Five Essential Books to Understand and Confront Gender-Based Violence
Gender-based violence is one of the most pervasive violations of human rights worldwide, cutting across geographies, cultures, and historical periods. Literature has long served as a space where this violence can be named, examined, resisted, and transformed into collective awareness. Through fiction, memoir, testimony, and poetic voice, authors across continents have confronted the structural roots of misogyny and the everyday realities of its impact.
This curated reading list brings together five powerful works (plus a poetry “bonus track”) that explore gender-based violence from markedly different angles: dystopian imagination, judicial injustice, intimate partner abuse, femicide, and the reconstruction of trauma.
Each text is both an artistic achievement and a political act. Some have received prestigious literary recognition, others have become cornerstones of feminist thought, and all remain essential to understanding how violence against women is perpetuated and how it can be resisted.
This list is offered as a tool for awareness, education, and dialogue: a starting point for anyone who wants to confront gender-based violence through the transformative lens of literature.
A Jury of Her Peers (1917), by Susan Glaspell
Based on Glaspell’s earlier play Trifles, this classic short story examines domestic violence through a murder case in which women uncover the truth ignored by male investigators.
Susan Glaspell (USA), Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright (for Alison’s House), is considered a foundational figure in American feminist literature. This story remains a landmark in discussions on gender, justice, and silence.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), by Margaret Atwood
Atwood’s dystopian novel imagines a theocratic regime where women are reduced to reproductive roles, exposing the mechanisms of patriarchal control and state violence. Its chilling vision continues to resonate as a global feminist warning.
Margaret Atwood, Canadian author, twice won the Booker Prize (for other works). The Handmaid’s Tale has earned multiple international awards and inspired an Emmy-winning TV adaptation.
When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife (2017), by Meena Kandasamy
A searing autofictional account of domestic abuse, exploring how violence is sustained by cultural, political, and ideological structures. Kandasamy turns personal trauma into sharp, poetic resistance.
Meena Kandasamy is an Indian poet, novelist, and activist known for her feminist and anti-caste writing. The novel was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2018.
The Invincible Summer of Liliana (2021), by Cristina Rivera Garza (Original title: El invencible verano de Liliana)
A hybrid of memoir, investigation, and elegy, the book reconstructs the femicide of the author’s sister Liliana, exposing systemic violence and the failures of justice in Mexico. A work of memory, rage, and political demand.
Cristina Rivera Garza, Mexican writer and scholar, is an internationally acclaimed author. The book won the Premio Xavier Villaurrutia and was listed among the best books of the year by major newspapers.
Sad Tiger (2023), by Neige Sinno (Original title: Triste tigre)
A bold and unflinching autobiographical narrative about childhood sexual abuse and its lifelong reverberations, written with both vulnerability and formal experimentation.
Neige Sinno, French-Mexican writer, gained wide recognition with this book, which won the Prix Femina 2023, the Prix du Livre Inter 2024, and several major literary awards.
First Storm (2007), by Susana Chávez Castillo (Original title: Primera tormenta)
A poetic meditation on resistance, vulnerability, and gendered violence, written by the Mexican poet and activist whose life and death became symbols of the fight against femicide.
Susana Chávez Castillo was a poet and human-rights activist from Ciudad Juárez, known for coining the slogan “Ni una muerta más”. Her work is widely cited in feminist movements across Latin America.
This material forms part of the complete deliverable D1.5 – Production of original multimedia contents: research, studies, archival materials, testimonies of witnesses.