The Man in the High Castle
Philip K. Dick · 1928–1982 · United States
Why it matters
An America that lost the Second World War is divided between Japanese and Nazi occupation, while a banned novel imagines an alternate history closer to our own. Alternate history used to interrogate what makes any reality authentic.
At a glance
speculative fictiondystopian
Difficulty 6/10medium pace274 pagesAlternate-history worldbuilding and a novel-within-the-novel conceit.
Deep dive
Why a banned novel-within-the-novel keeps unsettling everyone who reads it, and what the I Ching is really doing embedded in the plot of a book about who gets to write history.
Where to go next
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Ursula K. Le Guin · 1969The Left Hand of DarknessLvl 6Medium pace
Margaret Atwood · 1985The Handmaid's TaleLvl 5Medium pace
Mary Shelley · 1818FrankensteinLvl 4Medium pace