Readers on their favourite books of 2020: 'I’ve given it to everyone I know'
Guardian readers
In Caste, Wilkerson explains why racism thrives and not just thrives, but is actively institutionalised and why white privilege must be recognised … reading Caste helped me see the inequities within MY own society, how many patriarchal cultures and religious blackmail are a serious detriment to the progress of African societies and how, if we do not change the system, we will continue to be disenfranchised and held back in chains forged by our own hands.
Umaymah Abdullahi, Nigeria
Shuggie Bain takes the crown for me this year. I think about Shuggie and Agnes almost daily, and the cycle of poverty, addiction and abuse. I quit drinking in April during the initial lockdown and read it in September and it really struck a chord. It’s incredibly well written and devastating but beautiful at the same time.