The Communist takeover of Saigon forces Nguyễn An Tinh and her family to leave behind their luxurious life and escape to a refugee camp in Malaysia. From there the family immigrates to Canada and settles in Quebec. Kim Thúy’s novel is called Ru, meaning ‘lullaby’ in Vietnamese, which aptly describes the book’s style of storytelling and reminiscence. It is a slim volume with ... Read More...
The World We Found
College is the last stand for the enthusiasm and idealism of youth and for four friends in Bombay it was where they cemented the friendship they believed would last throughout their lives. Then the world stepped in and the passions of Laleh, Armaiti, Kavita, and Nishta gave way to the realities of life. It isn’t until decades later when Laleh hears from Armaiti, now living in ... Read More...
The Bathing Women
In a family with dignity, there was no room for “other things”, no matter how profoundly someone in this family was shamed, or how deeply the person suffered. The Bathing Women takes place from the mid-1960s to present day in the city of Fuan, China. It begins with the sisters, Tiao and Fan, being left in a small apartment by their parents, Wu and Yixun, who have been ... Read More...
Silent House
It is the summer of 1980 and in a tall, dilapidated house in the seaside town of Cennethisar in Turkey, ninety-year-old Fatma awaits the arrival of her three grandchildren, Faruk, Nilgün, and Metin. She lives alone in this house with the exception of a manservant named Recep, whom readers will learn soon enough, is also the illegitimate son of her husband, Salâhattin, who ... Read More...
The Forgiven
The suburbs of Tangiers were ruined, but the gardens were still there. And so were the crippled lemon trees and olives, the dogged disillusion and empty factories, the smell of seething young men. A sybaritic weekend in the Saharan desert of Morocco, at a fantastically renovated fortress compound. Richard and Dally have invited friends from around the globe and for Londoners, ... Read More...
The Headmaster’s Wager
In 1930 Percival Chen’s father left him and his mother in mainland China to go to Vietnam and seek his fortune. He never returned and so, after his mother’s death, Percival left their province to go to school in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the Japanese invasion in 1941 meant that Hong Kong was no longer safe, but it precipitated Percival’s marriage to a young beauty much above ... Read More...
