Translated from French by Adriana HunterPublished by Michael Joseph, 2022, 336 pages. Original version published in 2020. March 2021. Air France flight 006 from Paris to New York is nearing JFK airport when it flies into a huge cloud and experiences severe turbulence. After some terrifying moments, the plane emerges and lands. Three months later, …
Author: suroor alikhan
I have always been an avid reader. I read across genres and try and find books by writers from countries around the world. One of the things I love is talking to fellow readers about books!
Telling an Untold Story: Interview with Hafsa Zayyan
Hafsa Zayyan is a Nigerian-Pakistani author and a dispute resolution lawyer working in the City of London. Her book We Are All Birds of Uganda won the MerkyBooks inaugural New Writer’s Prize. She has contributed to Of This Our Country, essays that explore writers' relationships with Nigeria; and Will You Read This Please?, short stories …
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Co-Wives, Co-Widows: Adrienne Yabouza
Translated from French by Rachael McGillPublished by Dedalus Africa, 2021, 128 pages. Original version published in 2015. Lidou has a good life. He is married to two beautiful women, Ndongo Passy and Grekpoubou. His construction business is doing well: “he was throwing up building after building in the [Central African] Republic, and he’d carry on …
Word Beads—Short Stories: Slavko Milekić
Published by Graphic and Photo Studio Kaligram, 2019, 103 pages. A physician has a heart attack; a man remembers his parent’s relationship while composing a foreword to his father’s unpublished manuscript; and a couple in a foreign country find a way to throw a birthday party for their child although they have very little money. …
Trout, Belly Up: Rodrigo Fuentes
Translated from Spanish by Ellen JonesPublished by Charco Press, 2019, 97 pages. Original version published in 2017. A man put in charge of a trout farm lets his emotions get the better of him; a farmer stands up to armed men; and a man’s friend calls in his debt, forcing the man to sell his …
The Trees: Percival Everett
Published by Influx Press / Graywolf Press, 2021, 335 pages. “Money, Mississippi, looks exactly like it sounds. Named in that persistent Southern tradition of irony and with the attendant tradition of nescience, the name becomes slightly sad, a marker of self-conscious ignorance that might as well be embraced because, let’s face it, it isn’t going …
Great Circle: Maggie Shipstead
Published by DoubleDay / Knopf, 2021, 593 pages. “I was born to be a wanderer. I was shaped to the earth like a seabird to a wave.” In 1950, aviator Marian Graves undertook a round-the-world flight, going from north to south. She disappeared over Antarctica—neither her body nor the plane was ever found. Over half …
Reading the World—How I Read a Book from Every Country: Ann Morgan
Published by Vintage / Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2022, 388 pages. First published in 2015. US title: The World Between Two Covers: Reading the Globe “Reading is a solitary act, but one that demands connection to the world.”—Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, A History “The world was changing. And its books were changing me.” …
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Exploring How We Interact with Nature: An Interview with Janice Pariat
Janice Pariat is an Indian author and poet. Her books include Everything the Light Touches: A Novel (2022), The Nine-Chambered Heart (2017), Seahorse (2014), and Boats on Land (2012). In 2013, Janice was awarded the Yuva Puraskar (Young Writer Award) by the Sahitya Akademi, and the Crossword Book Award for Fiction for Boats on Land. …
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Murder at the Grand Raj Palace: Vaseem Khan
Published by Mulholland Books / Hodder, 2018, 360 pages. An American billionaire is found dead in his room at the Grand Raj Palace in Mumbai with a knife sticking out of his chest. The room is locked, and there is no sign of anyone else having been there. On the mirror in the bathroom are …
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Talking About Books 