Published by Faber Books, 2020, 416 pages. Domestic abuse, homophobia, family secrets...and love. Ingrid Persaud packs it all into this novel set in Trinidad. Betty was married to Sunil, an abusive man, who didn’t stop at hurting his wife but also hit his young son. “That man gave you love you could feel. He cuff …
Rock ‘n’ Roll: Tom Stoppard
Published by Faber and Faber, 2006, 144 pages. This is Tom Stoppard’s play about Czechoslovakia, protest, love, and the power of rock and roll. It covers the years from 1968 to 1990, and the action moves between the house of Max—a staunch communist and a member of the British Communist Party—in Cambridge and the apartment …
Iep Jāltok—Poems from a Marshallese Daughter: Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner
Published by the University of Arizona Press, 2017, 82 pages. From 1946 to 1958, the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons in what is now the Marshall Islands, an event which seems to have slipped into the mists of history. But it is still very real for the islanders, as Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner, a Marshallese poet, …
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Snow: John Banville
Published by Faber Books, 2020, 352 pages. “‘The body is in the library,’ Colonel Osborne said. ‘Come this way.’” This book begins like a traditional English whodunit: with a body in the library in a country house. It’s a cliché—except that John Banville doesn’t do clichés. He uses a murder mystery to paint a portrait …
Country Driving—A Chinese Road Trip: Peter Hessler
Published by Cannongate and Harper, 2010, 438 pages. Peter Hessler is an American journalist who speaks fluent Chinese and was The New Yorker’s correspondent in China from 2000 to 2007. While he was there, he got himself a Chinese driving licence and travelled through the country. Hessler applied for a Chinese driving licence in 2001. …
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Investigating Indexes: An Interview with Dennis Duncan
Dennis Duncan is a British writer, translator and lecturer. His book, Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure, was published in 2021. His other books include The Oulipo and Modern Thought and Theory of the Great Game: Writings from Le Grand Jeu. He also co-edited Book Parts, a collection of essays on the various …
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A Madness of Sunshine: Nalini Singh
Published by Gollancz, 2020, 352 pages. “That was the town Anahera remembered, the town that had suffocated her, the town where there were no secrets—and far too many hidden things.” Anahera is from Golden Cove, a small town in New Zealand’s South Island. She left for the UK, became a well-known classical pianist and married …
The Selfless Act of Breathing: J.J. Bola
Published by Dialogue Books, 2021, 393 pages. “I quit my job, I am taking my life savings—$9,021—and when it runs out, I am going to kill myself.” Michael Kabongo is a schoolteacher in London. He is going through severe depression and feels alone, disconnected, and unable to confide in anyone, even his closest friends. London …
The Overstory: Richard Powers
Published by Vintage, 2018, 625 pages. “A man in the boreal north lies on his back on the cold ground at dawn. ... [T]he spruces pour out messages in media of their own invention. They speak through their needles, trunks, and roots. They record in their own bodies the history of every crisis they’ve lived …
The Promise: Damon Galgut
Published by Chatto & Windus, 2021, 304 pages. The Promise revolves around a white South African family—Manie and Rachel Swart and their children Astrid, Anton and Amor—and an unkept promise. Manie promises the dying Rachel that he will give their maid Salome the deeds to the house in which she lives. But once Rachel dies, …
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