nomadreader

The backstory: A Burning is the debut novel of Mega Majumdar, who was born and raised in Kolkata, India. She moved to the United States to attend college at Harvard University, followed by graduate school in social anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. She works as an editor at Catapult, and lives in New York City. The basics:  "An electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who seek to rise--to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies--and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India. Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely--an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the ...

The backstory: Sleeping on Jupiter  is on the 2015 Booker Prize longlist. The basics:  From the publisher: "A train stops at a railway station. A young woman jumps off. She has wild hair, sloppy clothes, a distracted air. She looks Indian, yet she is somehow not. The train terminates at Jarmuli, a temple town by the sea. Here, among pilgrims, priests and ashrams, three old women disembark only to encounter the girl once again. What is someone like her doing in this remote corner, which attracts only worshippers? Over the next five days, the old women live out their long-planned dream of a holiday together; their temple guide finds ecstasy in forbidden love; and the girl is joined by a photographer battling his own demons." My thoughts: Roy is an author I've been meaning to read for years. I have copies of her earlier books on my shelf, so I was thrilled to see this book, which I had not heard of (there's no announced U.S. release). From the first page, I was...

The backstory: A Question of Honor  is the fifth historical mystery in mother and son writing team Charles Todd's Bess Crawford, a British World War I nurse, series. My reviews of the first four: A Duty to the Dead , An Impartial Witness , A Bitter Truth , and An Unmarked Grave . The basics: A Question of Honor  begins in India in 1908, when Bess was living there while her father's regiment was stationed there. The regiment faces a challenge when one of their own killed five people. He's assumed dead, but as the novel shifts back to its present tense in the fall of 1918, Bess begins to seek the truth, about his possible presence in France and about what happened ten years ago. My thoughts: I adore Bess as a character, and it was a delight to spend a little time in her childhood at the beginning of this book. I tend to shy away from mysteries in which the sleuth is not actually in law enforcement or a private investigator, but Charles Todd has done quite well giving Be...

The backstory:  Leaving Everything Most Loved  is the tenth Maisie Dobbs mystery novel. Here are links to my reviews of the first nine books:  Maisie Dobbs ,  Birds of a Feather ,  Pardonable Lies ,  Messenger of Truth ,  An Incomplete Revenge ,   Among the Mad ,   The Mapping of Love and Death ,   A Lesson in Secrets , and An Elegy for Eddie .  (There may be some minor spoilers from earlier novels in this review.) The basics: When Usha Pramal is found dead in London, the police soon run out of clues. When Usha's brother arrives in London two months later, he is dismayed at the lack of progress in the case and enlists the help of Maisie to help solve his sister's murder. My thoughts: Reading a Maisie Dobbs novel feels like spending time with an old friend. I'm particularly fond of Maisie as a character, and I appreciate how much changes in her life over the course of her books. Leaving Everything Most Loved  rais...

The basics: The World We Found  is Thrity Umrigar's fifth novel. It's the story of four best friends, Nishta, Laleh, Kavita and Armaiti, who went to college together in Bombay in the late 1970's. Armaiti left for graduate school in the U.S., but when she is diagnosed with a brain tumor, her one wish is for her three friends to make the journey to visit her in the U.S. My thoughts: The characters in this novel grabbed my attention immediately. Despite introducing so many characters in the first few pages, I never struggled to differentiate among them. The four women and their friendship are the crux of this novel, and I appreciated that Umrigar told the story in the present day while offering glimpses of the past. This novel also offers an impressive breadth of Indian history, from the demonstrations of liberal college students in the late 1970's to the Hindu/Muslim riots of the early 1990's to the state of religious attitudes today. While these issues play a stron...

The backstory: Swapna convinced me to read this one with her glowing review . The basics: Secret Daughter  is the story of Somer, a white California doctor; Somer's husband Krishnan, who grew up in India and is also a doctor; Kavita, a married woman in India whose husband believes they can only afford one child and it must be a boy; and Asha, the young Indian girl Kavita gives up for adoption and always wonders about and Somer and Krishnan adopt. My thoughts: I began reading Secret Daughter  with high expectations, and from the opening pages, I was mesmerized by the characters and stories. The novel moved through time and effortlessly shifted between narrators. I was simultaneously eager to catch up with each character and reluctant for the chapter to end. I loved following the stories of these characters who did not know their own connections to each other. I'm a huge fan of novels dealing that are stories of lives and how events shape us. Secret Daughter  is abou...

The basics: "The eldest of seven children, born low-caste and female in rural India, Mamta is abused and rejected by a father who can see no reason to 'water someone else's garden' until a husband can be found for her. Seeking escape in matrimony, Mamta begins her wedded life with hope--but is soon forced to flee her village and the horrors of her arranged marriage to the bustle of a small city." -- from the back of the book My thoughts:   Someone Else's Garden , Dipikia Rai's debut novel, is quite beautifully written. As I read the book's first sentences, I knew I had to pay attention. The reader jumps right into the story and several character names. Soon, however, the novel began to drag before me. I still enjoyed Rai's writing and gift for description, but it wasn't enough to keep the magic alive. I never found myself scrambling to write down certain passages, but I did find myself re-reading passages to myself. The book was a lovely in...