Today, poverty prevails as the gravest human rights challenge in the world. Combating poverty, deprivation and exclusion is not a matter of charity, and it does not depend on how rich a country is.
By tackling poverty as a matter of human rights obligation, the world will have a better chance of abolishing this scourge in our lifetime...Poverty eradication is an achievable goal.
Louise Arbour
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
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To honor Human Rights Day 2007 a Colorado Public Librarian has compiled a list of fiction that encourages discussion.
Books selected that address poverty:
Alexie, Sherman. Lone ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven
Alexie, Sherman. Reservation blues
Allison, Dorothy. Bastard out of Carolina
Arnow, Harriet. Dollmaker
Auster, Paul. Timbuktu
Bell, Madison. Ten Indians
Blaine, Michael. Midnight band of mercy
Bridges, Sue Ellen. Home before dark
Brown, Larry. Rabbit factory
Browne, Larry .Joe
Caldwell, Erskine Tobacco road
Coles, Robert, ed. Growing up poor: a literary anthology
Cookson, Catherine Fifteen streets
Crane, Stephen Maggie, a girl of the streets
Deb,Sidhartha Point of return
Dickens, Charles Oliver Twist
Dickens, Charles Our mutual friend
Dorris, Michael Yellow raft in the blue water
Fante, John 1931 was a bad year
Fante, John Ask the dust
Fowler, Connie May Before women had wing
George, Elizabeth What came before he shot her
Gershsten, Donna M Kissing the virgin's mouth
Hamsen, Knut Hungar
Hurston, Zora Neale Seraph on the Suwanee, Selec
Johnston, Michael In the deep heart's core
Kingsolver, Barbara Homeland and other stories
Lee, Gus China boy
Lovelace, Earl Dragon can't dance
Mankell, Henni Chronicler of the winds
Markandaya, Kamala Nectar in a sieve
McCourt, Frank Angela's ashes
Moore, Ann Gracelin O'Malley
Morris, Mary McGarry Songs in ordinary times
Ong, Han Disinherited
Oates, Joyce Carol Them
Ondaaje, Micheal In the skin of a lion
Orwell, George Down and out in Paris and London
Parks, Suzann Lori Getting mother's body
Phillips, Dolores Darkest child
Porter, Connie Rose Imani all mine
Sapphire Push: a novel
Sherwood, Frances Book of splendor
Steinbeck, John Grapes of wrath
Steinbeck, John Cannery row
Steinbeck, John Tortilla flat
Syal, Mira Anita and me
Walker, Alice Color purple
Wideman, John Edgar Two cities
Woodrell, Daniel Death of sweet mister
Woodrell, Daniel Winters bone
