Salman Rushdie’s upcoming novel Golden House takes place in the rise of the Trump era, tackling issues like love, terrorism, hatred and politics head on. If art is a mirror held up to nature, then here are some of the best examples of novels that reflect current issues shaping the world.

Autumn by Ali Smith

The first book in Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet takes place in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote and describes a country divided. In the small country village where the protagonist grew up, neighbours no longer speak to one another and the words ‘Go Home’ have been spray-painted on the home of a family of immigrants. Smith herself is careful not to take a side in the debate, but focuses instead on how the community might heal the rift, saying hope is ‘…a matter of how we deal with the negative acts toward human beings by other human beings in the world, remembering that they and we are all human’.

The Hate u Give by Angie Thomas

Angie Thomas’ remarkable debut YA novel tells the story of a 16-year-old girl named Starr who straddles two worlds – the poor black neighbourhood where she lives, and the gentrified, mostly-white school that she attends with her brothers. One night as she’s heading home from a party, Starr witnesses the fatal police shooting of her childhood friend Kahlil. His death quickly makes national headlines, pitching Starr head-first into a conflict that threatens both sides of her community. Our reviewer says: ‘Thomas’s book is raw and honest, but it’s also accessible and has moments of genuine warmth that made me glow inside. I highly recommend.’

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon

This critically acclaimed YA novel from Zana Fraillon addresses the issue of Australia’s detention policy by giving the refugee crisis an immediate, and intensely human, face. Subhi is a young Rohingya refugee who has spent his entire life behind the chain link fence of a detention centre. While tensions within the camp are reaching a breaking point Subhi is blithely unaware, preoccupied by his developing friendship with Jimmie – a girl from Outside, who’s somehow managed to find a way in (and out) – of the camp.

The Futures by Anna Pitoniak

Life holds nothing but promise for the young couple at the heart of Anna Pitoniak’s debut novel. Julia and Evan met and fell in love while attending Yale together, and after graduation they find themselves in New York City, eager to start the next chapter in apparently charmed lives. But the year is 2008 and it is the dawn of the global financial crisis. When the market starts to crash and the banks begin to fail, the couple’s carefully constructed future begins to crumble around them.

This is How it Always is by Laurie Frankel

This is How it Always is is an intensely personal novel for author Laurie Frankel, whose own child transitioned in first grade. When Rosie and Penn welcome a fifth son into their loving and energetic family, no-one anticipates that three years later Claude will announce that when he grows up, he wants to be a girl. As far as Rosie and Penn are concerned, bright, funny and wonderful Claude can be whoever he or she wants. But as problems begin at school and in the community, the family faces a seemingly impossible dilemma: should Claude change, or should they and Claude try to change the world?

The Easy Way Out by Steven Amsterdam

Award-winning writer Steven Amsterdam explores the controversial topic of voluntary euthanasia in this multi-layered novel. Set in the not-too-distant-future, this store centres on Evan, a nurse whose job entails assisting suicides as part of the controversial – if legal – new euthanasia laws. Our reviewer writes: ‘Amsterdam’s writing encourages discussion and in the end asks the question: what would you do? This is a brilliant, compelling novel that is confronting, courageous and genuinely moving.’

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Naomi Alderman was selected as a protégé by Margaret Atwood in 2012, and it’s an apt partnership. While there’s been a lot of press recently on the prescient nature of The Handmaid’s Tale, Alderman’s The Power is a glorious inverse companion piece that sees young women evolving the ability to generate and conduct massive arcs of energy from their fingertips. This dangerous weapon, now in the hands of a gender that been downtrodden, exploited and abused for generations, leads to a seismic shift in power, and the rise of women is a far from bloodless coup for either side. Full of observations on gender politics, power, religion and violence, Alderman’s novel is also a rip-roaring, fast paced thriller.

American War by Omar El Akkad

Omar El Akkad is an award-winning journalist who has written on major world events including the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt and the Black Lives Matter movement in Missouri. In American War, he turns his attention to global warming, modern warfare, and our reliance on fossil fuels, positing a grim future in which the United States turns its cruellest policies and deadliest weapons on its own citizens.

An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire

The timely and powerful Australian novel examines the media’s obsession with morality, beautiful dead girls, and the prevalence of everyday violence in modern society. Bella Michaels is the kind of murder victim that newspapers love: a pretty, popular nurse. When Bella’s mutilated body is discovered, her older sister – the disreputable, divorced bartender, Chris – is thrust unwillingly into the spotlight. For author Emily Maguire this book came out of her frustration about media coverage about murdered women rarely acknowledged the pattern of male violence against women.

Lian Hingee