A Library of One’s Own
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....
Diaspora
Multiracial Britain
Adekoya is a Nigerian Polish man, married to a Nigerian woman, and who identifies strongly with his Christian faith too. These identity factors are important to him, he tells his readers. He sets out to investigate and tell the story...
Secrets and Lies
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...
A worthwhile protagonist in a less worthwhile immigrant novel
Yang’s Chinese-immigrant-coming-to-America novel is in some ways similar to others of its genre, in that our protagonist, Ivy Lin, finds herself different from her American peers and longs to fit in. In these ways, Ivy’s tale is like many second...
Inherited Trauma
This book is predicated on the notion of epigenetic inheritance and generational trauma. The idea is that perhaps people can inherit traumas which they themselves did not experience, but which is somehow written into their genes so that it produces...
An immigrant story in a lively voice
This is a rather charming novel although not entirely novel in material, about immigrants to the USA. The novel show cases immigrants from the Dominican Republic who have moved to New York in search of a better life, income, and...
What will people think?
In contrast to the immigrant parents in my last review, the Indian-American parents in Circa are very, very old-school, resist any hint of assimilation, and are strict with their teenage daughter Heera. They want their daughter to wear only Indian...
Outsidership, through the prism of friendship
Having read and loved all Kamila Shamsie’s novels, I was thrilled to get my hands on her latest, Best of Friends. Even better, the blurb suggested it was going to be a read similar to Kartography, one of Shamsie’s earlier...
Irreverent and honest
North American immigrant writing tends to be dominated by the US, so it is a pleasant variation to come across a book by an Indo-Canadian author. Scaachi Koul is in her early 30s, and a writer at Buzzfeed. This, her...
The Pennington half-siblings
This is a fun read, but not to be taken entirely seriously. It starts with an introduction of the vast cast, of Cyril Pennington’s five children and their mothers. His eldest and youngest, Nikisha and Prynce have the same Jamaican...
Life in Translation
There have been increasing numbers of Koreans writers in English in this century, and there is no doubt that they are collectively conveying a very distinct identity for the Korean diaspora in fiction. There are themes common to many immigrant...
Potter’s clay
Debuting with An Atlas of Impossible Longings (2008), Roy has steadily published 5 novels over about 14 years; The Earth Spinner in 2022 is her most recent. Each of her novels have been of good quality, well written, non-stereotypical, full...
A few decades of Nigerian life
Four girls grow up in Nigeria and then scatter across the world. In this series of connected short stories, debut author Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi traces their lives, with an occasional foray into the life of a relative or related character....
To undrown, to cry until you don’t need to cry no more
Lulu did something for me that not even my sister Angela would do. When Angela saw me cry, my sister said, You’re drowning in a glass of water. I tell you, Angela is cold. But cold! Pfft! She has no...
Three generations of Filipino-Americans
This is a refreshingly original and very in depth, detailed look into the diasporic Filipino community in the USA. Castillo conveys a large amount of not just cultural practises and norms, but the different values and codes of conduct and...
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