period.

In poetry, political commentary and allegorical prose, she challenged the misogynistic assumptions of influential male writers and defended women’s intelligence, dignity and right to education.

Her best-known work, The Book of the City of Ladies, imagines a symbolic city built from the stories of courageous, learned and accomplished women.

This video introduces Christine’s life and ideas and considers why she is frequently described as one of Europe’s earliest feminist writers.

Born in medieval England, Geoffrey Chaucer became a courtier, diplomat and one of the most influential writers in English literature.

His Canterbury Tales follows a mixed group of pilgrims competing to tell the best story while travelling to Canterbury.

Their tales move from romance and moral fable to crude comedy, revealing their ambitions, prejudices and secrets—and creating a lively portrait of medieval society.

This video introduces Chaucer’s pilgrims, storytelling contest and sharp social humour, showing why the work still feels surprisingly funny, human and modern.