I have read a couple of other Erdrich novels, and so far, this one was the most accessible to me. Not that any of the others were less well written, but this one made access easiest for the non-initiated American...
It is always a pleasure to make the acquaintance of a debut South Asian woman writer, so I was very pleased to give this novel, which had been shortlisted for the 2023 Booker, a try. It begins with 11 year...
This is one of those novels that are told in parallel timelines, with one in the mid 1850s, of the potato famine in Ireland, and the other is the current day timeline in New York. The protagonist of the mid-1850s...
Right from the first, I was totally charmed by this book, and also right from the first, I realised what a slim volume I was holding in my hands, and despaired that it is just not going to last very...
This is one of those novels which features a protagonist designed to be unlikeable. From the outset, June (Junie, Juniper) Song Hayward is openly envious of her friend and colleague, Athena Liu. The two girls knew each other in Yale,...
Because this is by Curtis Sittenfeld, I didn’t even ask what the book was about, I just dived right in when I got my hands on it. 70 pages in, I was starting to ask myself if I should just...
There will be many like me who cannot help but compare Lee’s writing with Ishiguro’s; there is such precision, decorum, formality, and elegance which characterises the style and pace of both. A Gesture Life is a joy to read, a...
This novel has left me thinking that in India, principles/morals are a luxury seemingly few can afford. The story illustrates how the political system in India works, mostly at ground level, how favours are exchanged, how preferential treatment is given...
The prologue: A man, who had gone to fight for his homeland in some senseless war and came back with his legs truncated, “in reality, only half a man” is pulling himself along a train station platform, pitiably begging but...
On one hand, I am a little hesitant to review this book because I feel very unqualified to even discuss let alone review a book on fungi; on the other hand, the title already pretty much tells you everything you...
This is the kind of book which sounds like it should make good reading. Ann(-Marie) Mah is a Chinese American who has married Calvin, an American career diplomat, and in their 5 year marriage thus far, has accompanied him on...
There is seemingly no way to review this book without spoilers, so I apologise and caution readers in advance, that if you do not want a spoiler, please stop reading the review now! The book is not a work of...
Having been widely acclaimed on the Black British Writing scene for I Am Not Your Baby Mother and Sista Sister, which dealt with the challenges of being a young black woman in modern day urban Britain, I expected good things...
Since this is a bestseller with such a promising title, I was keen to read it in the hope of some ‘pseudosciency’ content. Alas, it turns out not to have much to do with science despite its protagonist being a...
I just know I am not going to be able to do this book justice because I suspect I did not fully grasp the topic matter and all its implications, but I will review it anyway because I enjoyed it...
Swimming in fraught waters
Culture critique without nuance
Translation – facilitor of peace? And/or an act of betrayal?
Marble and Misery
Intimacy in China: Changing with the times
If Intelligence and Advanced IQ are Taboo
A Celebration of Unorthodox Relationships
The Color of Me
From Shock and Awe to…LOL
Catalan hallucination
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