Kirthana Ramisetti’s first novel was unusual, even if it didn’t live up to its initial promise. I picked up her second at the library, in the hope that the author had developed beyond the flaws of the first. Advika and...
The title of The Shanghai Free Taxi refers to a rather charming and novel way to meet people, but the author intends it to be quite a bit more: a snapshot of modern China. Frank Langfitt had driven a taxi...
‘The Talk’ usually means a discussion about sex and reproduction that parents are supposed to have with their children at some point. For black kids, though, ‘The Talk’ has a much heavier meaning: the discussion of racism and implicit bias,...
Singapore, the tiny island-nation with famously impeccable streets, not a leaf out of place and constantly updated infrastructure, all maintained by a population of foreign workers who form about a quarter of the population. Beyond the people who clean the...
Few authors write about South Boston like Dennis Lehane. His novels are thrillers with murder and mayhem, but also snapshots in time of the culture of ‘Southie’, with its intense ethnic divisions, racism, and close-knit ties. Now gentrifying, the area...
‘Arranged marriage’ is likely one of the most examined social aspects of India. What of the men and women who make their own marital choices and go against the weight of societal expectation? Three such real-life couples are the focus...
In a dystopian future, most women are unable to bear children. The few women who are fertile are managed by the government, whose goal is to ensure the continuation of the species by making sure these women bear children to...
Nancy Hopkins’ tape measure is enshrined in the MIT Museum, and for good reason. For those who are perplexed by the inclusion of such a standard household product in the museum, and actually for anyone interested in the history of...
The blurb for Leopard at the Door reeks of The Far Pavilions. “A sweeping tale of self-discovery, betrayal and an impossible love.” “evocative portait of a woman — and a nation — on the cusp of profound change” Note how...
In the early 1600s, America was vast and Europeans had a tenuous foothold in Jamestown, Virginia. To encourage immigration, every Englishman who brought a servant or bonded labourer to America was ‘given’ 50 acres of land. One of the Englishmen...
When this collection came out in 2009, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was already well known from the excellent Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, but had not yet published the wonderful Americanah. This collection, This Thing Around Your Neck,...
Imagine a weatherproofed box of books outside a house where anyone is free to stop by and pick up a book, drop off a book, or just browse. It is such a charming idea, and seems so community-minded and friendly....
A debut author with a collection of short stories set in Bangalore; definitely worth investigating. Most of the stories in Shubha Sunder’s collection, Boomtown Girl , focuses, as befits the title, on girls growing up in Bangalore in the 1990s....
The early wave of South Asian immigrant writing focused on the immigrants themselves: their unfamiliarity with the new country, discrimination, yearning for a home that changed after their departure, and excitement about the opportunities now available to them. The next...
Novels about neurodivergent people are no longer unusual. After the well-deserved success of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog In the NightTime, there have been several novels with very memorably ‘different’ characters who have to adjust to an...
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