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We are a global community reading powerful novels and connecting with authors, scholars and humanitarian experts to take action, conduct research, and influence public policy.
read · connect · act · research
Read for Action: The Humanitarian Book Club is a research initiative and global online community reading powerful novels about those affected by climate, conflict and humanitarian crises.
But, we don’t just read. In the book club, we post on instagram and meet on Bookclubs.com and connect with humanitarian policy experts, authors, and readers around the world to discuss, learn, and find ways to take action.
As part of the initiative we also bring together scholars from multiple disciplines to study and research the potential power of fiction to help drive policy change.
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how it works
Throughout the year, Read for Action is active as a global community of readers. We select novels with themes around climate, conflict, and humanitarian crisis to read and discuss together in our Bookclubs and instagram community. As we read, we provide real-time policy briefs and are joined by authors, scholars, activists and humanitarian experts for live discussions connecting the books to present-day challenges and actions we can take!
Read with us in real time or browse content from previous books. All of our materials are free to use for your own classes, book clubs, and events! Check out our conversations about The Displacements, Exit West, How Beautiful We Were, and A Passage North.
reading · connecting · acting
Simultaneously, we team up with scholars from the fields of literature, public policy, and social psychology to conduct research and uncover the potential for fiction to influence policy and prosocial behavior.
Interested scholars and policy experts can connect with us at readforaction@virginia.edu.
researching
our books
Climate, Conflict & Humanitarian Crisis
a passage north
sept. - dec. | 2023
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize - A young man journeys into Sri Lanka’s war-torn north in this searing novel of longing, loss, and the legacy of war from the author of The Story of a Brief Marriage. - Penguin Random House
A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers. - Penguin Random House
exit west
jan. - feb. | 2023
Finalist for the Booker Prize & Winner of the L.A. Times Prize for Fiction - An astonishingly visionary love story that imagines the forces that drive ordinary people from their homes into the uncertain embrace of new lands. - Penguin Random House
the displacements
nov. - dec. | 2022
A suspenseful read plotted on a vast national tapestry, The Displacements thrillingly explores what happens when privilege is lost and resilience is tested in a swiftly changing world. - Penguin Random House
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Follow us on Instagram and Twitter! #readforaction @read_for_action
read
Join us in collectively reading powerful novels which center climate, conflict, and humanitarian crisis.
connect
Join our innovative and dynamic Bookclubs community to discuss the novels with other readers.
act
Take personal and collective actions with us. At scale, we can change the world for the better.
global internal displacement
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) offers preliminary estimates of new displacement events reported in the last 180 days. The provisional data is updated daily with new available data. Read about how IDMC monitors and reports their figures here.
Source: IDMC