This page will introduce you to novels set in American religious communities. These texts must always be taught as literary fictions, not transparent representations of reality, but students can nevertheless learn a great deal about the religious lives and experiences of diverse Americans by reading novels set in diverse communities.
Most of these texts are appropriate for high school students. If you’re looking for books for younger students, you might want to check out the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature or the ADL’s list of multicultural and anti-bias books for children. These lists are not focused on religious diversity, per se, but they include books for younger readers that speak to the religious experiences of diverse Americans. Also, you can click here for a list of short stories exploring faith, religion, and tradition, many of which are available to download as pdfs.
Finally, please note that this is not a comprehensive or carefully curated list. We’ve included texts that speak to diverse faith traditions, but we certainly haven’t covered everything. We would love to hear your suggestions of additional texts to include, as well as your thoughts or concerns about any of the texts on the list.
Buddhism and Buddhist Communities
The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac | |
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka | |
You Are Not Here and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction edited by Keith Kachtick |
Folk Religion in Chinese-American Communities
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston | |
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan |
Christianity and Christian Communities
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy’s discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin’s rendering of his protagonist’s spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves. | |
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather | |
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner | |
Children of God: An American Epic by Vardis Fisher | |
Evensong by Gail Godwin | |
Father Melancholy’s Daughter by Gail Godwin | |
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving | |
The Crucible by Arthur Miller | |
The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor | |
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor | |
Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult | |
Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds | |
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson | |
A Little Lower Than Angels by Virginia Sorensen |
Hinduism and Hindu Communities
The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi | |
The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan |
Islam and Muslim Communities
Once in a Promised Land by Laila Halaby This is the story of Jassim and Salwa, who left the deserts of their native Jordan for those of Arizona. Although the couple live far from Ground Zero, they cannot escape the dust cloud of paranoia settling over the nation. When Jassim kills a teenage boy in a terrible accident and Salwa becomes hopelessly entangled with a shadowy young American, their tenuous lives in exile and their fragile marriage begin to unravel. | |
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini | |
The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf by Mohja Kahf | |
Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos. | |
Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim. | |
The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight |
Judaism and Jewish Communities
The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham Hemmed in by the strict codes of her Orthodox Jewish upbringing, the daughter of a rabbi escapes to the world of romance novels and begins to chafe at her family and her faith. | |
Herzog by Saul Bellow | |
The Chosen by Chaim Potok | |
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok | |
Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth | |
Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska | |
Mazel by Rebecca Goldstein |
Native American Spiritual Traditions and Communities
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris | |
Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King | |
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko |
Complex Ties Between Christianity and Native American Traditions
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will test the bonds that tie him to his people, and discover himself in the pagan past, in his father’s wisdom, and in his mother’s Catholicism. | |
Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks | |
So Far From God by Ana Castillo | |
The Rain God by Arturo Islas | |
Drowning in Fire by Craig Womack |
African Diaspora Spirit Traditions and Communities
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwige Danticat | |
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd | |
Beloved by Toni Morrison |
Interfaith Issues and American Religious Politics
The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman | |
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence | |
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker |
Un-Definable American Spirituality, and Too Lovely to Leave Out
Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger |