* STARRED REVIEW Like his debut, The Gift of Rain (2007), Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng's second novel is exquisite and, like Gift, arrives stateside with Booker Prize longlist approval. Recently retired judge Teoh Yun Ling has at most a year before she will lose all language...
Okay, here we go again (see Kabul Beauty School below). We have a (fascinating, allegedly true) story, and then the (disturbing) story about the (now accuracy-challenged) story. Just after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, an award-winning Norwegian journalist emerges from six weeks of following...
In case you didn't recognize the dripping blood over the undead peeking through on the cover, I'll warn you immediately that this is a long novel (656 pages in hardcover; 26+ hours stuck in the ears, judiciously read by Justine Eyre and Paul Michael) about a...
Writing a memoir these days is dangerous business: you can be outed on Oprah as the worst liar, along with your publisher (James Frey, A Million Little Pieces), you can become infamous overnight for breaking the hearts of millions who not only trusted you but even gave...
Considered the "godfather of manga," Osamu Tezuka is internationally renowned for his iconic Astro Boy. Introduced in Japan in 1951 as Tetsuwan Atom (Mighty Atom), Tezuka's signature creation remains an international phenomenon across multiple platforms, rising off the page and landing in television, films, video games, and...
Zoya was just a year old when Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. By age 4, she made a Russian woman soldier cry when she refused to accept her proffered chocolate. She was raised mostly by her devout grandmother, while both parents worked to...
Mega-award-winning author Deborah Ellis’s active interest in Afghanistan began in 1996 when she heard about the Taliban takeover of that country "and the crimes they perpetrated against women and girls." She became involved with the Afghan communities in her native Canada, then traveled to meet...
I can count on one hand the books that I've given by the dozens to lucky relatives and friends over the decades. One of those counting fingers belongs to Tan Twan Eng's debut stunner, The Gift of Rain. With the impending American release this month of...
As I look back on my post for Dreams of Joy's prequel, Shanghai Girls, I was clearly, quickly aware then that Janet Song was not the best choice for narrator. That I was somehow fooled into listening to Song again is surely a 'shame on...
Now that we're in the final weekend of summer, I figured today was the right day to choose what was apparently the title this season (yes, I do open the occasional mega-bestseller, the few times I crawl out from under my rock). Since Reese Witherspoon's production company...
Exactly two weeks have passed since the London 2012 closing ceremony; still feeling Olympic withdrawal? Might I suggest a literary antidote: Chris Cleave's latest novel, made even more timely as the Olympic sport of choice here is cycling (albeit indoors). Road cyclist Bradley Wiggins emerged...
Charles Yu's stories are indescribable. Really. Every time I picked up this recent collection, my face broke out in a goofy, uncertain grin, because I was totally unsure of what I might encounter next. Here's what I can tell you ...
Ready for the frenzy of going back to school? So long, summer … hello, morning rush! I shudder ...
I don't know how I never noticed before, but Kurosagi comes with a "Parental Advisory | Explicit Content" warning sticker (volume 11 had it on the outside plastic shrink-wrap; volume 12 got more serious and placed it on the actual book!). True enough that some...
* STARRED REVIEW The recipient of international accolades – including Canada’s coveted Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction (2010) for its original Canadian debut in French – this extraordinary first novel unfolds like ethereal poetry. The enigmatic title means “a small stream and, figuratively, a flow, a discharge—of...
Self-made Mumbai real estate mogul Dharmen Shah is determined to build his iconic structure, the Shanghai, a "super-luxury" residential skyscraper, named to reflect his admiration for "all the will power in the world" he associates with the rising global power of the Chinese. In order...
"'I've always imagined paradise as something like a library,'" the titular March expounds. Is that not a perfect thought? Alas, while March is Geraldine Brooks' most award-winning – that yellow circle on the cover announces its 2006 Pulitzer Prize – I must confess it was my least favorite; if I had...
The legendary 1993 Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison begins her latest novel with a jarring disconnect of warning: the title is Home, and yet the first pages open with an unannotated verse – "Whose house is this? / ...
Remember that gorgeous film, Red Violin, which tells the story (backwards) of the creation and fantastical 300-plus-year-history of the eponymous instrument? People of the Book uses a similar structure to reveal the story of a 500-year-old illuminated manuscript known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. That haggadah is very real;...
I haven't picked up a Geraldine Brooks title since her 2001 debut novel, Year of Wonders, which promptly became an international bestseller. I definitely had that sense of 'wow' when I finished, but then I inexplicably ignored the rest of her titles ...
