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PewDiePie Book Recommendations (43 Books)

PewDiePie is a Swedish YouTuber, comedian, gamer, and philanthropist. Wikipedia

Books Recommended by PewDiePie

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• PewDiePie Recommended Books

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor e. frankl.

Source : "A great tool to help people. [...] In case something really bad happens, I feel like, from reading this book, I'm better equipped to handle it." - PewDiePie

The Soul of Japan

Inazo nitob.

Source : "For anyone that wants to learn more about Japanese culture and the history of it, I think [this book] is a great starting point." - PewDiePie

The Inferno

August strindberg.

Source : "Very fascinating, but very bizarre to read. Like reading the notes of a madman almost." - PewDiePie

Beyond Good And Evil

Friedrich nietzsche.

Source : "Despite this being clearly above my reading comprehension, I'm really glad I still gave it a try." - PewDiePie

12 Rules for Life

An antidote to chaos, jordan peterson.

Source : "Gave me a lot of new perspectives that I never thought I would even have." - PewDiePie

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor dostoevsky.

Source : "Sometimes this book was very hard to get through, but the parts that shine truly shine." - PewDiePie

Herman Melville

Source : "I'm probably not really ready for it yet, but I'm really glad I read it." - PewDiePie

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

Yukio mishima.

Source : "I felt so lost reading this book, in the best possible way. And I absolutely loved it." - PewDiePie

The Dice Man

Luke rhinehart.

Source : "I really enjoyed the first half, but the second half was unnecessary." - PewDiePie

Don Quixote

Miguel de cervantes.

Source : "My favorite piece of classical literature that I've ever read." - PewDiePie

I Am Legend

Richard matheson.

Source : "Very light and very gripping from the beginning to the end." - PewDiePie

Japanese Death Poems

Written by zen monks and haiku poets on the verge of death, yoel hoffmann.

Source : "May sound depressing to read, but I found it very uplifting." - PewDiePie

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar wilde.

Source : "A meaningful story with horror elements to it." - PewDiePie

No Longer Human

Osamu dazai.

Source : "This is everything I would want from a novel." - PewDiePie

Brave New World

Aldous huxley.

Source : "I love this book. I think it's a masterpiece." - PewDiePie

A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval noah harari.

Source : "Tells the major revolutions of human history." - PewDiePie

The Sound of Waves

Source : "I don't really have too much to say about it." - PewDiePie

Flowers for Algernon

Daniel keyes.

Source : "Really fun to read from start to finish." - PewDiePie

Consider Phlebas

Culture, book 1, iain m. banks.

Source : "Overall just a fun space adventure." - PewDiePie

The Woman in the Dunes

Source : "I really recommend reading it." - PewDiePie

Did PewDiePie recommend all these books?

While this list primarily comprises books enthusiastically recommended by PewDiePie, it also includes a variety of titles that PewDiePie has mentioned or suggested in various contexts. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive reading list that reflects PewDiePie's literary influences, interests, and recommendations, though not every book on the list may be an explicit endorsement.

How do you know PewDiePie mentioned these books?

Our team meticulously verifies each book mention attributed to PewDiePie. This involves extensive research, including reviewing interviews, articles, podcasts, social media posts, and other public statements where PewDiePie has discussed their reading preferences. The sources validating these mentions are linked next to each book for transparency and to provide our users with the context in which PewDiePie referred to the book.

Did PewDiePie actually create this list?

No, PewDiePie did not personally compile this list. Our editorial team curates these reading lists by consolidating all verified mentions and recommendations from PewDiePie. We ensure the authenticity of the list by providing sources for each recommendation. These lists are intended to reflect PewDiePie's reading tastes and influences as accurately as possible.

Are these books endorsed or sponsored by PewDiePie?

The books listed are not part of any endorsement or sponsorship agreement with PewDiePie. They are selected based on genuine mentions and recommendations made by PewDiePie in various public platforms. Our goal is to provide readers with an authentic insight into the reading preferences of influential individuals.

How often is the list updated?

We update these lists regularly to include new recommendations or mentions by PewDiePie. Our team keeps a close eye on PewDiePie's latest interviews, writings, and public statements to ensure the list remains current and comprehensive.

Can I suggest a book to add to the list?

While we primarily focus on books directly mentioned by PewDiePie, we welcome suggestions from our readers. If you know of a book that PewDiePie has talked about but is not featured on our list, feel free to contact us with the source of the mention, and our editorial team will review it for potential inclusion.

How can I find books recommended by other individuals?

Our website features a wide range of reading lists curated based on the recommendations of various successful individuals. You can easily browse these lists through our navigation menu or use our search feature to find lists associated with specific individuals.

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Recommended Books

books recommended by PewDiePie

PewDiePie is the online pseudonym of Swedish YouTuber Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg. He is known for his Let's Play commentaries and vlogs, as well as his comedy and music parody videos. Kjellberg's channel was the most subscribed on YouTube for five years, and as of January 2021, it has over 107 million subscribers.

Last Updated Jan 31, 2024

Yuval Noah Harari

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor e. frankl.

Frank Herbert

12 Rules for Life

Jordan peterson.

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor dostoyevsky.

Brave New World

Aldous huxley.

The Book of Five Rings

Miyamoto musashi.

Consider Phlebas

Iain m. banks.

Max Tegmark

Norwegian Wood

Haruki murakami.

Don Quixote

Miguel de cervantes saavedra.

Herman Melville

Beyond Good & Evil

Friedrich nietzsche.

Flowers for Algernon

Daniel keyes.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar wilde.

Children of Time

Adrian tchaikovsky.

I Am Legend: And Other Stories

Richard matheson, books written by pewdiepie, people also viewed.

Sadia Badiei

Ruby Granger

Ana Fabrega

Graham Stephan

Nathaniel Drew

Casey Neistat

Matt D’Avella

Jack Edwards

Steph Smith

Elizabeth Filips

Alex Lieberman

Nate O'Brien

UnJaded Jade

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

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PewDiePie's book recommendations

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Pewdiepie Literature Club: 26 Favorite Books

Share with:

Crime and Punishment

No Longer Human

Sun & steel

The old man and the sea

Man's Search for Meaning

Flowers for Algernon

The Metamorphosis

The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

The Sound Of Waves

The Book of Five Rings

Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future

American Psycho

Kafka on the Shore

I Am Legend

Brave New World

Children of Time: Children of Time Book 1

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

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• Teen & Young Adult
• Education & Reference

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This Book Loves You Paperback – October 20, 2015

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 240 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Razorbill
• Publication date October 20, 2015
• Grade level 9 - 12
• Reading age 14 years and up
• Dimensions 6.75 x 0.68 x 8.19 inches
• ISBN-10 1101999047
• ISBN-13 978-1101999042
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Razorbill; Illustrated edition (October 20, 2015)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1101999047
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1101999042
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 14 years and up
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 9 - 12
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 0.68 x 8.19 inches
• #291 in Computers & Internet Humor
• #404 in Self-Esteem for Teens & Young Adults
• #440 in Teen & Young Adult Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance Issues

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This Book Loves You

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About the author

PewDiePie is the most popular YouTuber in the world, with more than 39 million subscribers and a world record breaking 10 billion views. He is Swedish and lives in Brighton, UK.

PewDiePie was sent to planet Earth to dispense wisdom, teach us common sense, and instruct us in the ancient art of Inspirology.

PewDiePie just wants to make you happy.

PewDiePie loves you even more than this book does--isn’t that enough for you?

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This book loves you, common sense media reviewers.

YouTuber PewDiePie's funny, frivolous, Internet meme spoof.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Satirical advice meant to entertain. But there is

Mix of positive messages such as "Never, ever

PewDiePie's persona in this book is that of so

Comic, satirical drawings and collages show a cree

A couple of cartoon illustrations of sperm and mal

"Piss," "nipples," "boobs

Self-promoting part of a vast social media empire

One pictures shows the author in a bar setting hol

Parents need to know that This Book Loves You is social media phenom PewDiePie's (sounds like "cutie pie") foray into book publishing. It's a highly illustrated collection of advice delivered as one-liners that satirizes social media memes and quotes along the lines of, "If life gives…

Educational Value

Satirical advice meant to entertain. But there is an inherent critique of Internet memes.

Positive Messages

Mix of positive messages such as "Never, ever give up" and satirical negative messages such as "Love yourself because nobody else does." Tweens may need help interpreting how turning a message on its head affects the message itself. An illustration shows a duck on a crucifix. One quote ends with "dumb blondie" illustrated with a golden retriever. The introduction parodies biblical language and refers to "the great Lord PewDiePie."

Positive Role Models

PewDiePie's persona in this book is that of someone whose mission is to help the world be as fabulous as he is; it's very tongue-in-cheek. As a role model himself, he's also a mixed bag. On the one hand, he's a guy who records himself playing video games and puts the recordings up on YouTube. On the other hand, he's a self-made billionaire who parlayed playing video games on his personal YouTube channel to that channel becoming the most-watched and most-subscribed one on YouTube (with subscribers and views in the millions), becoming a social media phenomenon.

Violence & Scariness

Comic, satirical drawings and collages show a creepy mouse head with a melting face, stick figures with legs cut off and another running away with an ax, a realistic but unbloody photo of a human heart, the author aiming a toy Nerf-type rifle at his own head (a cartoon covers his face), a serial killer covered in blood holding a dripping cleaver, and a message written in simulated blood spatters. One small caption threatens to burn your house down.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A couple of cartoon illustrations of sperm and male genitalia. A couple of pictures of women in bikinis. Nipples mentioned; a picture of an unclothed mannequin that doesn't have nipples. Close-up picture of naked buttocks. One message about not dying a virgin. Tampons mentioned. Many pictures of the slogan "The Duck Is Coming," which may lead kids to the website of the same name that prominently features an illustration of a man holding a swan's head and long neck where his penis would be.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Piss," "nipples," "boobs," "butt," "poop," "goddamn," "bloody hell," "suck," and "crap." Stronger language is infrequent and obscures the word while making clear what it's meant to be, such as "f@%king" or "p--sy" visible behind a picture of a cat. The middle-finger gesture is partly obscured.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Self-promoting part of a vast social media empire with millions of followers across multiple platforms. No products directly referenced. A satirical message recommends stealing, selling a kidney, or offering your soul to the devil if you can't afford to buy this book.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

One pictures shows the author in a bar setting holding a mug of beer and accompanies a satirical message about never getting a hangover if you're always drunk.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that This Book Loves You is social media phenom PewDiePie 's (sounds like "cutie pie") foray into book publishing. It's a highly illustrated collection of advice delivered as one-liners that satirizes social media memes and quotes along the lines of, "If life gives you lemons, complain." Lots of bathroom humor and strong language, although the strongest profanity is obscured by pictures or symbols while still making the meaning clear. The illustrations are cartoonish, mostly collages, and unrealistic. Violence is infrequent and shows a man pointing a toy gun at his own head, blood spatters and drips, and stick figures with their legs cut off. Sexual content includes a cartoons of sperm and male genitalia, nude butttocks, and mentions of tampons and dying a virgin. The satirical and parodic nature of the advice is a good starting point for talking about what the author is really trying to convey and what turning a message on its head does to the message. Note that PewDiePie came under fire in 2017 for posting anti-Semitic videos and imagery , and his Disney-owned studio dropped him. YouTube also canceled his show .

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (4)

Based on 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

YouTube phenomenon PewDiePie discovered that he has great wisdom and feels that the world desperately needs to hear it. He's also annoyed at the constant quotes and memes cluttering the Internet urging him to be good, strong, and positive. A fan pic on Twitter gave him the idea to spread his wisdom and balance out those annoying memes with advice of his own. One-liners take those quotes and turn them upside down by adding a sarcastic punch line and illustration.

Is It Any Good?

The smart-alecky, tongue-in-cheek advice one-liners and their colorful illustrations are sure to appeal to PewDiePie's millions of followers. Most of the illustrations find humor in turning annoying Internet memes on their heads by supplying a sarcastic punch line, often with potty humor or salty language thrown in for good measure. A few could seem genuinely mean-spirited, and another few are genuinely positive, good advice.

Younger readers may need help understanding that the book's not really telling you that you have no friends or are a loser, it's just making fun of the overload of inspirational quotes on the Internet. Teens and young adults will appreciate the satire and get some laughs out of it. It's too shallow and frivolous to offer genuine appeal to a broad audience. But when your narrow audience numbers in the millions, who needs breadth and depth? Not PewDiePie.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why PewDiePie wrote this book. He's already a billionaire with millions of followers on social media. Why publish a book, too?

How do the quotes about being a loser or nobody loving you make you feel? Is there any truth to them, or do they just make you laugh?

Which is your favorite quote? Why?

Book Details

• Author : PewDiePie
• Genre : Advice
• Topics : Friendship
• Book type : Non-Fiction
• Publisher : Razorbill
• Publication date : October 20, 2015
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 14 - 18
• Number of pages : 240
• Available on : Paperback, Nook, iBooks, Kindle
• Last updated : July 13, 2017

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

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Pewdiepie's Book Club

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Climate Change Is Making Us Paranoid, Anxious and Angry

From dolphins with Alzheimer’s to cranky traffic judges, writes Clayton Page Aldern, the whole planet is going berserk.

Credit... Tom Etherington

Supported by

By Nathaniel Rich

Nathaniel Rich is the author, most recently, of “Second Nature: Scenes From a World Remade.”

• April 9, 2024

THE WEIGHT OF NATURE: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains, by Clayton Page Aldern

We know, often with abject precision, what climate change is doing to our coasts, rainforests, wildfires and hurricanes; our immigration patterns, crop yields and insurance premiums. But what is it doing to our brains?

This question, for Clayton Page Aldern, is not rhetorical but bleakly literal. Aldern is a Rhodes Scholar who, in defiance of career counselors everywhere, abandoned a promising career in the field of neuroscience to become a journalist. He traces his conversion to a pair of reports showing a correlation between climate change and increased violent conflict. “It wasn’t just that a warmer world would hurt us,” writes Aldern, “it was that a warmer world would make us hurt one another.”

Most of the violence cited in those reports derives from the effect of higher temperatures on natural resources and weather disasters. A report from the Pentagon describes, for instance, how drought and reduced agricultural yields helped prime the Syrian civil war, and how Hurricane Sandy necessitated the mass mobilization of the U.S. military. But it is also true that heat makes people irritable. How much more anger — how many more shootings, road-rage accidents, sporting-event brawls, declarations of war — is stimulated by a warming of one-and-a-half degrees Celsius? How about two degrees, or three? Warmer temperatures also tend to make us more cruel, depressed and dumb.

“The Weight of Nature” observes most of the narrative conventions of advocacy writing. A set of alarming problems is introduced and bemoaned, the dramatic stakes are raised to dizzying extremes, solutions are presented, and the reader is encouraged to act. But the weight of the “Weight of Nature” falls heavily on the problems, which draw from a survey of experimental findings so terrifying that they elicit the prose equivalent of nervous laughter; many of them, as Aldern writes in reference to the prospect of global-warming-induced mass dementia, are “almost comically apocalyptic.”

The book’s exposition, drawing from a selection of recent scientific studies, reads like a demonic Harper’s “Findings” column. Naegleria fowleri, the brain-eating amoeba, has begun infecting swimmers in lakes as far north as Iowa and Minnesota, and may already be present in all fresh water; as lakes and ponds warm, writes Aldern, channeling Vincent Price, “more N. fowleri are waking up.”

Neurodegenerative diseases will affect some 14 million more people annually by 2050. As landscapes reconfigure and cultural practices vanish, the mind becomes less able to retain information, which Aldern translates as: “Climate change causes amnesia.”

In hotter climates, a high school student’s chance of graduating on time decreases by a percentage point for every extra degree Fahrenheit on the day of a final exam. On warmer days immigration judges more frequently rule against asylum applicants. When it’s hotter than 100 degrees, one third of drivers honk more often, and for longer. Heat exposure during early pregnancy is associated with a higher risk of conditions like schizophrenia and anorexia.

Dolphins appear to be getting Alzheimer’s disease. Mountaintop removal makes Appalachians depressed. In Greenland, mercury, a neurotoxin, is leaking from melting permafrost “like some kind of cartoonish sludge zombie.” Florida will soon be swarmed by rabid vampire bats.

Some of the revelations in this “Pandora’s box of horrors” raise practical questions. If students are 10 percent more likely to fail an exam taken on a 90-degree day, should the test scores of children in southern climates be rounded up accordingly? If higher temperatures lead to outbursts of violence, should a hot day be considered a mitigating factor when determining the guilt of a defendant? Should parents be warned against raising children in tropical zones?

Like any kind of intoxication, indulgence in worst-case scenarios can induce a hangover. Since many of these findings are predicated on extrapolations, Aldern, the former scientist, is careful to include qualifications. “It’s important not to overreach here,” he writes, directly after quoting “Crime and Punishment” to demonstrate the influence of heat on murderous rage. “Don’t pay attention to the actual values,” he writes, after relaying an economist’s prediction that, between 2010 and 2099, climate change will cause an additional 22,000 murders, 2.2 million cases of larceny and 180,000 cases of rape. Brain-eating amoeba infections will “continue to remain relatively rare,” he writes, shortly after cautioning readers who might want to jump into a warm lake next summer to wear nose plugs. In summary: “I know doomsday alarmism is tiresome. But you should still be concerned.”

It is impossible to submit to this barrage and not be concerned. Then again one doesn’t need the threat of airborne A.L.S. to be concerned about the effect of climate change on our minds, our moods, our spirits. Any person who dares to stare down the behemoth of climate change cannot escape its mind-altering influence. How does one respond, intellectually or emotionally, to an unraveling that seems both unobservably slow and teeth-chatteringly rapid; to the unthinking and indiscriminate slaughter of billions of creatures; to the ineptitude of our politics and the psychopathic venality of our industries; to the assignation of the most vulnerable among us to the gravest suffering; to the willful destruction of a civilization? The scale of the physical transformation alone overwhelms the mind.

Aldern asserts that he has not written a book about climate anxiety — or climate communication or neurophilosophy or politics — but one about “direct interventions of environmental change on the brain.” Nevertheless, as he puts it elsewhere, “bank shots still count in billiards.” Regardless of whether you live in a wildfire zone or a hurricane alley, or swim in warm ponds, his central insights hold, and deserve emphasis. Aldern is the rare writer who dares to ask how climate change has already changed us.

“It is the job of your brain to model the world as it is,” writes Aldern. “And the world is mutating.” We are mutating with it. We are becoming more suspicious, paranoid, anxious, depressive, distracted, nihilistic, angry. Not all of us, and not all the time. Some respond, as Aldern instructs his readers to do, with greater empathy, resilience, collective action and pipeline sabotage.

But that is just another kind of mutation: an antibody response. This great transformation is already deforming our inner lives in ways we are only beginning to comprehend. Climate change isn’t only here, writes Aldern. It is inside us. And it is spreading.

THE WEIGHT OF NATURE : How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains | By Clayton Page Aldern | Dutton | 320 pp. | $30

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‘Crooked Seeds’ is hard to read and impossible to look away from

Karen jennings’s new novel, set in south africa, follows a woman who is an open sore of self-absorbed resentment.

You can still smell the smoke.

Eleven years ago this month, Claire Messud published a brilliant, incendiary novel called “ The Woman Upstairs .” The narrator, Nora, is that most alarming and repellent character: a bitter woman. Single, childless and middle-aged, she won’t smile to look pretty. She won’t effuse to make us feel better. Her fury is boundless. When she says, “I’ll set the world on fire,” she doesn’t mean with a song in her heart.

When the book came out, an interviewer for Publishers Weekly asked Messud, “I wouldn’t want to be friends with Nora, would you?”

With withering, Nora-like irritation, Messud shot back: “For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath? Saleem Sinai? Hamlet? Krapp? Oedipus? Oscar Wao? Antigone? Raskolnikov? Any of the characters in ‘The Corrections’? Any of the characters in ‘Infinite Jest’? Any of the characters in anything Pynchon has ever written? Or Martin Amis? Or Orhan Pamuk? Or Alice Munro, for that matter? If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble.”

Predictably, the book world exploded with arguments about how likable a protagonist must be. It was an epic debate: “Madame Bovary c’est moi!” vs. “Madame Bovary ce n’est pas moi!” Readers of popular fiction were scolded for their narrow tastes, their childish refusal to fraternize with unappealing characters.

This month, as I read Karen Jennings’s new novel, “ Crooked Seeds ,” that old literary quarrel repeated on me like tainted meat. I’m not necessarily looking for friends in fiction, but it’s been years since I read a book that strained the Likability Principle so viscerally. Jennings’s previous novel, “ An Island ,” was longlisted for the Booker Prize, but I fear the more I tell you about “Crooked Seeds,” the less likely you’ll be to pick it up — unless you’re wearing gloves and a mask.

The story’s opening episode quickly separates the resilient from the squeamish: Deidre, a White South African woman in Cape Town, wakes up to pee, painfully, into a mixing bowl by her bed. “The urine was dark,” Jennings notes, “dark as cough syrup.” The smell of her three-day-old underwear is pungent. She’s so dry-mouthed that she can’t slide in her false teeth. With no water in her dilapidated apartment, she drinks a jar of pickle brine and eats some dangerously old Vienna sausages: “She spat out what couldn’t be chewed, ate two more, spat again, then drew her forearm across her mouth, seeing afterward the smear of grit and slime, and flakes of hideous pink.”

This novel couldn’t be any more overwhelming if it came in a scratch ’n’ sniff edition. Jennings gives us no break from Deidre’s filthy room, her dirty clothes, her sweaty armpits and fetid crotch.

But the moral rot overpowers every hygienic offense. Fifty-three-year-old Deidre is putrefying in self-pity. Limping out onto the street, she immediately starts begging for cigarettes and cuts to the front of the water line. Marked by her amputated leg, she’s clearly a well-known figure in this poor section of town. Having exhausted her disability allowance on alcohol, she begs for credit that everyone knows she’ll never pay back. A few people kind enough to help her are subjected only to more requests that quickly escalate from wheedling to fury. “Every time I think I’ve seen the worst of you, you come out with something even more terrible,” a Black neighbor tells her. “Are you trying to be unpleasant?”

Yes, Deidre is repellent, but she’s hypnotically repellent. And her unhappiness is not without cause, even if the responsibility for her situation is complicated by family sins and national politics. “Eighteen and I lost everything,” she whines. “What did I have after that? What could I become, huh? Everything was taken from me. Everything.”

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There’s no denying that she endured unspeakable physical harm, and she’s been removed from home and denied promised compensation. But in a country deeply scarred by the legacy of institutionalized racial discrimination, what do the concepts “home” and “compensation” really mean for an aggrieved White woman? “Two years of waiting to return,” Jennings writes, “and nothing now to come back to. Nothing left of any of it, apart from this hideous desolation, and shards of memory that didn’t quite fit together.”

Jennings has summoned a rotting wraith of South Africa’s discarded apartheid culture. Bereft of her racial privilege, Deidre is an open sore of self-absorbed resentment. And this is a novel that dares to push us beyond disgust, beyond pity, to a point where we’re forced to touch the swollen tumor of another person’s deepest humiliation.

That characterization is daring for an author, but the real artistry of “Crooked Seeds” lies in Jennings’s ability to make this story feel so propulsive. In the novel’s present tense, nothing particularly momentous happens, but that’s essential to its terrifying theme: Everything left to happen must come from disinterring the past. And once that digging begins, it unleashes an accelerating series of horrors. In a sense, Jennings has created a South African version of Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child.”

Early in the story, Deidre is contacted by a police officer. Investigators examining the site of her old family home have found the remains of three infant bodies in the yard. “Look, you’ve made a mistake,” Deidre insists with rising panic. “You need to find the family that lived here before us. The place was a mess when my parents got it. There was rubbish and heaps of stuff everywhere, like a dump, like a actual dump.”

Deidre may not be responsible for these atrocities — whatever they might be and mean — but with no one else left to take responsibility, on whom should the burden fall? As in some Greek tragedy, the investigation proceeds offstage, with shards of news arriving periodically to screw Deidre’s agitation ever tighter. Her dread is reflected in the wider world that’s drying out and going up in flames. “She looked up, past the gabled roof, into the distance where the mountain was burning, the sky dark with smoke and debris. Ash on her face, ash on the handles of her crutches. Same as usual, same f---ing story over and over, of fire and drought, of the world burning up and shriveling all around.”

Does Deidre ever become genuinely sympathetic? Could any person’s suffering expiate the sins of South Africa? These are questions this urgent novel forces upon us.

A century ago, D.H. Lawrence concluded his “Studies in Classic American Literature” with a shuddering critique of Flaubert and Whitman for embracing repulsive bodies and poisoned spirits. “You don’t have to force your soul into kissing lepers or embracing syphilitics,” he warned. “If you sympathise, you’ll feel her hatred, and you’ll hate too, you’ll hate her. Her feeling is hate, and you’ll share it.”

Messud came closer to the true function of literature when she told Publishers Weekly, “We read to find life, in all its possibilities.”

“Crooked Seeds” leaves us reeling, trying to get Deidre’s voice out of our heads: “I’m the one that needs help,” she screams. “Me. Look at me. I’m the one!”

Ron Charles reviews books and writes the Book Club newsletter for The Washington Post. He is the book critic for “CBS Sunday Morning.”

Crooked Seeds

By Karen Jennings

Hogarth. 219 pp. $28

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Books | The Book Club: “The House on Mango Street” and…

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Books | the book club: “the house on mango street” and more short reviews from readers, one book earns 4 out of 4 stars.

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email [email protected].

“Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel,” by Shahnaz Habib (Catapult, 2023)

This is not your typical Rick Steves (or even Paul Theroux) travel book. Rather, Habib dissects what it means to travel in the 21st century, as opposed to, say, what it means to emigrate. Who gets to travel, where and when? Who gets (or does not get) a passport or even a visa? How did “traveling” even become a thing? (Think: the Grand Tours of Europe in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries.) Travel is a form of consumerism, you might even say. But what does it mean to be a traveler in a post-colonial world, in the midst of a climate crisis? Habib addresses these questions and more in this enlightening and entertaining book. — 2 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver

“The Women,” by Kristin Hannah (St. Martins Press, 2024)

Kristin Hannah is an enormously successful writer of compulsively readable historic fiction. “The Women” — a tribute to the often overlooked women who served in the Vietnam War — is no exception. The story follows idealistic nurse Frankie McGrath through two tours of duty, bolstered by friends Ethel and Barb. Work shifts are long and brutal, yet after-hours allow them to blow off steam with drinking, dancing and romancing.

Part One is gripping as Frankie sheds her naivete and advances her medical skills. Part Two follows her home to an ungrateful, unwelcoming America.  Hannah’s storytelling is strong enough to more than balance occasional writing gaffs, but uneven pacing is more of an issue. Part Two seems underdeveloped, despite its length. —  2 1/2 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker

“The House on Mango Street,” by Sandra Cisneros (Arte Publico Press, 1984)

Hispanic families, known for their emotional intimacy, reveal their benefits as well as their challenges in this trio of stories. Sandra Cisneros earned national attention for this first book of fiction, which includes insights into her journey to success and shows that “coming of age” is a trip for many young people, regardless of their backgrounds or ethnicities. Her work has been called “sensitive, alert, nuanced,” as the reader tracks Esperanza, a young Latina girl, while she grows up in Chicago, and deals with issues of social class, race, sexuality, identity and gender. A best-seller and winner of a number of literary awards, it educates as it entertains. — 4 stars (out of 4); Bonnie McCune, Denver; bonniemccune.com

“The Prospectors,” by Ariel Djanikian (William Morrow, 2023)

This is the story (on the surface) of a family who struck it rich in the Klondike Gold Rush and then amassed great wealth through shrewd investments. It also explores greed, ambition, family loyalty, family secrets and, ultimately, the moral questions of justice for and restitution owed to displaced native peoples. The individual characters are, for the most part, finely drawn and the historical details of life in the Alaskan frontier are captivating.  A fascinatingly good read. — 1 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver

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