Books where we becomes intimately familiar with, and become emotionally invested in a given population without reliance on connection to protagonist(s)

It's common for some stories that we only care about the main cast, whether a tragedy affects the main cast emotionally, or care about a stand-in that represents a given population when tragedy occurs.

I'm looking to read fiction where we become intimately familiar with an entire town, city, village, or large group of peoples and feel that I not only know them intimately but their suffering is well explored and hurts me emotionally. A recent book I read that I felt succeeded with this was Germinal. It felt like there were dozens of laborers we learn of and they all feel like the represent their population in some way. And more importantly they had moments of solidarity and conflict amongst each other, introducing agency. Are there any books similar to this that anyone suggests?

Adult fiction only please.