Civilization 12 (Phillips) Cultural Study Through Fiction/Non-Fiction
North American First Nations:
Three Day Road—Joseph Boyden (Ojibway/Cree nation)
River Thieves/The Wreckage/Galore—Michael Crummy (Beothuk/WWII Catholic
Protestant rivalry/Early Newfoundland History)
Book of Negroes—Lawrence Hill (African-American experience)
People of the Lakes (The First Canadians)—Katherine O’Neal Gear
Chesapeake—James Michener (1890s pre-colonial America to 1930s)
Journey—James Michener (1897 trek across Canada to the Klodike for gold)
Asian Civilization:
When My Name Was Keoko/A Single Shard—Linda Sue Park (Korea) along with Sondok:
Princess of the Moon and Stars—Sheri Holman (Korea 6th Century)
Shogun/Tai Pan—James Clavell (Medieval Japan/19th Century Hong Kong)
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms— Gail Tsukiyama (WWII Japan but focus on the
history/art/culture of Noh Theatre and of Sumo wrestling)
Memoirs of a Geisha—Arthur Golden (Modern Japan)
The Snow Warrior—Don Dandrea (Mongol/Ghengis Khan/Subotai)
Snowflower and the Secret Fan—Lisa See (China/Foot binding/Secret female culture)
Shanghai Girls—Lisa See (China 1930s/Ellis Island of the west)
Hermitage Among the Clouds—Thich Nhat Hanh (14th Century Vietnam—royalty/
religion)
European Cultures:
Cry to Heaven—Anne Rice (17th Century Italy/primogeniture/castrati)
In the Company of the Courtesan/Birth of Venus—Sarah Dunant (Renaissance Italy—16th
C. sack of Rome…)
Gods Behaving Badly—Marie Phillips—(Modern day London/Ancient Greece)
Wolf Hall—Hilary Mantel (The story of Thomas Cromwell King Henry VIII’s marriage
fixer and a picture of life in the mid 16th Century)
Brother Cadfael—Ellis Peters (Middle ages monastic life)
Sarum/Rebels of Ireland—William Rutherford (British History 10,000 BCE to 1980s—
epic in scope)
Pillars of the Earth/Fall of the Giants—Ken Follett (12C stone mason/5 Families, WWI
and Russian Rev.)
Mammoth Hunters…--Jean Auel (Pre-history)
Central/South American Civilizations:
Small Island—Andrea Levy (Jamaican immigrant experiences in London in 1950s)
Born to Run—Christopher McDougall (modern day/Tarahumura peoples/Conquistadors)
Middle East
Wanting Mor—Rukhsana Khan (Post Taliban Afghanistan)
Kite Runner/Thousand Splendid Suns—Khalid Hosseini (Afghanistan/Taliban)
River God—Wilbur Smith (Ancient Egypt)
Exodus—Leon Uris (The birth of the state of Israel)
Africa
The Help—Kathryn Stockett (Jackson Mississippi 1960s/three narrative perspectives, 2
black, one white on the plight of the “hired help)
Sacred Hunger—Barry Unsworth (18th C African Slave trade to the west)
Little Bee—Chris Cleave (Nigeria and London)
India
A Fine Balance/Family Matters—Rohinton Mistry (Caste system/Modern day)
Tamarind Mem—Anita Rau Badami (Mother/Daughter alternative narrative/caste system
and plight of women set in various Indian towns)
Russia
Sashenka—Sebag Montefiore (Winter 1916, Russian Revolution)
War and Peace/Anna Karenina…Leo Tolstoy (any of his work)
Dr. Zhivago--Boris Pasternak
Global—Non-Fiction
Misogyny: The World’s Oldest Prejudice—Jack Holland
The Map that Changed the World—Simon Winchester (Bio of William Smith—late
1700s-mid 1800s, birth of Geology…)
Latitude Zero: Tales of the Equator—Gianni Guadalupi & Antony Shugaar (History,
colonies, cultural conflict around the equator—historical and humourous)
The Professor and the Madman—Simon Winchester (The Oxford English Dictionary)
Nine Parts of Desire—Geraldine Brooks (Women’s issues in the Muslim world)
Infidel/Nomad—Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Tribal Somalia)
Kabul Beauty School—Deborah Rodriguez
La Prisoniere (Stolen Lives)—Malika Oufkir (Modern day Morocco)
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier—Ishmael Beah (Sierra Leone)
The Bite of the Mango—Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland (Sierra Leone)
However Tall the Mountain—Awista Ayub (Afghanistan/Taliban/Women/Sports)
A Little Piece of Ground—Elizabeth Laird and Sonia Nimr (Occupied Palestine/
children/soccer)
Kiss the Dust/Garbage King—Elizabeth Laird (Iran, Iraq, Turkey--Kurds/Ethiopia)
Three Wishes—Deborah Ellis
Wild Swans—Jung Chang (China 20th C)
Roughing it in the Bush—Susanna Moodie (pioneering in early Canada)
Stolen: The Journey of a Cree Woman—Rudy Wiebe and Yvonne Johnson (First Nations
issues)