~ Custody, by Manju Kapur ~ This novel contains Manju Kapur’s most radical protagonist to date. If one regards Kapur’s five novels as a series in her ouevre, Custody challenges Indian tradition and Indian middle class gender roles in a...
~ A Disobedient Girl, by Ru Freeman ~ “She loved fine things and she had no doubt she deserved them.” This is the opening sentence of this debut novel, and one which made me smile. A good, provocative opening sentence...
~ A God in Every Stone, by Kamila Shamsie ~ For those of us who are avid Shamsie-readers, this sixth novel is an eagerly awaited one. Kamila Shamsie’s first four novels (In the City By the Sea, Salt and Saffron,...
~ In the Country of Deceit, by Shashi Deshpande ~ In the Country of Deceit is an entirely and distinctively Deshpande novel; the texture, the characters, all typically and instantly recognisably of Deshpande’s voice and style. For admirers of Deshpande’s...
~ Foreign, by Sonora Jha ~ The context of this novel contains many interesting elements: the protagonist is an Indian woman who after rejection by her son’s father, migrated to the US and had not been back to visit India...
~ Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ~ This extremely accomplished novel is Adichie’s fourth: a marvellous discussion of the identities of middle class Nigerian immigrants to America and UK, as well as migrant returnees to Nigeria. The central protagonists are...
~ How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, by Mohsin Hamid ~ I am left curiously pleased and yet discontented by Mohsin Hamid’s third novel. Hamid seems to have come to fame as a result of his 2nd novel. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which...
~ The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert ~ Eat Pray Love, and its sequel, Committed, made Elizabeth Gilbert a celebrated author. Those were pleasant enough reads: warm and sincere, if a trifle too gushing; lively and entertaining, if...
~ The Space Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar ~ Umrigar’s love for Bombay, her intimacy with the city, comes through verystrongly in her third novel, as in her earlier two. And once again, Umrigar introduces and familiarises her reader to...
~ Family Life, by Akhil Sharma ~ Unlike Sharma’s first novel, An Obedient Father, which was set in India, Family Life is a story of Indian immigrants to America. The Mishras, a middle-class Delhi family, migrate to New York in...
~ The End of Innocence, by Moni Mohsin ~ This novel is yet another example of very high quality fiction in English from Pakistani women writers. Mohsin joins an elite group comprising the likes of Sidhwa, Suleri, Shamsie, who have...
~ Taking Precautions: An Intimate History of Birth Control, by Shyama Perera ~ Luridly coloured condoms and a pack of birth control pills adorn the front page of this history of contraception. (The back cover also features colourful condoms.) This...
~ The Writing on my Forehead, by Nafisa Haji ~ Haji’s first novel has a beautifully evocative title; the first chapter tells of the protagonist’s childhood memories of her mother tracing Quranic verses on her forehead with a finger, to...
Recent Comments