26 1956 novels

The Ascent of Rum Doodle is a short 1956 novel by W. E. Bowman (1911–1985). It is a parody of the non-fictional chronicles of mountaineering expeditions that were popular during the 1950s, as many of the world's highest peaks were climbed for the first time. A new edition was released in 2001 with an introduction by the contemporary humorist Bill Bryson. It has been critically well received. Though a parody, it has become one of the most famous and celebrated books of mountaineering literature.

Chemmeen is a Malayalam novel written by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai in 1956. Chemmeen tells the story of the relationship between Karuthamma, the daughter of a Hindu fisherman, and Pareekutti, the son of a Muslim fish wholesaler. The theme of the novel is a myth among the fishermen communities along the coastal Kerala State in the Southern India. The myth is about chastity. If the married fisher woman was adulterous when her husband was in the sea, the Sea Goddess would consume him. It is to perpetuate this myth that Thakazhi wrote this novel. It was adapted into a film of same name, which won critical acclaim and commercial success.

Chuva Braba is a novel published in 1956 by Cape Verdean author Manuel Lopes. The book was awarded the Fernão Mendes Pinto award. Along with Claridade, Baltazar Lopes participated with Manuel Lopes and Jorge Barbosa with founded members of the review and the name was the movement in the main activists of the same.

A Dangerous Game is a 1956 novel by the Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Its original German title is Die Panne, which means "The breakdown". It is known as Traps in the United States. It tells the story of a traveller who, when his car breaks down, is invited for dinner by a former judge, after which nightmarish developments follow. The work was initially written as a radio play, but was adapted into prose almost immediately. It won the 1956 Blind War Veterans’ Prize for best radio play and the literary award of the newspaper Tribune de Lausanne.

Grande Sertão: Veredas is a novel published in 1956 by the Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa.

The Etruscan is a novel by Mika Waltari, published in 1956, telling of the adventures of a young man, Turms, which begins approximately in 480 BC. It tells of the spiritual development of Turms, as he adventures from Greece to Sicily, then to Rome and then finally to Tuscany, where he learns of his immortality and his duties to the future. There are many actual historical events in this book, but how Turms gets involved in them is fictitious.

The Image is a classic 1956 sadomasochistic erotic novel, written by Catherine Robbe-Grillet and published under the pseudonym of Jean de Berg by éditions de Minuit in 1956.

The Key is a novel written by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki in 1956. The book was translated into English by Howard Hibbett and published by Vintage International Books.

Like One of the Family is a novel by Alice Childress. It was originally published in 1956 by Independence Publishers in Brooklyn, New York. It was re-published by Beacon Press in Boston in 1986. Each chapter, 62 in all, is told from the perspective of Mildred, a domestic worker in New York City, to her friend Marge, also a domestic worker. The chapters originally appeared with the title "Conversation from Life" in the Black Marxist newspaper Freedom, and later were published in the Baltimore Afro-American. Literary scholar Trudier Harris notes that, in creating Mildred, "Childress may have been influenced by Langston Hughes's Jesse B. Simple... a gregarious, beer-loving, bar-hopping Harlemite who shared his adventures in the white world and his homely philosophies."

The Little Man from Archangel,, first published in English by Hamish Hamilton in 1957, is a novel by Georges Simenon.

Luca's Secret is a 1956 romance novel by Ignazio Silone. The romance is set in Marsica, Abruzzo.

Maigret's Failure is a detective novel by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon featuring his famous creation Jules Maigret.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter was a novel written and published in 1956 by American author Edward Streeter. It was preceded in his list of novels by Mr. Hobbs' Vacation in 1954, and followed by Mr. Robbins Rides Again in 1958. It is a humorous view of a successful businessman's methodical approach to "this Christmas business", contrasted with his wife's chiding scorn over his "typical businessman's approach to something beautiful and intangible". The book was published in the fall of 1956 by Harper & Brothers, New York City, and is 181 pages in length in the original edition. The illustrations were by Dorthea Warren Fox. The book is divided into four sections: "October", "November", "December", and "Christmas Eve", which are further divided by numbered chapters. A Reader's Digest Condensed Books edition was also published in the Fall of 1956, with illustrations by Charles Hawes.

Nedjma is a novel by Kateb Yacine published in 1956. It tells the story of four young men who fall in love with Nedjma, daughter of an Algerian and a French woman, during the French colonization of Algeria. It is set in the east of Algeria, with most of the action taking place in the region around Constantine and Annaba.

Not by Bread Alone is a 1956 novel by the Soviet author Vladimir Dudintsev. The novel, published in installments in the journal Novy Mir, was a sensation in the USSR. The tale of an engineer who is opposed by bureaucrats in seeking to implement his invention came to be a literary symbol of the Khrushchev Thaw.

Palace Walk is a novel by Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, and the first installment of Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy. Originally published in 1956 with the title Bayn al-qasrayn, the book was translated into English in 1990. The setting of the novel is Cairo during and just after World War I.

The Room on the Roof is a novel written by Ruskin Bond. It was Bond's first literary venture. Bond wrote the novel when he was seventeen and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. The novel revolves around Rusty, an orphaned seventeen-year-old Anglo-Indian boy living in Dehradun. Due to his guardian, Mr Harrison's strict ways, he runs away from his home to live with his Indian friends.

The Settlers is a novel by Vilhelm Moberg from 1956. It is the third and the longest part of the series The Emigrants.

Sword Stained with Royal Blood is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong. It was first serialised in the Hong Kong newspaper Hong Kong Commercial Daily between 1 January 1956 and 31 December 1956. Since its first publication, the novel has undergone two revisions, with the latest edition being the third. Some characters from the novel play minor roles or are simply mentioned by name in The Deer and the Cauldron, another of Jin Yong's novels.

Tales of a Long Night (1956) is the last novel of German author Alfred Döblin. Set in England immediately after the Second World War, the novel narrates the story of Edward Allison, an English soldier who had been badly wounded during the war. Back among his family, Edward must deal with his war trauma, long buried family conflicts, and his destabilized sense of self. The novel treats such themes as the search for the self, guilt and responsibility, the struggle between the sexes, war and violence, and religion, among others.

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is a novel by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. It was published in 1956 and translated into English by Ivan Morris in 1959.

Train to Pakistan is a historical novel by writer Khushwant Singh, published in 1956. It recounts the Partition of India in August 1947 through the perspective of Mano Majra, a fictional border village.

The Undersea Trilogy is a series of three science fiction novels by American writers Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson. The novels were first published by Gnome Press beginning in 1954. The novels were collected in a single omnibus volume published by Baen Books in 1992. The story takes place in and around the underwater dome city called Marinia. The hero of the stories is cadet Jim Eden of the Sub-Sea Academy.

Viragaya is a 1956 novel written by Martin Wickremasinghe. The novel is considered an outstanding work in modern Sinhalese fiction due to the significance of its theme and the sophistication of its technique. The story is based on a virtuous character called Aravinda, a Sinhalese youth raised in a traditional Buddhist family in the South.

A Wreath for Udomo is a 1956 novel by South African novelist Peter Abrahams. The novel follows a London-educated black African, Michael Udomo, who returns to Africa to become a revolutionary leader in the fictional country of Panafrica and is eventually martyred. The novel explores a revolutionary politics, exploring the diversity of actors and political communities needed to overcome colonial oppression.

Zama is a 1956 novel by Argentine writer Antonio di Benedetto. Existential in nature, the plot centers around the eponymous Don Diego de Zama, a minor official of the colonial Spanish Empire stationed in remote Paraguay during the late 18th century and his attempts to receive a long-awaited promotion and transfer to Buenos Aires in the face of personal and professional stagnation. Di Benedetto drew heavily from Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. These existential themes of inward and outward stasis because of circumstance drive the novel's narrative as being constantly in motion yet never changing. Together with two of his other novels, El silenciero (1964) and Los suicidas (1969), Zama has been published as part of Benedetto's informal La trilogía de la espera. The novel is considered by various critics to be a major work of Argentine literature.