Reading path
Empires and Their Ruins
Literature about the rise and fall of civilisations and the human wreckage left in their wake. Empires build, conquer, and collapse, and the people caught inside them are forced to remake their identities from whatever survives. This path gathers writers from both sides of the colonial divide: those who watched an old world crumble and those who fought to build a new one on its ruins. The politics are never abstract. They live in bodies, in families, in the streets.
In the app a path keeps your place, marks what you have read, and hands you the next work when you are ready for it.
The first button needs the app on this device; the second gets it there.
The route
- 1. OzymandiasPercy Bysshe Shelley, 1818
- 2. One Thousand and One NightsAnonymous, 1400
- 3. Memoirs of HadrianMarguerite Yourcenar, 1951
- 4. Heart of DarknessJoseph Conrad, 1899
- 5. Lord JimJoseph Conrad, 1900
- 6. NostromoJoseph Conrad, 1904
- 7. A Passage to IndiaE.M. Forster, 1924
- 8. ZamaAntonio Di Benedetto, 1956
- 9. The Cairo TrilogyNaguib Mahfouz, 1957
- 10. Things Fall ApartChinua Achebe, 1958
- 11. The LeopardGiuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 1958
- 12. Season of Migration to the NorthTayeb Salih, 1966
- 13. Midnight's ChildrenSalman Rushdie, 1981
- 14. My Name Is RedOrhan Pamuk, 1998
- 15. DisgraceJ.M. Coetzee, 1999
- 16. The Bridge on the DrinaIvo Andrić, 1945
- 17. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoJunot Diaz, 2007
- 18. Arrow of GodChinua Achebe, 1964
- 19. King Solomon's MinesH. Rider Haggard, 1885
- 20. A Fine BalanceRohinton Mistry, 1995
- 21. The LusiadLuís Vaz Camões, 1572
- 22. Quo VadisHenryk Sienkiewicz, 1895
- 23. KaputtCurzio Malaparte, 1944
- 24. I, ClaudiusRobert Graves, 1934
- 25. EmbersSandor Marai, 1942
- 26. Out of AfricaIsak Dinesen, 1937
- 27. VThomas Pynchon, 1963
- 28. The God of Small ThingsArundhati Roy, 1997
- 29. The House of the SpiritsIsabel Allende, 1982
- 30. Waiting for the BarbariansJ.M. Coetzee, 1980
- 31. Burmese DaysGeorge Orwell, 1934
- 32. KimRudyard Kipling, 1901
- 33. Romance of the Three KingdomsGuanzhong Luo, 1400
- 34. Martín FierroJosé Hernández, 1872
- 35. The Joys Of MotherhoodBuchi Emecheta, 1979
- 36. Half of a Yellow SunChimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2006
- 37. The Famished RoadBen Okri, 1991
- 38. Zayni BarakatJamal al-Ghitani, 1974
- 39. Cantares MexicanosAnonymous, 1585
- 40. The Labyrinth of SolitudeOctavio Paz, 1950
- 41. Picnic at Hanging RockJoan Lindsay, 1967
- 42. Ambiguous AdventureCheikh Hamidou Kane, 1961
- 43. CarpentariaAlexis Wright, 2006
- 44. ChakaThomas Mofolo, 1925
- 45. Explosion In A CathedralAlejo Carpentier, 1962
- 46. God's Bits of WoodOusmane Sembène, 1960
- 47. LandPak Kyongni, 1969
- 48. Max HavelaarMultatuli, 1860
- 49. The Most Secret Memory Of MenMohamed Mbougar Sarr, 2021
- 50. The Radetzky MarchJoseph Roth, 1932
- 51. They Were CountedMiklos Banffy, 1934
- 52. True History of the Kelly GangPeter Carey, 2000
- 53. VossPatrick White, 1957
- 54. A Bend in the RiverV.S. Naipaul, 1979
- 55. Black Lamb and Grey FalconRebecca West, 1941
- 56. Eminent VictoriansLytton Strachey, 1918
- 57. The Gate of Heavenly PeaceJonathan Spence, 1981
- 58. West With the NightBeryl Markham, 1942
- 59. The History of the Peloponnesian WarThucydides, 410 BCE
- 60. Hadji MuratLeo Tolstoy, 1912
- 61. La DébâcleÉmile Zola, 1892
- 62. HellasPercy Bysshe Shelley, 1822
- 63. A Grain Of WheatNgũgĩ wa Thiong’o, 1967
- 64. Love In A Fallen CityEileen Chang, 1943
- 65. Royal Commentaries of the IncasInca Garcilaso de la Vega, 1609