Nora Helmer starts out as a perfectly compliant wife and mother in this 1879 drama, but a life-threatening ordeal drives her to break out of convention

His meditation on nature and creativity encourages readers to turn away from purposeful activity and embrace the ‘profound harmlessness’ of natural life

The story of a 19th-century office worker who manages to refuse the rules of his society without ever saying no is a story of metaphysical defiance

This strange tale of a quixotic young man disturbing the equilibrium of a Norwegian town also disturbed accepted ways of depicting inner life

John Updike’s disappointed young man dreams of escaping a workaday existence in a way that’s still familiar nearly 60 years on

This satire of life in the early years of the Soviet Union cost its author dear at the time and it has not lost its provocative power

The shifting climate and authoritarian politics of Sarah Hall’s 2007 novel seem alarmingly familiar 10 years on

The philosopher’s laconic, lyrical memoir displays an unsettling yet wholly inspirational vigour in the face of life-threatening disease

Audre Lorde’s courageous account of her breast cancer defies how women are expected to deal with sickness, accepting pain and a transformed sense of self

Nikesh Shukla’s collection of essays by minority British writers makes it plain why the UK is long overdue for a more diverse self-defintion

Defying the genteel harness of Edwardian spinsterhood, this novel’s heroine instead becomes a witch and dallies with Satan himself

Written in the Thatcher era, Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s story of standing up to dystopian authority has lost none of its relevance

The author’s searing memoir of growing up in a violent, fundamentalist household shows how defiance is sometimes a silent process

Yeong-hye is a marginal presence in the lives of those around her, and even in this book, until she makes a decision that challenges and changes everything

Forget about the author’s wartime mistakes, the way Bertie tackles Mosley-esque thug Roderick Spode is a great lesson in sending up would-be despots

This story about the near extinction of men demands bold defiance from its hero – and launches a new blog series about books that are challenging in all senses