China Room by Sunjeev Sahota is a novel inspired in part by his own family history. In 1929 Punjab, three young girls are married to three brothers and move into their mother-in-laws home, not knowing the identity of their own husbands, they are only with them at night in a darkened room. Mehar is curious and tries to figure out which brother is her husband, leading to a series of events that put several lives in danger. In 1999 her…
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo is a retelling of the American Classic, The Great Gatsby. Set during the decadent Jazz Age in America in the 20’s, young, rich and beautiful Jordan Baker moves in the most elite circles; she also happens to be Vietnamese, adopted and bi-sexual. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this novel, but Vo’s gorgeous writing fills the book with magic, wit and wonder. A fresh take on this story that outshines the…
Anxious People is the newest book by Fredrik Backman. A failed bank robber runs into a nearby apartment where a showing is taking place and unwittingly takes a group of 9 strangers hostage. The media gathers outside as well as a father and son police duo. What ensues is a comedy of errors. Although this book is a clever and funny character driven story, much like Backman’s earlier novels, somehow it lacks the same wit and charm I’ve come to…
Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang is a magical novel set in a once prosperous estate in Shanghai at the beginning of the 20th century. A young Eurasian girl is abandoned by her mother and becomes a bond servant to the estate’s new owners. Disliked by both Chinese and Europeans for her mixed blood, her only true friend is a fox spirit who has resided in the courtyard for centuries. Chang has written a novel full of myth and legend,…
The Tiger’s Wife is the amazing debut novel by Tea Obreht. Set in an unnamed Balkan country still reeling from war, a young doctor follows in the footsteps of her Grandfather’s last days as she pieces together the story of his life. Moving back and forth from the past to the present, Obreht weaves a tale full of myth and legend, folk tales and reality; wholly imaginative and original, full of magic, yet also rooted in history. Beautifully written, a…
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler is set in Oak Knoll, a tight-knit neighborhood in North Carolina. When a semi-famous, rich white celebrity moves in with his family next door to Valerie, a single black Mom, an ecology professor, and her teenage son, at first things seem like they might be ok. But when the building of their new mansion and fence begins to encroach upon and slowly kill her 100 year old oak tree, Valerie finds it increasingly…
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic, is a wonderfully written novel set in late 19th century France. The Upper Class is enjoying the Grand Season while young Nina makes her first appearance in the city and is immediately drawn to a performer with telekinetic powers much like her own. This is a novel of manners and rules, passions and betrayals, where class and status are everything and marriages are rarely made for love. The slightest scandal…
Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik is historical fiction based on the life of Forugh Farrokhzad, Iran’s most famous female poet. In Tehran in the 1950’s Persian daughters were expected to be quiet, remain indoors unless in the company of an escort and their voices were unilaterally silenced. Farrokhzad rebelled against these traditions writing and eventually publishing some of the boldest poetry ever to come out of Iran. Breaking free of a difficult marriage, Farrokhzad is forced to…
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, is historical fiction based on the life Ana, the wife that Monk Kidd imagines Jesus may have had. I found this novel fascinating, well written and the story immediately pulled me in-I couldn’t put it down! Who is to say for sure whether or not Jesus had a wife? If he did, I can think of no better person than Ana, a true scholar in…
The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli, author of Lost Children Archive, is a wholly original book, not fitting into any category. Written in collaboration with Jumex Juice factory workers in Mexico City, this novel-essay took form by drawing on the tradition of tobacco readers in mid-19th century Cuba, who read to factory workers to alleviate the tedium. Luisella decided to write this novel, in installments, for and with the factory workers. Gustav Sanchez Sanchez, known as Highway, is…