Just as important, the emotion it stirs moves us to seek more information. When fiction is well-grounded in reality, it can give rise to understanding. And art just as assuredly helps us make sense of the world we inhabit. First, because perspective is grounding-though it feels as though we live in especially challenging times, things could certainly be worse! And second, because truth is both stranger than fiction and where imagination takes flight. I find this trend, and my own love of reading fiction inspired by true events, reassuring. It’s no coincidence that the majority of the 2022 Booker Prize shortlist was directly inspired by real events-from a charismatic dictator’s fall and civil war in Sri Lanka to an abusive home for Ireland’s “fallen women” and the murder of teenager Emmett Till in the United States, the past (near or far) is a driving presence in much of today’s most compelling literature.
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