When I picked up this collection of short stories, Next Door by Jahnavi Barua, I was intrigued by the idea — to be invited into the homes and lives of strangers. What I didn’t expect was such darkness. Set mainly...
I had been eagerly awaiting Mannion’s second novel since her amazing debut, A Crooked Tree; nor have I been disappointed. This read equally well, the kind of novel that draws a reader in quickly and holds the reader’s attention effortlessly...
It’s not that the storyline lacks plausibility. Some of us are all too familiar with the NRI engineer, MD or MBA grad who goes to India for 3 weeks and comes back married to a virtual stranger, the so-called ‘marriage...
Books and movies about sports are abundant, and tend to follow a certain pattern: hero (or more rarely heroine) is unusually talented, faces hurdles, is set back at some point, but eventually triumphs over adversity, winning trophies and learning (and...
Although this is a novel supposedly about an ordinary American college kid’s year abroad, this year abroad, I think I can safely say, is nothing like any year abroad I have ever heard of. Tiller Bardman begins as a very...
Here are five stories, set in Southeast Asia and on the Indian subcontinent-each one bearing the weight and substance of a short novella-narrated by young women who find themselves, often as expatriates, face to face with the compelling circumstances of...
Driss Guerraoui dies in a hit-and-run accident in a small California Mojave town. Driss is a Moroccan immigrant, so there are inevitable threads of racism running through his backstory and the investigation of his death, and through the reactions of...
Pollan’s book seems intended to get us thinking a little differently about plants and drugs and the effects of certain chemical compounds on us and in our lives. He divides the book up into 3 sections: the first deals with...
Richard Russo’s trilogy of books set in North Bath, upstate New York, follows the familiar themes of many of his novels: absent fathers, resentful sons, and resulting trauma that continues from generation to generation. His Empire Falls was set in...
Having read all of Tayari Jones’ other novels (The Untelling, Silver Sparrow, An American Marriage), I was pleased to finally come across a copy of her debut novel, Leaving Atlanta. It is told in 3 books, each from the point...
The Dog of the North caught my eye entirely because of its title. Was this a Jack London-ish adventure novel in the Yukon? Or was this slang for something entirely different? In fact, the title turns out to be the...
The first thing any Tana French fans would want to know is: Did you love this book?? The answer is a resounding, YES! Yes, I loved it, devoured it, enjoyed myself hugely reading it. But it is not without its...
A Town Like Alice drifted across my library page, and having heard it was Australian author Nevil Shute’s most famous book, I thought I should give it a shot. Structurally, the book is a clunker. It’s framed around a solicitor’s...
Growing up in Oxford in the 1880s, Esme is a happy little girl although she has lost her mother young, because she is loved and looked after by her father and other kind friends. Her father’s work is assisting in...
Barbara Kingsolver is the well-deserved recipient of many literary prizes. Her more recent novels have been impressive stand-alones, but I’m among the many readers who also love and re-read her original trilogy set in Arizona. The Bean Trees and Pigs...
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