The Sound of Language: A Novel by Amulya Malladi [in Bloomsbury Review]
Indian-born, U.S.-, UK-, and now Denmark-domiciled Malladi is a literary chameleon, thanks in part to her changing addresses. Language, which features a young Afghan refugee woman escaping unnamable horrors under the Taliban, is almost like reading a sister text of Khaled Hosseini’s...
Meet Kimberly Keiko Cameron, aka “Skim,” a wannabe witch navigating her angst-filled teenage life in a 1990s Toronto high school. In this book created by cousins Mariko and Jillian, making their fabulous collaborative debut, Skim manages...
Maggie is the youngest in a family of baseball lovers. While she might not play herself – girls usually didn’t in the 1950s – she knows the game inside and out. She hangs out with guys...
Sameera Righton, who first appeared in First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover, now calls the White House “home.” Sparrow, as her parents call her, is the adopted Pakistani-born daughter of the new U.S. President and his First...
This slim volume resonates long after the last page, especially for mothers in today’s overscheduled, harried world.
Hua Wu, a recent Chinese immigrant working a dead-end waitress job in New York's Chinatown, meets stylish Jane Templeton...
Get ready for some rollicking fun with this debut novel about super-overachieving Maya, the perfect daughter who gets all As and still manages to help out in her parents’ Thai restaurant.
One small slip-up while her parents...
Pakistani dictator General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s sudden death in a mysterious 1988 plane crash remains unsolved. Hanif, once part of the Pakistani air force and now a British expat, cleverly presents a riotous fictional version of how...
Young Nanami shares an afternoon with her two grandmothers: her Baachan who lives with her family in Japan, and her Gram, who is visiting from the coast of Maine. Together the three share an ancient tradition...
A 2007 Booker Prize nominee, Sinha’s third title is presented as a series of 23 directly transcribed tapes, spoken by a creature called “Animal,” who was once human before an industrial chemical catastrophe (inspired by the...
The long-awaited follow-up to
Through loosely connected short stories, Wang's second collection straddles both worlds of her native China with her adopted America – and the undefinable spaces in between. From the young Chinese girl who sees too much in...

If literary awards are any measure of prowess, then native Chinese speaker Ha Jin has most certainly mastered the English language. As a writer of poems, short stories, and fiction, he has been showered...
A spectacular book-without-words that traces one family’s immigration story with brilliant imagination. In an unnamed troubled land, a man leaves his wife and young daughter behind in search of freedom in a new country. His adjustments...
When Aneesa, a young Muslim girl, wakes up on the first morning of Eid with just her grandmother, she greatly misses her parents, who are on a pilgrimage to Mecca. At the prayer hall, Aneesa meets...
Get ready to weep: Dog’s many lives are beautifully recounted in this gorgeous title about life cycles and reincarnation, based on the Buddhist belief of samsara (also found in Hinduism, Sikhism, and other religions).
Born again and...
Here's a delightful new spin on how adoptive parents and children are bound together. Using the age-old Chinese belief that a red thread binds people together in love, Lin has created a touching fable about a...
Mrs. Ruler finds fun and inventive ways to encourage her kindergarten students to eventually perform 100 random acts of kindness. Is there a better lesson?
Review:
Bing’s new pet, baby rat Ralph, proves to be a handful as he must learn to mind his own business and rein in his curiosity, not to mention his uncontrollable gnawing. Of course, his smarts and...
The poignant shortcomings of soulful slacker Ben Tanaka are artfully presented in this striking volume. And, of course, Ben isn’t the only one with shortcomings. When his live-in relationship in Oakland falls apart and his girlfriend...