This is the Canon: Decolonize Your Bookshelves in 50 Books
This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
This is the Canon(Book), 50 Books
This is from a book from Kadija Sesay, Deirdre Osborne, Joan Anim-Addo
The editors description is:
Upending our traditionally white-dominated 'to be read' piles, Joan Anim-Addo, Deirdre Osborne and Kadija Sesay push to the fore the voices and cultural perspectives that demand a place on everyone's shelves.
From literary giants such as Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie and Chinua Achebe to recent Man Booker Prize winners Paul Beatty and Bernardine Evaristo, the novels recommended here are in turn haunting and lyrical; innovative and inspiring; edgy and poignant. They are books that reflect the wide and diverse experiences of people from around the world, of all backgrounds and all races. They are books that represent voices that have for too long been silenced or side-lined.
The description from the book's first 2 chapters:
Each title has been carefully chosen as a result of our commitment to diversify the traditional literary canon of novels and short stories available in the English language... It should be understood to mean this is a canon, neither replacing nor adding to what has existed previously, but one of many possible selections... Those who oppose or criticize the act of decolonization often fear contamination or a lowering of standards. To reassure readers, we are emphatically opposed to exalting books that are mediocre, or outside the possibility of literary success.
This list was originally published in 2021 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.