A book about a well known bad event

[Anne]

Examples are many - the holocaust, salem witch trials, various and sundry assassinations...

Share your challenge books about bad events here.

[Nancy]

by Daniel Mendelsohn. Mendelsohn painstakingly documents his search for the fates of his great-uncle and -aunt and four of his mother's first cousins, who were known to have disappeared during the Holocaust.

[Danielle]

Girl in the Bluecoat by Monica Hesse

It's about a girl living in Amsterdam during WWII

[Ducky]

El Paso. It's about the Mexican Revolution

[Kelly B]

A novel about the infamous Josef Mengele ("Angel of Death") and his horrific experiments on twins at Auschwitz.

[Spirit-Soul-Body]

Manvi Ni Bhavai (માનવી ની ભવાઇ)
by Panalal Patel

is based on 1856 famine in Gujarat, India.

[Spirit-Soul-Body]

King Rat by James Clavell

It is historical fiction about WWII POW camp.

[Spirit-Soul-Body]

Lajja: Shame by Taslima Nasrin

It is about 1992-93 riots.

[Spirit-Soul-Body]

I Had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives by Roberto Canessa



Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parrado Vince Rause


Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read


based on 1972 plane crash in the Andes

[Adriana]

Kindred by Octavia Butler hits on the realities of slavery with a sci-fi twist.

[Cyndy]

I read Murder in Little Egypt by Darcy O'Brien. A doctor was accused and convicted of killing one of his four sons. Little Egypt is an area in southern Illinois. People from the area raised money to defend the doctor. The murder took place in 1984, in Saint Louis, but the jurors were brought in from Kansas City. Doctor, murdered son, and jurors from across the state made this a well known event in the Midwest. The doctor was also suspected of killing another son several years earlier. This reads more like a story than a biography of the incident. It struck me that way, at least - not that I read lots of true crime novels. There is a lot of historical information about the area, as well as about the doctor. How can a father kill his son and possibly two of his sons? I think I sort of understand why the doctor killed his son, but I still don't understand what made the doctor the way he was. Not a page turner or edge of your seat thriller, but an interesting read.

[Amanda]

The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian
I love stories about Titanic and this book fell nothing short of excellent!! This book was about the nearby ship The SS Californian that failed to respond to the Titanic's distress rockets on the night the ship sank. I have always been fascinated by this topic and what could have been if only they had ignored giving aid to the crew and passengers that fateful night.