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BookDragon South Asian

Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie [in Booklist]

16 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British Asian, Fiction, Pakistani, Repost, South Asian

*STARRED REVIEW Tania Rodrigues and Kamila Shamsie prove themselves the best of audiobook companions with their fifth memorable pairing. Rodrigues, “with roots in India, Portugal and Britain,” according to her website bio, is an ideally cosmopolitan choice to follow two teens who come of age in...

Moth by Melody Raza [in Booklist]

06 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

In 1947, as Britain withdrew from India, it left in its wake a trail of vicious slaughter. British Iranian debut novelist Melody Razak introduces the (mostly) Brahmin residents of Delhi’s Pushp Vihar – “the House of Flowers” – whose lives become the tragic microcosm of...

Other Names for Love by Taymour Soomro [in Booklist]

03 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, British Asian, Fiction, Repost, South Asian

Indian-born, English-raised Homer Todiwala undoubtedly improves British Pakistani Taymour Soomro’s evocative debut, in which father and son take turns navigating a relationship conflicted by power and clashing identities. At 16, Fahad is expected to learn to “take responsibility” for the family estate in rural Pakistan....

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid [in Booklist]

30 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Pakistani, Pakistani American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Twice Booker-shortlisted author Mohsin Hamid’s opening sentence immediately recalls one of western literature’s most notable first lines: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” Hamid’s transformer here is Anders, “a white...

The Earthspinner by Anuradha Roy [in Booklist]

30 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

*STARRED REVIEW Sarayu (just Sara at her English university) has a scholarship so tight that she dreams of telling her benefactor how “an extra hundred pounds would make not the tiniest difference to his life but would transform [hers].” She finds comfort – not to mention...

Kiki Kallira Conquers a Curse [Kiki Kallira, Book 2] by Sangu Mandanna [in School Library Journal]

16 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian

Indian-born British actor Zenia Starr returns to narrate the second volume of Sangu Mandanna’s Hindu mythology-inspired series, featuring now 12-year-old Kiki whose artistic prowess can engender whole worlds. To read both titles in order (Kiki debuted in Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom), of course, is...

Sojourn by Amit Chaudhuri [in Shelf Awareness]

12 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

*STARRED REVIEW Amit Chaudhuri – novelist, poet, essayist, musician – dexterously expands the quotidian into philosophical, sociopolitical, and existential ruminations in Sojourn, a sparse narrative with undeniably dense resonance. An unnamed Indian writer arrives in Berlin for a four-month university residency. He's befriended, then abandoned, by a...

Tamarind and the Star of Ishta by Jasbinder Bilan [in School Library Journal]

08 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, South Asian

British actor Seema Bowri makes her narrating debut, her crisp, youthful voice an ideal match for 11-year-old Tamarind, a Bristol, England-raised girl meeting her late mother’s family for the first time. Her father, recently remarried and on his way to his honeymoon, arranges to leave...

Honor by Thrity Umrigar [in Booklist]

08 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Sneha Mathan returns for her third outstanding collaboration with Thrity Umrigar, their shared Indian heritage again enhancing their author/narrator symbiosis. Accents, genders, ages, backgrounds, and emotions abound, but Mathan embraces diverse characterizations with effortless ease. In a remote Indian village, a young Hindu widow has...

The Archer by Shruti Swamy [in Booklist]

02 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

As in her lauded debut short story collection, A House Is a Body (2020), Shruti Swamy examines women’s ownership of their very selves in her first novel, which is set in a disappeared Bombay. Swamy divides Vidya’s young life into five distinct sections, focusing on pivotal...

A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti [in Shelf Awareness]

12 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Eastern European, European, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Time, geographies, and backgrounds all seem to flow effortlessly through Jai Chakrabarti's exquisite debut novel, A Play for the End of the World. At its core is the provenance of a possible love story between two strangers in New York City. Interwoven into this uncertain...

The Bombay Prince [A Mystery of 1920s India Book 3] by Sujata Massey [in Shelf Awareness]

29 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Sujata Massey introduced feisty Perveen Mistry, India's first female solicitor, in the Agatha Award-winning The Widows of Malabar Hill in 2018. In the meticulously researched and entertainingly executed The Bombay Prince, Massey continues to mine details from the lives of two groundbreaking Indian women – Cornelia Sorabji and...

China Room by Sunjeev Sahota [in Shelf Awareness]

17 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Fiction, Indian, Repost, South Asian

China Room, the outstanding third novel by Sunjeev Sahota, ends with a black-and-white image of an older woman holding a crying infant. That photo – displayed in a dining room in China Room – is the dual narrative's pivotal connector: a "great-grandmother ...

The Parted Earth by Anjali Enjeti [in Booklist]

08 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Before partition, the bloody 1947 cleaving that established India and Pakistan, Deepa was a happy teen in Delhi, loved by two parents who ran a medical clinic serving all in need. But hatred, politics, and fire destroyed her life. She left India, seemingly if not...

Serena Singh Flips the Script by Sonya Lalli [in Booklist]

25 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Actor/dancer Ulka Simone Mohanty confidently makes her solo debut and is clearly poised to become a chosen voice for contemporary South Asian American protagonists. Her versatility is immediately clear as she effortlessly ciphers Sonya Lalli’s (Grown-Up Pose, 2020) diverse cast: beyond career-driven exec Serena Singh,...

Are You Enjoying by Mira Sethi [in Booklist]

01 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Pakistani, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian

*STARRED REVIEW Mira Sethi showcases her literary lineage as the daughter of internationally renowned, award-winning journalists Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin, and the younger sister of lauded author and musician Ali Sethi. Already an established actor and journalist, Sethi makes her fiction debut with six partially...

The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing by Sonia Faleiro [in Booklist]

08 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Indian, Indian American, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

International headlines about the 2012 Delhi rape victim exposed the Indian megacity as “the rape capital of the world,” spurring award-winning journalist Sonia Faleiro (Beautiful Thing, 2012) to “find out, and to gather my findings in a book-length study of rape in India.” She finds...

Each of Us Killers by Jenny Bhatt [in Shelf Awareness]

06 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Debut collections rarely prove even in quality and efficacy, which makes Jenny Bhatt's 15 compelling stories in Each of Us Killers even more memorable. Peripatetically spread across continents, Bhatt's characters are often caught between expectations, desires, and boundaries. Bhatt opens with a bang – literally. In...

Night Theater by Vikram Paralkar [in Library Journal]

14 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Banished from a large private city hospital, the doctor has run a remote village clinic for three years. His “pharmacist” is an untrained young woman, her husband on call for urgent labor. Despite the doctor’s acerbic demeanor, his care is unreproachable, even self-funding necessary...

Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh [in Library Journal]

26 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American

Arya Sagar, who has dozens of Indian/South Asian audio credits, enhances Amitav Ghosh’s ("Ibis" trilogy) already penetrating around-the-world mythic quest with his mellifluous narration, especially heightened with (mostly) agile adjustments for regional accents. Ghosh’s peripatetic hero, Deen Dutta, is an earnest Brooklyn-based rare books dealer,...

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SmithsonianAPA brings Asian Pacific American history, art, and culture to you through innovative museum experiences and digital initiatives.

About BookDragon

Welcome to BookDragon, filled with titles for the diverse reader. BookDragon is a new media initiative of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), and serves as a forum for those interested in learning more about the Asian Pacific American experience through literature. BookDragon is inhabited by Terry Hong.

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