Published by Penguin / Touchstone, 2006, 288 pages. In London, a beloved Rabbi addresses his congregation in spite of his failing health. The Rav’s voice has lost some of its resonance but the people do not want to believe that he is dying, “he from whom the light of Torah seemed to shine so brightly …
The Moor’s Account: Laila Lalami
Published by Random House / Pantheon / Periscope / Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, 336 pages. History is written by the victors, as the saying goes. What we know of the conquest—or the invasion—of the Americas tends to come from those who conquered the land. This book gives another perspective—the narrator, Mustafa ibn Muhammad ibn Abdussalam al-Zamori, …
Autumn Journal: Louis MacNeice
Published by Faber & Faber, 1939, 96 pages. Louis MacNeice wrote this “journal”—a poem split into 24 parts—from August 1938 to the beginning of 1939. It was a time of uncertainty, with the Second World War looming. This is a poem of endings: the ending of a love affair, of summer, of the year, of …
We are Displaced—My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World: Malala Yousafzai (with Liz Welch)
Published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2019, 224 pages.Review by Mohan Raj A longer version of this review was originally published in The Book Review, Vol XLIV, No. 2-3, Feb-Mar 2020. Reproduced with the permission of The Book Review Literary Trust. Displacement──within and across countries──of large numbers of people, owing to political instability or civil strife, is …
Oscar and Lucinda: Peter Carey
Published by Everyman / Faber & Faber, 1998, 544 pages. A glassworks factory bought on a whim, and a trip to the other end of the world made on the toss of a coin: chance is the driver of most of the major events in this book. Oscar and Lucinda is a strange love story …
Taken at the Flood—A Memoir of a Political Life: Vasanth Kannabiran
Published by Women Unlimited, 2019, 250 pages.Review by Kamakshi Balasubramanian Originally published in The Book Review, Vol. XLIV, No. 8, August 2020. Reprinted with permission from The Book Review Literary Trust. Vasanth Kannabiran’s latest book, described in this edition’s back cover as "a feminist memoir", is a great deal more. There are at least three …
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Alexander Hamilton: Ron Chernow
Published by Penguin / Apollo, 2004, 832 pages. “Let me tell you what I wish I’d known / When I was young and dreamed of glory / You have no control: / Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” These lines are from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical, Hamilton, which was inspired by this biography. The …
Indian women tell their stories
The Inner Courtyard: Stories by Indian Women, edited by Lakshmi HolmströmPublished by Rupa & Company, 1992, 228 pages.In Other Words: New Writing by Indian Women, selected by Urvashi Butalia and Ritu MenonPublished by T.H.E. Women's Press Ltd. / South Asia Books, 1995, 196 pages. “Women in India have traditionally been tellers of tales. They have …
10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World: Elif Shafak
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019, 320 pages. Tequila Leila, the prostitute, is dead. She has been murdered and her body dumped in a wheelie bin in Istanbul. She realizes “with a sinking feeling that her heart had just stopped beating, and her breathing had abruptly ceased, and whichever way she looked at her situation there …
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Natural-Born Heroes—The Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance: Christopher McDougall
Published by Profile Books, 2015, 352 pages. On 23 April 1944, a group of British operatives in Crete captured the German General, Heinrich Kreipe, from under the noses of 100,000 German troops, search planes prowling the mountains, and patrol boats checking the shore. Without a shot being fired, the General—a survivor of the Great War …
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