6 Books That Will Convince You That Good Men Do Exist

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'Men are scum’ and ‘Good men are hard to find’ are common refrains in conversations about men—and for good reason. Feminists have already brilliantly explicated how masculinity is constructed in caustic opposition to femininity, and there is enough evidence to prove this. However, it is important to point out that there are good men out there—not in the ‘not all men’ sense which seeks only to dismiss feminist arguments, but to provide a true, circumspect view of the human condition, a project that literature helps to realize.

In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of books that will convince you that good men exist. From the former colonial officer who turns against the empire to care for a tortured native woman to the loving father whose unwavering support encourages his daughter’s intellectual curiosity, the men in the books on this list challenge the prevailing stereotypes about men.

Read our recommendations below:

waiting for the barbarians

AUTHOR: j. m. coetzee

GENRE: Fiction

In this allegorical novel, Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee shows us that change is possible even when you have been complicit in horrible acts. The unnamed Magistrate of a frontier town of an unnamed empire, initially complicit in the colonial project, undergoes a profound transformation when he witnesses the brutality of imperial torture and oppression. Rather than continuing to look away, he chooses to act according to his conscience, even though it costs him everything.