“The Travelling Cat Chronicles” by Hiro Arikawa (Japan) Synopsis Set against the backdrop of Japan’s changing seasons and narrated with a rare gentleness and humour, Nana’s story explores the wonder and thrill of life’s unexpected detours. It is about the value of friendship and solitude, and knowing when to give and when to take… Read more Review The four shortlisted books for this year’s Summer … Continue reading The Travelling Cat Chronicles
“Human Acts” by Han Kang (South Korea) Review Readers described this book as a lyrically written account of a horrendous event and its aftermath. They felt that the descriptions swayed from hard and heavy – with the passages on decomposing corpses and torture – to ethereal – with the ghost reflecting on what happens after death and the survivors’ memories. Readers found the linked stories … Continue reading Human Acts
“The Golden Legend” by Nadeem Aslam (Pakistan) Review Distinctly historical fiction or with a clear taste of history both past and present, the four shortlisted books for this year’s Summer Reading Group were all of excellent calibre making it tough to settle on just one favourite. Our readers also noticed a recurrent theme in all four of violence and hardship and regretted that the summer … Continue reading The Golden Legend
“A Fine Balance” by Rohinton Mistry (India) Synopsis Set in mid-1970s India, “A Fine Balance” tells the story of four unlikely people whose lives come together during a time of political turmoil soon after the government declares a ‘State of Internal Emergency.β Through days of bleakness and hope, their circumstances – and their fates – become inextricably linked in ways no one could have foreseen. … Continue reading A Fine Balance
“No Man’s Land” by Duong Thu Huong (Vietnam) Synopsis Set in a hamlet in the countryside of central Vietnam immediately following the end of the war in 1975, the novel’s plot is set in motion when a young woman, happily married to a successful farmer, comes home one day to find a throng of villagers assembled around her gate. She learns that her first husband, … Continue reading No Man’s Land
“I Am A Cat” by Soseki Natsume (Japan) Synopsis βI am a cat. As yet I have no name.β So begins one of the most original and unforgettable works in Japanese literature. Richly allegorical and delightfully readable, “I Am A Cat” is the chronicle of an unloved, unwanted, wandering kitten who spends all his time observing human nature β from the dramas of businessmen and … Continue reading I Am A Cat
“Burnt Shadows” by Kamila Shamsie (Pakistan) Favourite Extract War is like disease. Until you’ve had it, you don’t know it. But no. That’s a bad comparison. At least with disease everyone thinks it might happen to them one day. You have a pain here, swelling there, a cold which stays and stays. You start to think maybe this is something really bad. But war – … Continue reading Burnt Shadows
“Island of a Thousand Mirrors” byΒ Nayomi Munaweera (Sri Lanka) Review Readers were unanimous in their appreciation of this book. They described the writing style as beautiful and of high calibre for a first novel. It awakened all their senses, drawing them into the story and bringing the people and places vividly to life. They found themselves immersed in the lives of the two protagonists and … Continue reading Island of a Thousand Mirrors
