Radiant Fugitives by Nawaaz Ahmed is set in Obama era San Francisco during the last weeks of Seema’s pregnancy, narrated by her unborn son. Growing up in a Muslim Indian family in Chennai, her father disowned her when he found out she was a lesbian. Now many years later, living in San Francisco with her girlfriend, she is reunited with her mother who is dying of cancer and her sister who has become a very strict Muslim and doesn’t approve…
Orbital by Samantha Harvey is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in a long time. It follows one day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts on the international space station. Harvey gives us small snapshots of their lives both in space and back on Earth. It is almost impossible to believe she has never been to space herself as she writes so eloquently about it. This book is what everyone needs to read right now. It…
There are Rivers in the Sky is the latest novel from Turkish author Elif Shafak, one of my favorite writers. This is a work of deeply researched historical fiction that brings to light the plight of the Yazidi people, and as such, it is at times terribly sad. Shafak weaves together several story lines, the most prominent that of Aurthur, growing up in extreme poverty in Victorian London, yet possessing such an incredible memory and intellect that he eventually rises…
The Oblivion Seekers by Isabelle Eberhardt translated by Paul Bowles (author of The Sheltering Sky) is a small collection of writings that fascinated me and sent me traveling around the world on my own many many years ago. I have just revisited this slim volume after my daughter asked me “Who was the woman you read about who dressed up like a man and traveled in North Africa over 100 years ago?” Re-reading Eberhardt’s work continues to inspire me. Much…
The Cemetery of Untold Stories is the newest novel by Julia Alvarez. There are some parallels here between Alma, the protagonist and Alvarez herself. A Dominican writer and teacher retires and sells her house in her small New England town and moves back to the DR after inheriting a piece of unwanted land left to her by her family. Her three sisters think she’s lost her mind when she decides to live there and build a cemetery for her unfinished…
The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark is set in India in 1947 on the eve of Britain’s departure. Evie and her anthropologist husband and young son are living in a colonial bungalow where she finds a packet of letters hidden in the wall written by the bungalow’s previous residents in 1857. Newmark paints a compelling picture of war-torn India as the story goes back and forth between these two time-lines. Newmark captures the sights, sounds and smells of India, the…
The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi by Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees is a beautiful novel that unfolds in two parallel stories, one modern and one set in the thirteen century. Part historical fiction based on the life of Rumi and his beloved mentor and friend Shams of Tabriz. I spent the last month in Turkey and read this novel while I was there. I was much more drawn to the story line…
The Museum of Failures is the latest novel by Thrity Umrigar author of The Space Between Us. Remy, born and raised in Bombay and now living in America with an American wife hasn’t been back home to see his ailing mother in many years. He has always found her difficult. While spending time in India and hoping to adopt a child of his own there, family secrets surface which give him a whole new understanding of his mother, his father…
The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery couldn’t be more different than her book The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and if you loved one, you most likely will not like the other. The Life of Elves is a highly lyrical, often esoteric fable about two young girls Maria and Clara, one living in a small village in France, the other in Italy, united by their strange otherworldly powers and ancient magic. Everything depends on them as a battle between dark…
The Second Chance Store by Lauren Bravo is a novel set in England. Gwen, 38, single, recently let go from her job finds her second chance volunteering at a charity shop. Although somewhat predictable, this novel is full of a lot of heart. As each item in the charity shop finds its second chance, so too does Gwen. An easy, enjoyable, non-demanding read; a perfect escape.