It seemed clear from the outset that although a large part of this book is supposedly set in Saigon, there was never going to be all that much local colour or Vietnamese culture depicted in this novel. It is very...
In 1950, Gavin Maxwell moved to a cottage on the West Coast of Scotland, into a small house standing isolated near the sea. His memoir, Ring of Bright Water, about the place and the animals he shared it with, became...
I only picked up this book despite its unpromising cover and title, because I had previously read Zen Cho’s Black Water Sister, which despite its flaws, had a very authentic Malaysian vibe to its dialogues, which were a lot of...
I admit to picking up this book solely because of its quirky title, expecting something along the lines of departmental shenanigans in a university Literature or Asian Studies department, and was therefore quite surprised that this novel is actually set...
I was taken by Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence from the start, lingering over the epigraph, “From the time of birth to the time of death, every word you utter is part of one long sentence.” –Sun Yung Shin, Unbearable Splendor...
Groups of people have chosen to live in communes of one kind or another for centuries. Their rationale has been diverse: discontent with governments or the ratrace, escapes from unpleasant situations, sharing to reduce the financial burdens, or shared spiritual...
This is the 7th book in the Comoran Strike series, and the books are getting heftier; this one is nearly 1200 pages long. No complains though, it was a fun read. This is not so much of a review, and...
Dystopian fiction is far from uncommon in these times, but Megha Majumdar’s second novel stands out because of its plausibility. Here are no plump suburbanites turned feral vigilantes, or fearful tribes with survivalist tyrants leading them: this novel, A Guardian...
More than a hundred pages in, I was still struggling to remember who is who, even though there are not that many protagonists or characters. The novel is supposed to be a tale of three generations of female Puerto Ricans,...
In 2010, 17 year old Hira is selected along with about 70 other Pakistani teenagers for a 10 month exchange program which will take her/them to America. Living a comfortable, upper-class life in Rawalpindi with her parents and 12 year...
9 months pregnant in Portland Oregon, with a low level job in tech and a husband who is an unsuccessful actor, Annie is in Ikea buying a crib when The Big One — the massive earthquake that is predicted to...
The Orchid Thief of the title is John Laroche: a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered, and sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his front teeth. Susan Orlean wrote about him for...
This is one of the gentlest books I have ever read, and it is a book which is going to break your heart, oh so gently, but it will crack your heart, probably repeatedly. For a debut novel, it is...
I don’t think there are many novels about nuns, and that too, nuns who are not out and about in schools and hospitals, but those who retire to a nunnery to pray and work in solitude and isolation. One would...
A very slim novel, a very quick read. At less than 200 pages, considering so many novels are now the size of bricks, the brevity seems part of Kitamura’s understated style. The novel is definitely cleverly handled, with a lot...
Recent Comments