Husband pic’n’mix
This third novel of Sahota’s is mostly set in rural Punjab, in 1929; whereas his first two novels were British-based for most part. However, there is a parallel storyline happening in 1999, of a British Asian 18 year old who...
Lisa
Kiasu Rom-Com
I should have been warned by the blub that said this is for fans of Crazy Rich Asians, that this book is going to be exaggerated and over-the-top. Yes, I know this is a rom-com, but there have been quite...
Risking it all in the hope of a better life
A seriously compelling read, one of those you can barely stand to have to put the book down to attend to life. The quality of the storytelling is what makes this novel so unput-down-able, as well as its characters whom...
Quiet, delightful charm
Mary Lawson charms the socks off me. It is very difficult to put one’s finger on exactly what makes her writing so appealing, but the attraction is there and powerful, from cover to cover, unwavering. This is, on the surface...
Migrants, murder and racism
The Fortune Men has been shortlisted for the 2021 Booker, so I embarked on this reading experience with the full expectation that it would be of considerable merit – and it did not disappoint. The novel’s plotline is relatively simple,...
Vivid flights
From the start, the writing voice is compelling, both being extremely assured and able to pack in huge amounts of information in a few words. Early on, we hear from one of the two protagonists that, My parents had left...
Understated poignancy
If your tastes in books runs to family relationships and domestic drama, to the understated and the quietly poignant, this is an example of an excellent read. It is not an explosive kind of novel, everything happens very quietly, beneath...
Murder at an elderly pace
This is a book which sets out to amuse and entertain. And to some extent, it does this well enough, offering a frothy, light read that carefully avoids straying into the frivolous or the trite. It is a whodunnit, but...
Shaped and marked by the war in Sri Lanka
As befits a philosophy graduate from Columbia, the novel opens with a contemplation of the notion of time and its elusive nature, before introducing us to Krishan and his home life in Colombo with his mother and aging grandmother. ...
Faith, science and addiction in an immigrant family
Having reading reviews of how harrowing Gyasi’s Homegoing was, I have still not summoned the courage to read it yet, but her second novel has turned out very readable. Our protagonist is Gifty, a second generation Ghanaian immigrant in the...
Rape and genocide
This is such an important book to read, but it hardly needs any warning that it is not bedtime reading. Christina Lamb is a British investigative journalist who travels to many parts of the conflict-ridden world we live in, recording...
Distinct and well-developed characters
When the story first begins, our protagonist, Libby (14), is in a car, sitting in the back with Thomas (18) her older brother, and Ellen (12) her younger sister in the middle. Her mum, Faye, is driving, and eldest sister...
An easy Metro read
It must be admitted that I picked up this book displayed in the New Books section in the library because the blurb at the back said, “A beautiful tale for everyone who likes to end a book with a smile...
The End of the Road?
Once again like her penultimate novel, The Motion of the Body Through Space, Shriver presents us with a couple (though British this time, not American) who are in the mid-later stages of life, as our protagonists. And once again, they...
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