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The Lucky Ones: A Novel

March 20, 2017

lucky ones

  Covering a span from the early 1990s to present day, The Lucky Ones is a novel about Colombia that is as densely dark as that country’s rainforests. Like those forests the novel is home to a wide array of creatures ranging from the innocent to the dangerous; those that hide in the underbrush and those that can adapt quickly to the changing landscape. Who the lucky ones ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, debut, literary, Random House, social issues, South America

The Book of Unknown Americans

March 6, 2017

unknown americans

  We’re the unknown Americans, the ones no one even wants to know, because they’ve been told they’re supposed to be scared of us and because maybe if they did take the time to get to know us, they might realize we’re not that bad, maybe even we’re a lot like them. And who would they hate then?  When their daughter, Maribel, suffers a traumatic brain injury that ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: American life, book clubs, contemporary life, cultural, family, Knopf, social issues

Lucky Boy: A Novel

January 11, 2017

lucky boy

  Despite its upbeat sounding title Lucky Boy is a novel saturated in desperation. Desperation for a better life, desperation for a child, for success…for happiness. Solimar is eighteen, lives in a dying town in Mexico and with money her parents procure she leaves with a man who is supposed to get her to California where she will meet up with a cousin who has already ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, literary, marriage, Putnam, San Francisco, social issues

The Private Life of Mrs. Sharma

December 19, 2016

private life

  Often the first person narrative is used by an author to create doubt in the mind of the reader. Ratika Kapur does the opposite in her novel, The Private Life of Mrs. Sharma, with a narrator who calmly tells the truth about her actions from the novel’s beginning to its end. She is a respectable woman—a wife and mother who works at a doctor’s office in Delhi, India. She ... Read More...

1 Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Bloomsbury, book clubs, contemporary life, cultural, India, marriage

A House Without Windows

August 24, 2016

a house without

  Author Nadia Hashimi’s family is from Afghanistan and her time spent listening to their stories and travelling in Afghanistan herself gives her novels the weight of truth. Her last novel, The Pearl that Broke its Shell, was a blend of the modern day with the story of the fabled women who guard an ancient shah’s harem. In A House Without Windows she stays firmly in ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Afghanistan, book clubs, contemporary life, William Morrow, women

How I Became a North Korean

August 8, 2016

north korean

How I Became a North Korean by Krys Lee is a lot like the Korean delicacy kimchi—a confounding blend of elements that, until it has fermented, can be confusing and difficult to appreciate. But, just like kimchi, by halfway through the novel the three disparate main characters have released their identities to make the story come together. Danny is a sixteen-year-old boy, living ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: China, contemporary life, North Korea, racism

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