A House of Contemplation
I don’t think there are many novels about nuns, and that too, nuns who are not out and about in schools and hospitals, but those who retire to a nunnery to pray and work in solitude and isolation. One would...
Parallel Universes, well executed but ultimately unsatisfying
A very slim novel, a very quick read. At less than 200 pages, considering so many novels are now the size of bricks, the brevity seems part of Kitamura’s understated style. The novel is definitely cleverly handled, with a lot...
Love and reconciliation, but also bitterness and anger
There’s a small flood of books by Indian-American authors in the last few years that are specifically about the second-generation Indian-American experience. Other Indian-American novelists have spanned multiple generations (Well-Behaved Indian Women, by Saumya Dave), some simply feature Indian characters...
Twilight years of an American couple
The title contains a bit of a joke given the protagonists are 90 year old Abe Winter and 87 year old Ruth Winter, and the story is set in their twilight years. It is a bit of a love song...
A small world, poorly explored
Corie Adjmi’s novel is set in the Syrian Jewish community of America. Many readers (including myself) will not be familiar with this community, or perhaps even be aware that they exist, but there are close to a million Syrian Jews...
Loss of a beloved parent
I did not expect to read this book untouched, given it is about a brilliant, gentle, and unconventional man and father, David Sibelius, who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when his daughter, Ada, is just twelve. Having majored in mathematics, at...
Upward Mobility, still Tenuous
In the upscale East Hamptons of Long Island, a young man is at a party, snorts some coke, and then gets arrested for possession. This being his first offense, he eventually is required to attend addiction classes. The title gives...
“Careful not to orientalize”
After her Booker Prize winning The Inheritance of Loss in 2006, the world had to wait almost 20 years for Kiran Desai’s next novel – also shortlisted for the 2025 Booker. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny are about these two...
A Masterful Malaysian Novel
Over the years, I have followed the development of Tash Aw’s oeuvre, enjoying a lot of his writing but also sometimes persevering with others which I was only lukewarm towards, perhaps because he is a Malaysian writer (living in London)...
“A different kind of Indian”
Two rivers and two countries are tied together in this novel by Shobha Rao, reflecting the duality of meaning in its title, Indian Country. One is India, of course, a country full of Indians. The other is the Native American...
Humans & Technology; a New Era
This nearly 500 paged book stuffed with information and concepts and history is not going to be easy to review comprehensively. This review will just highlight a few key ideas and topics that rise to the forefront of my mind...
A diasporic novel that doesn’t quite hang together
Our protagonist is Zelu, a 2nd generation Nigerian American (Najiamerican) paraplegic woman, who no longer has use of her legs after she fell out of a tree at 12 years old. At the start of the novel, 34 year old Zelu...
Convoluted and chaotic
Richard Osman started off as a TV host, but is best known outside the UK for his series of detective novels. The detectives in these books, The Thursday Murder Club series, are not your usual tormented private eyes or Detective...
Anne Tyler at the height of her skills
A little gem. What else could I call this half length novel? (It’s only about 165 pages) As it says on the tin, the whole story happens within three days in June, the day before the wedding of the protagonist’s...
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