7 Best Books Based On True Stories

True stories always lend a book a certain kind of intimacy, you know that these characters and these settings exist in the real world. This denies you the escapism that books normally offer, and instead brings the realm of possibility much closer to you and hence raises the stakes for the reader. But this is also what makes the experience so thrilling, so enchanting and most of all so educating – these are real things that happen to real people and deserve to be known. So, here is a list of the 7 best books based on real stories.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

This Pulitzer Prize winning work is set in a dingy school. Here, two black boys Elwood and Turner face physical, emotional and sexual abuse. The two boys are different in their temperaments and reactions – Elwood is naïve and innocent, and Turner thinks they must emulate their oppressors to rise against them. This is a difficult book to read, and all the more because this is inspired by true events.

Beautiful Exiles by Meg Waite Clayton

This book chronicles and fictionalizes a beautiful, passionate and unstable love affair that took the world by storm in the 20^th century. This is the affair of the great American writer Ernest Hemmingway and journalist Martha Gellhorn.

On The Road by Jack Kerouac

This story is inspired from the real life travels of Jack Kerouac with his friends in America. These people made true the American dream of freedom after the war. This story takes place in the backdrop of jazz, drugs, poetry and adventure, and the other main character is modelled on Jack’s best friend Neal himself.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

This is a true crime classic that deals with the brutal murder of the Clutter family in Kansas in 1959. In this novel, Capote undertakes a deep psychological study of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock as if they were specimens under a microscope. Capote tells this book with precision and vivid detailing. He merges literature with true crime in a book that defines a whole genre.

Lullaby by Leila Slimani

This domestic thriller follows a new mom, Myriam, who decided to go back to work as a lawyer. Thus she and her husband Paul decide to hire a nanny. The nanny is pitch perfect, there is absolutely nothing wrong with her. But soon, this glassy perfect life is shattered, and jealousy, envy and suspicions take hold of their world.

The Other Side of Silence by Urvashi Butalia

This non fiction book is a compilation of the voices that went unheard in history, but those that made up history – the small actors in the Partition of India. This is a sensitive and wonderful book which feels like fiction because Butalia seamlessly merges interview transcripts and stories while deleting the questions. She also tells the stories from the first person without changing their details. So they feel intimate but also very real. But these are very much real, flesh and blood stories that Butalia gathered after a decade of research in the field.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

This book follows a real life murder than took place in Canada, and a woman who was framed for it. It tells the story from the perspective of the jailed murderess, Grace. It also intersperses the narrative of a psychologist who comes to treat her because she is unable to recall the events of the crime. This book is a beautiful and lyrical exploration of something heinous and gory. Margaret deals with this topic with sensitivity and delicacy.

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