Books like Behind You Is the Sea — picked by fans

This was probably one of the most intense experiences with non-linear storytelling I ever had, and that did something to me I could not have predicted.

In fact, while reading this book, I started to turn the story into something of a philosophical discourse in my head. 

I really like how this book is at the same time utterly insane in parts—and I do say that with the greatest respect, it‘s the good kind of insane—while at the same time, it explores themes of dealing with earth-shattering events on a very individual level.

For me, the icing on the cake is that Kurt Vonnegut manages to even mix in a little history lesson there, because that bombing of the prisoners in Dresden? That did happen. And I didn‘t even learn about it in school—I learned it from this novel!

This book is one of the most haunting accounts of war I've ever read. Through the eyes of Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier, Remarque immerses you in the horrific realities of World War I. The sheer brutality of trench warfare, the disillusionment with nationalism, and the emotional devastation of losing comrades all play out in a way that feels as immediate now as it must have been when the book was first published. My grandfather fought in the First World War, and though he never spoke about it, I believe the emotional scars he carried shaped who he became. All Quiet makes me think about how those invisible wounds persist today—worldwide. War may evolve regarding weapons and strategies, but the psychological impact is chillingly consistent.

This novel isn’t just about the battlefield. It’s about the inner lives of soldiers and the way war corrupts not just bodies but minds,… show more.

This book spans generations and continents, from Grenada to North America, exploring the intergenerational legacies of colonialism, revolution, and survival. Collins writes–using fiction and poetry–about the immigration journey of Louise Langdon Norton Little, mother of the activist Malcolm X, a Grenadian woman born in a small rural village in a deeply colonial society that offered little to no education for working-class children.

She emigrated to the US through Canada and became involved in the black civil rights movement led by activist Marcus Garvey. She embraced the black civil rights and the women’s revolutions while struggling with the realities of home life and inequality within the sexes. With minimal facts to go on, Collins, a distinguished Canadian novelist, creates a profoundly moving work that reveals the heroism and tragedy of a life spent battling sexism, racism, and colonialism while finding her voice and purpose.

Collins illustrates how the violence of the… show more.

This book is an eye-opening look into modern warfare, particularly in the context of Colombia and America’s military involvement there. Klay, a veteran himself, writes with a moral clarity that brings home the idea that war is never just a localized conflict—it’s part of a much bigger web of power, politics, and personal ambition. The novel follows multiple perspectives, from American soldiers to Colombian civilians, each grappling with their role in the chaos.

What I found most compelling is how Klay shows the ripple effects of violence—how decisions made in one corner of the world can devastate communities thousands of miles away. This book intimates tough questions about the ethics of intervention and how far-reaching the consequences of these decisions can be. It’s an intimate, often painful look at how war transforms individuals, and it challenges us to think about the cost of global conflict—not just for those on the… show more.

I had to throw at least one fiction book on my list.

Etaf Rum is a Palestinian-American novelist with a talent for revealing difficult truths through beautifully written stories about women. Evil Eye addresses generational trauma, the taboos surrounding mental health care, and the discouragement that keeps women from standing up for themselves.

I love the way the protagonist explores herself and what she really wants out of her life instead of what everyone expects from her. Rum’s characters are relatable and complex, creating one of the best books I read in 2023. 

Nye’s poems are at once complex and accessible. Even the poems that are easy to read offer hidden depths, reflecting the powerful connections that we share as a family and as part of both local and global communities. She strips away the differences in culture and value, reminding us that to be fully human we, like Fowzi the fool (from the poem “Different Ways to Pray”), still need to talk to our version of G-d as easily as we talk to goats. Of Palestinian-American heritage, Nye’s gentle, insightful words offer the hope that somehow, we’ll find a way to be kind to those who are different from us.

Finkelstein is the son of holocaust survivors and explains so meticulously how terribly Israel has treated the people of Gaza since occupying it in 1967. Two-thirds of its two million Palestinian inhabitants are refugees, and more than half its population is under 18. Israel has not only systematically destroyed the Gazan economy turning into “the world’s largest open-air prison camp,” But it has launched no fewer than nine military operations against Gaza – including Operation Cast Lead in 2008 and Operation Protective Edge in 2014 with its latest bout of savage bombing all but destroying the place altogether.

This may seem an unconventional pick because it’s a book of poetry. But it’s narrative poetry, and it affects me deeply every time I read it. Mosab Abu Toha is from Gaza, a place saturated in grief, an unending kind of grief where no one ever has the luxury of healing because death follows death follows death, and displacement follows displacement.

The book was published before the most devastating attacks of 2023-2024, and reflects on deaths and destruction from prior bombing campaigns. It repeatedly asks, in the most detailed and profound ways, how to grieve one’s home and homeland, how to process one death after another, and how to remember and hold onto details about people and places when almost every physical remnant is destroyed or displaced.

It also contemplates how to grieve while directly facing one’s own mortality and vulnerability. The first poem, Palestine A-Z, is a 10-page catalog… show more.

In novels and non-fiction, Israeli author David Grossman has spent much of his career writing about the failed struggle for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

This series of essays, written over a period of years, chronicles moments of goodwill and hope on both sides, constantly undermined by sectarian passion and extremist opposition to peace. 

What I love in Hiller’s writing is the no-glory honesty of growing up in settings of omniscient violence where the last wish of the protagonists is to be heroic. They are vulnerable young men trying to get by, to do the right thing, to find calm.

This book and its sister book, Shake Off, are some of the finest works of fiction set during political conflict and war that I have read. Hiller’s gracious enough as to refrain from indulging in the gratuitous or the showy, but these are finely crafted thrillers. They are both equally gripping, taking the reader through worlds rarely seen by English language readers.