Best-selling books… Three translated novels that seek to achieve sustainable development goals

Best-selling books A mirror of what people read with interest and passion, and this concept enters many areas of reading among young people and adults. Among these areas is the field of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals socially, economically and environmentally, an area in which there are many best-selling books; Books that deal directly with climate and all dimensions of development.

And in this article – Best-selling books… Three translated novels that achieve the Sustainable Development Goals – We link the lists of Best-selling books and the Sustainable Development Goals to all… Its different dimensions, and we read with you three translated international novels that helped redraw our relationship with planet Earth. So keep reading.

What is your best seller?

First, we should understand what is the best seller in the field of books and novels, and it means the title or product that topped sales in a store, category, or country at a specific time. In books, specifically, it means a title that sold more copies than others on a particular list, such as the novel The Alchemist by Portuguese Paulo Coelho, which sold more than 100 million copies!

Here in this article, we mean to share with you a number of novels that draw the world’s attention to the economic and environmental crises that our planet is facing in recent decades that hinder the desired social development, especially since ideas of sustainability can be achieved – through a story or narrative narrative. What is interesting is to reach an audience that technical reports do not reach.

Three Sustaining Novels

We selected novels that demonstrated interest in sustainability and its goals; That sustainability begins with the reader’s awareness of what might happen when the balance between man and his land is disturbed. That is, the novel – and literature in general – allows him to live the results before they happen. He sees the rise of the sea, the reversal of the seasons, and the deterioration of resources.

Before we review these three novels for you, you – readers of Earth Guards – should know that the practical benefit for the reader is to read each novel as an introduction to a question, not a ready-made answer. After completing it, he can ask himself which development goal seems closest to what he read, and what he can do in his immediate environment.

The Wall: When the Sun Rises

The novel The Wall by its author, John Lanchester, deals with a problem that has troubled the inhabitants of the northern part of the globe, which is the problem of mass migration from the southern part of the continent, escaping poverty and famine. Due to social, economic and environmental crises caused by climate change.

What you add to the reader

This discussion is relevant to Goal 10: Reducing inequalities; Because the climate here does not threaten everyone equally, and climate action is inseparable from social justice, solutions that protect borders and leave people outside them are not truly sustainable.

Good Earth: Green Earth

“The Good Earth,” which was published in 1931, tells the story of The story of a poor Chinese farmer named Wang Long, who sees in his land the source of livelihood and the reason for survival. In this novel, the American writer Pearl Buck depicted rural life in China with precise daily details. It conveyed to the reader what it means for a person to live from his field and depend on it.

How to read it honestly

The novel touches – in one way or another – on the goals of sustainable development in terms of land and food. Because it is linked to Goal 2: Zero Hunger, as it shows that food security may turn into a crisis when nature becomes harsh and support is absent, and Goal 15: Life on Land; Because it reminds us of the value of agricultural land as a source of food security.

About ants and dinosaurs: civilizations collapse

The events of the novel “Of Ants and Dinosaurs,” written by Liu “Zi Shen” dates back to the late Cretaceous period, to tell the story of two civilizations: the civilization of ants and the civilization of dinosaurs, and make them a metaphor for human civilizations that flourish and then collapse, and link the distant past with contemporary issues such as environmental pollution and the damage of nuclear weapons.

What you add to the reader

The novel was published in its Arabic translated version in 2024 in 172 pages, and in general it is a general warning about the fate of the Earth if the same path continues, which is still far from achieving the goals of sustainability on the ground more effectively.

A table showing the ideas of the three novels and their relationship to the sustainable development goals

Where do you start?

Therefore, I advise you Earth Guards – for the sake of an enjoyable and useful read – to read the novel The Wall if you want a direct atmosphere that links migration and poverty to climate, and you can choose “The Good Earth” if you prefer the literature of eastern rural societies, and “On Ants.” And dinosaurs” if you want a broader warning about the fate of civilizations that could be harmed by climate change over thousands of years.

And from here All three narratives are important in the debate on the Sustainable Development Goals. It allows the reader to see the links that may be absent from numbers and reports, those links that exist between environmental disruption and the security of societies, and between the depletion of resources and opportunities for survival.

Regarding the above, the point of view of The Earth Guards Foundation is that literary novels – and books in general – may change the way people understand the world; Therefore, including literature within sustainability awareness paths gives current and future generations the space to imagine the future before a high cost is imposed on them, provided that the experience does not stop at admiring the story. Until awareness moves from the pages of literature to the reality of sustainable development.