I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us. The first time we met Khaled Hosseini was ten years ago when he took us to a place called Afghanistan, which most of us knew only as a foreign enemy, not a country. In The Kite Runner we walked through the door to another world that both opened ... Read More...
On Sal Mal Lane
Where does one begin with Ru Freeman’s On Sal Mal Lane? On the surface it is the story of the Herath family and their lives in their new home on Sal Mal Lane. They are a traditional Sinhalese family, with a mother whose beliefs on what is right and proper leave her children little room to maneuver in their lives. The oldest, Suren, is a gifted musician but is expected to become ... Read More...
The Night Rainbow
Pea is a lonely 5-year-old girl living on a farm near a small village in France. Her father died recently and her pregnant mother is overwhelmed by grief, leaving Pea and her little sister, Margot, to take care of themselves. It is summertime so there is much to do and places to explore. A man who seems scary at first turns out to be a neighbor who was in an accident that left ... Read More...
Equal of the Sun
There is not much historical fiction out there about sixteenth-century Iran (Persia at the time) and what there is, is about the shahs of the day. The world of women and the harem is generally written about from the stereotypical perspective of one man and hundreds of lovelies who live only to serve him. A heroine might appear but even then she is most often saved by a prince. ... Read More...
The Abundance
In Amit Majmudar’s The Abundance, an Indian-American mother is dying of cancer and trying to decide when to tell her children. The holidays are approaching and she fears her news will obliterate the season’s happiness but she is far enough along that there is no way to mask her weight loss and pallor. As her children arrive with their families and she struggles to maintain ... Read More...
Reeducation of Cherry Truong
In Communist countries “reeducation” is a euphemism for prison camp, forced labor, deprivation, and sometimes, torture. In Aimee Phan’s new book The Reeducation of Cherry Truong there is none of these but the end result is similar: a stripping away of old beliefs and breakdown of long held truths. Cherry is the American-born daughter of Sanh Truong and Tuyet Vo. In the late ... Read More...
