1982 · Alice Walker · 295 pages · Literary Fiction
An epistolary novel written in raw, unpolished voice that charts one woman's journey from silence to selfhood with a power that hasn't diminished in four decades.
1966 · Daniel Keyes · 311 pages · Science Fiction
Daniel Keyes' novel about a man whose intelligence is artificially enhanced and then taken away is one of the most emotionally powerful works of science fiction ever written. The progress report format allows readers to experience Charlie's transformation from the inside, watching his language and understanding evolve and then deteriorate in real time. It's a trick that works because Keyes never treats it as a trick. The ethical questions the book raises about intelligence, consent, and human dignity have only grown more relevant since 1966. Some readers find the middle sections overly focused on Charlie's romantic frustrations. But the opening and closing of this novel will stay with you for years.
2004 · Marilynne Robinson · 247 pages · Literary Fiction
A quiet, luminous novel written as a dying father's letter to his young son that transforms small-town Iowa into a landscape of profound spiritual and philosophical beauty.