May – 2020 – The Court Dancer – Kyung-Sook Shin
The Court Dancer by Kyung-Sook Shin Book Group 1 – May 2020 The Court Dancer (translated by Anton Hur, published by Pegasus Books) is the story of Yi Jin, an orphaned young girl taken in by a kindly neighbor, who became the most accomplished performer in all the Joseon Dynasty royal court. She is favored […]
April – 2020 – Sold – Patricia McCormick
Sold – Patricia McCormick Book Group 2 – April 2020 The heart-wrenching story of Lakshmi, from Nepal, who is sold into prostitution at the age of 13, and kept captive in Happiness House – where she not only survives against all odds, but triumphs. Lakshmi’s family is desperately poor, but village life in the mountains […]
March – 2020 – The Sealwoman’s Gift – Sally Magnusson
The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson Book Group 1 – March 2020 In 1627 Barbary Pirates raided the coast of Iceland and abducted some 400 of its people, including 250 from a tiny island off the mainland. Among the captives sold into slavery in Algiers were the island pastor, his pregnant wife and their three […]
March 2020 – The Pearl that Broke its Shell – Nadia Hashimi
The Pearl that Broke Its Shell – Nadia Hashimi Book Group 1 – March 2020 The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi tells a story of a young girl in present day: Rahima. As she goes through various hardships,her Khala Shaima tells her the story of her great, great grandmother,Shekiba whose story bears […]
Feb 2020 – The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga Book Group 2 –February 2020 A brutal view of India’s class struggles is cunningly presented in Adiga’s debut about a racist, homicidal chauffeur. Balram Halwani is from the “Darkness,” born where India’s downtrodden and unlucky are destined to rot. Balram manages to escape his village and move to Delhi […]
Feb 2020 – Home Fire
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie Book Group 1 – February 2020 Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2018 Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2017 Long listed for the Man Booker Prize 2017 Home Fire is a contemporary reimagining of the Greek tragedy Antigone. It is a powerful exploration of the clash between society, […]
Jan, 2020 – A Place for Us – Fatima Farheen Mirza
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza Book Group 2 – January 2020 As an Indian wedding gathers a family back together, parents Rafiq and Layla must reckon with the choices their children have made. There is Hadia – their headstrong, eldest daughter, whose marriage is a match of love and not tradition. Huda, […]
Nov 2019 – Colors of the Mountain
Colors of the Mountain By Da Chen Book Group 1 – November 2019 In the autobiography of his upbringing in China during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Da describes his struggles as an intelligent, artistic child of a former wealthy family to live among society in which all his values and capabilities stigmatized him as an outsider. […]
Nov 2019 – The Dragon Behind the Glass
The Dragon Behind the Glass by Emily Voight Book Group 2 – November 2019 Coveted as a status symbol believed to bring good luck, the Asian Arowana, or ‘dragon fish’, is an example of a modern paradox: the mass-produced endangered species. The book starts with the murder of a young man for his pet fish […]
October 2019 – Secret Daughter
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda Book Group 1- October 2019 Our book group read the New York Times bestseller Secret Daughter (2010) by Canadian-Indian author Shilpi Somaya Gowda for November. A highly acclaimed novel, Secret Daughter, has been translated into more than thirty languages and has sold more than a million copies. Set in […]