What makes The Power so disturbing to read isn’t its graphic scenes of sexual violence, or even its ____, it’s the knowledge that Alderman’s exaggerated reversal of sexism and oppression isn’t as divorced from reality as any of us would like to believe. The novel does an excellent job of making the reader feel increasingly uncomfortable as the world rapidly flips from a patriarchy to a matriarchy and subtle yet pertinent changes in everyday life lead to horrifying results.

The White Tiger’s tale of entrepreneurship in modern India is a dark and witty glimpse into the divisions faced by those living and working in one of the most rapidly changing countries on Earth. In his Booker Prize winning novel, Adiga juggles morality, philosophy, and greed through the story of a driver’s life of servitude to Delhi’s rich and powerful.

From a lavish apartment lit with chandeliers, wanted murderer Balram Halwai writes to the Premier of China to explain the concept of Indian entrepreneurship in the lead-up to a state visit. His letters, through which the narrative is framed, are a confession of the acts he committed to break free from the “rooster coop” of Indian society, taking us from his impoverished childhood to his current status as a wealthy businessman and fugitive from the law.