Sept, 2022 – Bright – Duanwad Pimwana
BG2 – September 2022 – Review Book Group 2 had a meeting this September to discuss Duanwad Pimwana’s “Bright” a translation into English by Mui Poopoksakul. Kampol was a boy abandoned by both parents and left to be cared for by the occupants of Mrs. Tongjan’s cluster of tenement houses. One must have great faith […]
Aug, 2022 – The Baghdad Clock – Shahad Al Rawi
BG 1 – Book Review – August 26th 2022 The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi The Baghdad Clock, a story between real and imaginary, is written by Iraqi author Shahad Al Rawi with magic realism as her writing style. The book has been originally written in Arabic, published in 2016 and has been translated […]
Aug, 2022 – City of Djinns – A Year in Delhi – William Dalrymple
BG 2 – Book Review – August 2022 City of Djinns – a Year in Delhi by William Dalrymple William Dalrymple peels back the layers of Delhi’s history, in a what can be called part travelogue part memoir. The book goes back in time, from the 1984 riots, to Indraprastha, the mythical city of the […]
June, 2022 – Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line – Deepa Anaparra
Book Group 1 had a zoom meeting to discuss the author’s debut and widely praised book on June 30th 2022. Deepa Anaparra has worked in Mumbai and Delhi as a journalist and has mainly covered the poor neighbourhoods where people live in constant fear of bulldozers destroying their tin roofed shacks and corrupt police officers […]
June, 2022 – Between Clay and Dust by Musharraf Ali Farooqi
Book Group 2 Shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, Between Clay and Dust is a moving and beautifully told story of a wrestling champion and a courtesan with a prestigious past struggling to hold onto the world they once knew amidst the eruptions of history in the aftermath of Partition between India and Pakistan. […]
May, 2022 – Map of Salt and Stars – Jennifer Zeyn Joukhandar
Every now and again there comes a book that fills you with Hope and makes you believe in humankind. Jennifer Zenyab Joukhandar’s Map of Salt and Stars is one such novel. A beautiful, lyrical debut novel that evokes much thought and discussion on the very serious issue of the Syrian Refugees and their displacement from […]
April, 2022 – How to Pronounce Knife – Souvankham Thammavongsa
Book Group 1 How to Pronounce Knife: Stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa is an award-winning book of short stories, written by the daughter of Lao refugees to Canada. This story collection centers on characters and their children struggling to make their way in unfamiliar territory, shuttling between different languages, cultures, and values. The more you read […]
April, 2022 – Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 – Cho Nam-Joo
Kim Ji-young is the main character of this novel, and we follow her throughout her life and how she got to be the way she is in the modern era. She was born in an uneventful household, but there was blatant favouritism in the house towards the youngest son. We follow Kim’s life, from childhood, […]
March, 2022 – Travels in a Dervish Cloak – Isambard Wilkinson
BG 1, March Book Review Travels in a Dervish Cloak by Isambard Wilkinson Travels in a Dervish Cloak is not strictly a travel book per se. The “dervish cloak” of the title is Pakistan itself—a fraying patchwork garment, in a phrase borrowed from Lahore’s patron saint, Data Ganj Bakhsh. The “travels”, meanwhile, are less a […]
March, 2022 – The Runaways – Fatima Bhutto
BG 2 March 2022 Review The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto Fatima Bhutto – it’s a famous name, and also a name marked with sagas in South Asian history. She says, “In a way, violence is always described in stark black and white terms and I wanted to think about it in a different way. How […]