A very topical novel indeed, written from the perspective of itinerant migrant labourers in India who journeyed home on foot when the national Covid lockdown gave them no other option. This is the (fictional) story of 15-year old Meher’s family,...
Sometimes you pick up a book because it is talked about a lot, or promoted well, or you hear it on the grapevine, read a review, your bookclub selects it, a friend recommends it. And sometimes, just sometimes, the gods...
Although the book does not set out to overtly discuss race-related issues, the narrative nevertheless is underpinned by what it means to be a young coloured child in care, in 1980s UK. The author herself is of mixed-race descent (Irish...
Since I have devotedly followed the entire No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and mildly enjoyed a handful of other McCall Smith novels too, I was delighted to find he has placed this new one in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon),...
It is a book which seems deceptively low-key and insignificant because of the very self-absorbed person the protagonist is, who wants to only live in her own little, self-circumscribed world, but which is actually told quite well, and is very...
This is my first acquaintance with Sigrid Nunez’s writing and I am left hoping I will have many other opportunities to further my acquaintance with more. Nunez’s style is a smooth stream of consciousness, an intelligent, introspective, painfully honest stream...
I admit it is not unusual for me to select a book because it is written by a South Asian writer. Munaweera is one such, an American-Sri Lankan (who had also lived in Nigeria), before settling on Oakland, California. What...
When I first began reading this book, it was surprisingly uphill going, but only just for a few pages/chapters until one accustoms oneself to the writing style and dialogue in Ghanaian-inflected English, which is rather charming: You mean what? Miss...
The idea behind this plotline is quite intriguing: a 70 year old woman left by her husband and feeling depressed, spots a black dress in a charity shop, Scoop neck, clingy. It spoke of cigarettes and Martinis […] snug but...
Having enjoyed The Lieutenant, I was looking forward to another Kate Grenville novel. A Room Made of Leaves is the account Elizabeth MacArthur nee Veale writes 12 years after her husband’s death, contradicting the narrative he had spun. John MacArthur...
We first encounter our protagonist, Hayat, a 2nd generation Pakistani American lad, in college, but very quickly, the narrative goes back to a time when Hayat was 10 years old. He lives with Muneer his mum, and Naveed, his dad,...
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...
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...
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...
Recent Comments