Fiction Archives - Page 34 of 172

Second Sister by Chan Ho-Kei, translated by Jeremy Tiang [in Shelf Awareness]

24 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Hong Kongese, Repost, Translation

Yes, it's almost two inches thick and more than 400 pages, but that shouldn't deter readers from procuring this book promptly. Chan Ho-Kei's second thriller available in the U.S., Second Sister, is virtually irresistible, with twisty-turny, didn't-see-that-coming manipulations guaranteed to keep readers wide awake into...

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim [in Booklist]

23 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Korean American, Repost

For those looking for alternate therapies, the Miracle Submarine in Miracle Creek, Virginia, provides HBOT – hyperbaric oxygen therapy – believed to treat such conditions as autism and infertility. Despite the many ‘miracles,’ the venture is anything but: a mysterious explosion kills two patients and...

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen [in Shelf Awareness]

22 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Taiwanese, Taiwanese American, Young Adult Readers

"This novel is a romp," Abigail Hing Wen promises (and delivers!) about Loveboat, Taipei. The Loveboat, she explains in her opening note to readers, is the popular name for Chien Tan, a real-life Taiwanese summer language program aimed at diasporic teens, with a reputation for...

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami [in Booklist]

20 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Arab American, Audio, Fiction, Moroccan American, Repost

Laila Lalami’s stupendous fourth title showcases a chorus of nine Rashomon-esque characters dealing with the hit-and-run death of a Moroccan immigrant diner owner in a California Mojave Desert town. That the novel gets a nine-member full cast (with who’s-who credits at recording’s end!), including some...

Barely Missing Everything by Matt Mendez [in Booklist]

19 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Latina/o/x, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Brown lives get overlooked, trampled, dismissed, and destroyed in Matt Mendez’s searing YA debut, set in his El Paso, Texas hometown. Timothy Andrés Pabon – his voice aptly mimicking a teen who’s not quite fully mature – opens in “Chapter Juan” as should-be high school...

When You Read This by Mary Adkins [in Booklist]

18 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker – both masterful epistolary novelists – couldn’t have imagined how today’s virtual communication would become an ideal medium to tell a story about ...

The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda, translated by Alison Watts [in Shelf Awareness]

17 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Translation

What should have been a serendipitous event – a lavish birthday celebration for three generations in 1973 – turns horrific, leaving 17 family and friends dead. Decades after the tragedy, The Aosawa Murders might be a closed case, but award-winning Japanese novelist Riku Onda has plenty...

Five More to Go: Shokoofeh Azar’s The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree [in The Booklist Reader]

16 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Iranian, Iranian American, Persian, Repost, Translation

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar Although the page facing the title of Azar’s first novel to be translated into English clearly states, “Translated from the Farsi,” the linguistic enabler remains anonymous; the publisher’s official line is, “the translator of this book has asked...

The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar [in Booklist]

15 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian American, Repost, South Asian American

Author Devi S. Laskar knows what it’s like to have a police gun pointed at her. In 2010, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation raided her home when her professor husband was wrongly accused of misusing university funds. They confiscated her laptop, on which was stored...

99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan Kochai [in Booklist]

14 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Afghan, Afghan American, Audio, Central Asian, Fiction, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

During summer 2005, when “the American war was sort of dozing,” 12-year-old Marwand, his brother, and mother arrived in Logar, Afghanistan to visit extended family. The six years since Marwand’s last visit from the U.S. isn’t enough for Budabash – more wolf than dog –...

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara [in Library Journal]

13 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

Life in India’s basti (slums) has rules all its own – about toilets, water, hierarchies, privileges. The police either ignore the inhabitants, making crime reporting meaningless, or threaten to raze their ramshackle homes. Meanwhile, some 180 children go missing in India every day, reports British-based...

Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley [in Booklist]

12 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

With the right posh British accent, even lying, cheating, and all sorts of promiscuity somehow don’t seem as unforgivable. Life, death, and plenty of bed-swapping happen in Tessa Hadley’s latest, elucidated by English actor Abigail Thaw, who reads with such perfect enunciation and elegant control...

The Suspect by Fiona Barton [in Booklist]

11 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost

In Fiona Barton’s third “Kate Waters” full-audio-cast thriller, Susan Duerden assumes tenacious journalist Kate Waters from Mandy Williams who previously voiced Kate in The Widow and The Child. This time the mystery gets personal – and far-flung. Two British teens traveling in Thailand turn up as victims in...

Two Dead by Van Jensen, illustrated by Nate Powell, color by Erin Tobey [in Shelf Awareness]

10 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

Cycles of violence dominate the graphic novel Two Dead – whether at home or on so-called enemy territory. Traumatized by a World War II friendly-fire fatality, Sergeant Gideon Kemp returns stateside, eschews his law degree, and begins his police career in 1946 in his hometown...

North of Dawn by Nuruddin Farah [in Booklist]

08 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Audio, European, Fiction, Repost

Originally from Somalia, Mugdi and Gacalo have now spent the majority of their lives in Norway, where they’ve been productive citizens, raising two children. Their quiet, middle-aged calm is shattered when their son Dhaqaneh commits a suicide bombing in Somalia. Gacalo’s only way forward after the...

Labyrinth by Burhan Sönmez, translated by Ümit Hussein [in Shelf Awareness]

07 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Translation, Turkish American

Boratin is "back at zero" since his unsuccessful suicide has landed him in a hospital bed instead of Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait. He's broken a rib but lost his memory. Strangers – even though they aren't – assure him he's "a brilliant singer and songwriter" for...

All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy [in Booklist]

06 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

In his mid-60s, Myshkin is finally about to understand what he’s been yearning to know almost his entire life. Since age 9, he’s been “known as the boy whose mother had run off with an Englishman,” never mind that he is actually German. Except for...

Those Who Knew by Idra Novey [in Booklist]

05 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

“In the aging port city of an island nation near the start of the new millennium,” Idra Novey (Ways to Disappear) introduces her taut, haunting novel, giving it a foreboding sense of taking place anywhere close, anytime near. Student activist Maria P. has been dead...

The Man Without Talent by Yoshiharu Tsuge, translated by Ryan Holmberg [in Shelf Awareness]

03 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Repost, Translation

Readers have an easy choice here: to read this resonating six-chapter collection as an entertaining, albeit sobering, manga about the middle-aged life of a seeming slacker, or approach it as a prominent, pivotal example of 20th-century graphic literary history. Originally published as a magazine serial...

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli [in Booklist]

02 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Mexican, Mexican American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW Valeria Luiselli’s spectacular latest – her first fiction in English – also marks her co-narrator debut. The Mexican-born Luiselli is the dominant voice here; her accent slight, her enunciation careful. Only her collaboration could have enabled the affecting print-to-audio metamorphosis, choosing how photos, drawings,...

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