The Book of Joan

How it reads

The Book of Joan is science fiction (literary dystopian science fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in an invented world, in the future, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are war, power and politics and survival. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.