Posts tagged "lit"

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nigerian african lit ficition novel the queen's gambit Ikenna Emmanuel Ezuma

May 17
The Queen’s Gambit Ikenna Emmanuel Ezuma ISBN 1477587586  The Queen’s Gambit is an epic story set in the early times when the Benin Kingdom reigned supreme between the South-South and the South-West regions of Nigeria.In this tragic tale, the timeless conflict between the forces of good and of evil plays out when a man, overcome by blind ambition, allows greed to possess his will and in the process, desecrates the land. But unknown to the people, beyond their borders, far across the great river and in a foreign land, lies the only hope of the kingdom….Like a fast-paced movie, this compelling story, packed with unsuspecting twists and intriguing suspense and richly spiced with interesting African proverbs, brings to life the rich cultural depths of the famous ancient Benin kingdom and is sure to hold you spell bound from the very first flip of the page. It is a promise!

The Queen’s Gambit

Ikenna Emmanuel Ezuma

ISBN 1477587586 

The Queen’s Gambit is an epic story set in the early times when the Benin Kingdom reigned supreme between the South-South and the South-West regions of Nigeria.

In this tragic tale, the timeless conflict between the forces of good and of evil plays out when a man, overcome by blind ambition, allows greed to possess his will and in the process, desecrates the land. But unknown to the people, beyond their borders, far across the great river and in a foreign land, lies the only hope of the kingdom….

Like a fast-paced movie, this compelling story, packed with unsuspecting twists and intriguing suspense and richly spiced with interesting African proverbs, brings to life the rich cultural depths of the famous ancient Benin kingdom and is sure to hold you spell bound from the very first flip of the page. It is a promise!


1
revenge yoko ogawa horror fiction lit short stories

May 15
Revenge  Yoko Ogawa Sinister forces draw together a cast of desperate characters in this eerie and absorbing novel from Yoko Ogawa.An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Years later, the writer’s stepson reflects upon his stepmother and the strange stories she used to tell him. Meanwhile, a surgeon’s lover vows to kill him if he does not leave his wife. Before she can follow-through on her crime of passion, though, the surgeon will cross paths with another remarkable woman, a cabaret singer whose heart beats delicately outside of her body. But when the surgeon promises to repair her condition, he sparks the jealousy of another man who would like to preserve the heart in a custom tailored bag. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and innocent bystanders—their fates converge in a darkly beautiful web that they are each powerless to escape.Macabre, fiendishly clever, and with a touch of the supernatural, Yoko Ogawa’s Revenge creates a haunting tapestry of death—and the afterlife of the living.

Revenge 

Yoko Ogawa

Sinister forces draw together a cast of desperate characters in this eerie and absorbing novel from Yoko Ogawa.

An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Years later, the writer’s stepson reflects upon his stepmother and the strange stories she used to tell him. Meanwhile, a surgeon’s lover vows to kill him if he does not leave his wife. Before she can follow-through on her crime of passion, though, the surgeon will cross paths with another remarkable woman, a cabaret singer whose heart beats delicately outside of her body. But when the surgeon promises to repair her condition, he sparks the jealousy of another man who would like to preserve the heart in a custom tailored bag. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and innocent bystanders—their fates converge in a darkly beautiful web that they are each powerless to escape.

Macabre, fiendishly clever, and with a touch of the supernatural, Yoko Ogawa’s Revenge creates a haunting tapestry of death—and the afterlife of the living.


zimbabwean african lit novel fiction we need new names noviolet bulawayo

May 14
We Need New Names: A Novel NoViolet Bulawayo ISBN 0316230812  Release Date: May 21, 2013 Darling is only 10 years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo’s belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad.But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America’s famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few. NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut calls to mind the great storytellers of displacement and arrival who have come before her—from Zadie Smith to Monica Ali to J.M. Coetzee—while she tells a vivid, raw story all her own.

We Need New Names: A Novel

NoViolet Bulawayo

ISBN 0316230812 

Release Date: May 21, 2013

Darling is only 10 years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo’s belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad.

But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America’s famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few. NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut calls to mind the great storytellers of displacement and arrival who have come before her—from Zadie Smith to Monica Ali to J.M. Coetzee—while she tells a vivid, raw story all her own.


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Hooked Liz Fichera lit novel fiction romance native american ya

May 13
Hooked (Hooked #1) Liz Fichera ISBN 9781460893470 When Native American Fredricka ‘Fred’ Oday is invited to become the only girl on the school’s golf team, she can’t say no. This is an opportunity to shine, win a scholarship and go to university, something no one in her family has done. But Fred’s presence on the team isn’t exactly welcome — especially not to rich golden boy Ryan Berenger, whose best friend was kicked off the team to make a spot for Fred.But there’s no denying that things are happening between the girl with the killer swing and the boy with the killer smile…

Hooked (Hooked #1)

Liz Fichera

ISBN 9781460893470

When Native American Fredricka ‘Fred’ Oday is invited to become the only girl on the school’s golf team, she can’t say no. This is an opportunity to shine, win a scholarship and go to university, something no one in her family has done. 

But Fred’s presence on the team isn’t exactly welcome — especially not to rich golden boy Ryan Berenger, whose best friend was kicked off the team to make a spot for Fred.

But there’s no denying that things are happening between the girl with the killer swing and the boy with the killer smile…


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Luther: The Calling (Luther 1) Neil Cross fiction lit novel mystery thriller suspense

May 12
Luther: The Calling (Luther #1) Neil Cross ISBN 0857203371  Luther: The Calling, by Neil Cross, is the first of three tie-in novels based on the BBC crime drama Luther,starring Idris Elba.  Meet DCI John Luther.He’s brilliant. He’s intense. He’s obsessional. He’s dangerous.DCI John Luther has an extraordinary clearance rate. He commands outstanding loyalty from friends and colleagues. Nobody who ever stood at his side has a bad word to say about him. But Luther seethes with a hidden fury that at times he can barely control. Sometimes it sends him to the brink of madness, making him do things he shouldn’t; things way beyond the limits of the law. The Calling is the story of the case that tore his personal and professional relationships apart and propelled him over the precipice. Beyond fury, beyond vengeance. All the way to murder…

Luther: The Calling (Luther #1)

Neil Cross

ISBN 0857203371 

Luther: The Calling, by Neil Cross, is the first of three tie-in novels based on the BBC crime drama Luther,starring Idris Elba. 

Meet DCI John Luther.
He’s brilliant. He’s intense. He’s obsessional. He’s dangerous.

DCI John Luther has an extraordinary clearance rate. He commands outstanding loyalty from friends and colleagues. Nobody who ever stood at his side has a bad word to say about him. But Luther seethes with a hidden fury that at times he can barely control. Sometimes it sends him to the brink of madness, making him do things he shouldn’t; things way beyond the limits of the law.

The Calling is the story of the case that tore his personal and professional relationships apart and propelled him over the precipice. Beyond fury, beyond vengeance. All the way to murder…


Ghana Must Go Taiye Selasi african ghanian lit novel fiction

May 11
Ghana Must Go Taiye Selasi  ISBN 1594204497  Kweku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of Kweku’s death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before. Ghana Must Go is their story. Electric, exhilarating, beautifully crafted, Ghana Must Go is a testament to the transformative power of unconditional love, from a debut novelist of extraordinary talent.  Moving with great elegance through time and place, Ghana Must Gocharts the Sais’ circuitous journey to one another. In the wake of Kweku’s death, his children gather in Ghana at their enigmatic mother’s new home. The eldest son and his wife; the mysterious, beautiful twins; the baby sister, now a young woman: each carries secrets of his own. What is revealed in their coming together is the story of how they came apart: the hearts broken, the lies told, the crimes committed in the name of love. Splintered, alone, each navigates his pain, believing that what has been lost can never be recovered—until, in Ghana, a new way forward, a new family, begins to emerge.Ghana Must Go is at once a portrait of a modern family, and an exploration of the importance of where we come from to who we are. In a sweeping narrative that takes us from Accra to Lagos to London to New York, Ghana Must Go teaches that the truths we speak can heal the wounds we hide.

Ghana Must Go

Taiye Selasi 
ISBN 1594204497 

Kweku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of Kweku’s death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before. Ghana Must Go is their story. Electric, exhilarating, beautifully crafted, Ghana Must Go is a testament to the transformative power of unconditional love, from a debut novelist of extraordinary talent.  

Moving with great elegance through time and place, Ghana Must Gocharts the Sais’ circuitous journey to one another. In the wake of Kweku’s death, his children gather in Ghana at their enigmatic mother’s new home. The eldest son and his wife; the mysterious, beautiful twins; the baby sister, now a young woman: each carries secrets of his own. What is revealed in their coming together is the story of how they came apart: the hearts broken, the lies told, the crimes committed in the name of love. Splintered, alone, each navigates his pain, believing that what has been lost can never be recovered—until, in Ghana, a new way forward, a new family, begins to emerge.

Ghana Must Go is at once a portrait of a modern family, and an exploration of the importance of where we come from to who we are. In a sweeping narrative that takes us from Accra to Lagos to London to New York, Ghana Must Go teaches that the truths we speak can heal the wounds we hide.


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the wild geese ogai mori novella fiction lit japanese asian historical fiction

May 10
The Wild Geese Ōgai Mori ISBN 0804810702  First published in serial form, The Wild Geese is the story of unfulfilled love set against a background of social change. Ogai portrays with compassion and beauty the drama of a girl forced by poverty to become a moneylender’s mistress. Around her, in scenes of humor and pathos, move the skillfully drawn characters of her weak-willed father, her lover and his suspicious wife, and a handsome student who is both the object of her desire and the symbol of her rescue.

The Wild Geese

Ōgai Mori

ISBN 0804810702 

First published in serial form, The Wild Geese is the story of unfulfilled love set against a background of social change. Ogai portrays with compassion and beauty the drama of a girl forced by poverty to become a moneylender’s mistress. Around her, in scenes of humor and pathos, move the skillfully drawn characters of her weak-willed father, her lover and his suspicious wife, and a handsome student who is both the object of her desire and the symbol of her rescue.


1
Snow Hunters paul yoon lit novella fiction historical fiction Asian

May 08
Snow Hunters Paul Yoon ISBN 1476714819  In this elegant, haunting, and highly anticipated debut novel from 5 Under 35 National Book Foundation honoree Paul Yoon, a North Korean war refugee confronts the wreckage of his past. With spare, evocative prose, Snow Hunters traces the extraordinary journey of Yohan, who defects from his country at the end of the war, leaving his friends and family behind to seek a new life in a port town on the coast of Brazil.Though he is a stranger in a strange land, throughout the years in this town, four people slip in and out of Yohan’s life: Kiyoshi, the Japanese tailor for whom he works, and who has his own secrets and a past he does not speak of; Peixe, the groundskeeper at the town church; and two vagrant children named Santi and Bia, a boy and a girl, who spend their days in the alleyways and the streets of the town. Yohan longs to connect with these people, but to do so he must sift through his traumatic past so he might let go and move on.In Snow Hunters, Yoon proves that love can dissolve loneliness; that hope can wipe away despair; and that a man who has lost a country can find a new home. This is a heartrending story of second chances, told with unerring elegance and absolute tenderness.

Snow Hunters

Paul Yoon

ISBN 1476714819 

In this elegant, haunting, and highly anticipated debut novel from 5 Under 35 National Book Foundation honoree Paul Yoon, a North Korean war refugee confronts the wreckage of his past. With spare, evocative prose, Snow Hunters traces the extraordinary journey of Yohan, who defects from his country at the end of the war, leaving his friends and family behind to seek a new life in a port town on the coast of Brazil.

Though he is a stranger in a strange land, throughout the years in this town, four people slip in and out of Yohan’s life: Kiyoshi, the Japanese tailor for whom he works, and who has his own secrets and a past he does not speak of; Peixe, the groundskeeper at the town church; and two vagrant children named Santi and Bia, a boy and a girl, who spend their days in the alleyways and the streets of the town. Yohan longs to connect with these people, but to do so he must sift through his traumatic past so he might let go and move on.

In Snow Hunters, Yoon proves that love can dissolve loneliness; that hope can wipe away despair; and that a man who has lost a country can find a new home. This is a heartrending story of second chances, told with unerring elegance and absolute tenderness.


1
love is power or something lik that A. Igoni Barrett lit fiction short stories nigerian african

May 06
Love Is Power, or Something Like That: Stories A. Igoni Barrett   ISBN 1555976409  When it comes to love, things are not always what they seem. In contemporary Lagos, a young boy may pose as a woman online, and a maid may be suspected of sleeping with her employer and yet still become a young wife’s confidante. Men and women can be objects of fantasy, the subject of beery soliloquies. They can be trophies or status symbols. Or they can be overwhelming in their need.   In these wide-ranging stories, A. Igoni Barrett roams the streets with people from all stations of life. A man with acute halitosis navigates the chaos of the Lagos bus system. A minor policeman, full of the authority and corruption of his uniform, beats his wife. A family’s fortunes fall from love and wealth to infidelity and poverty as poor choices unfurl over three generations. With humor and tenderness, Barrett introduces us to an utterly modern Nigeria, where desire is a means to an end, and love is a power as real as money.

Love Is Power, or Something Like That: Stories

A. Igoni Barrett
 
ISBN 1555976409 

When it comes to love, things are not always what they seem. In contemporary Lagos, a young boy may pose as a woman online, and a maid may be suspected of sleeping with her employer and yet still become a young wife’s confidante. Men and women can be objects of fantasy, the subject of beery soliloquies. They can be trophies or status symbols. Or they can be overwhelming in their need. 

 In these wide-ranging stories, A. Igoni Barrett roams the streets with people from all stations of life. A man with acute halitosis navigates the chaos of the Lagos bus system. A minor policeman, full of the authority and corruption of his uniform, beats his wife. A family’s fortunes fall from love and wealth to infidelity and poverty as poor choices unfurl over three generations. With humor and tenderness, Barrett introduces us to an utterly modern Nigeria, where desire is a means to an end, and love is a power as real as money.


Indira Ganesan As Sweet as Honey south asian indian lit novel fiction

May 06
As Sweet as Honey Indira Ganesan ISBN 0307960447  In her latest novel, Indira Ganesan, a writer often likened to Arundhati Roy and Chitra Divakaruni (see back of jacket for reviews), gives us an enchanting story of family life that is a dance of love and grief and rebirth set on a gorgeous island in the Indian Ocean.The island is filled with exotic flora and fauna and perfumed air. A large family compound is presided over by a benign, stalwart grandmother. There is a very tall South Asian heroine with the astonishing un-Indian name of Meterling, who has found love at last in the shape of a short, round, elegant Englishman who wears white suits. There are also numerous aunts, uncles, and young cousins—among them, Mina, grown now, and telling this story of a marriage ceremony that ends with a widowed bride who, in the midst of her grief, discovers she is pregnant.            While enjoying their own games and growing pains, Mina and her young cousins follow every nuance of gossip, trying to puzzle out what is going on with their favorite aunt, particularly when the groom’s cousin arrives from England and begins to woo her. As Meterling—torn between Eastern and Western ideas of love and family, duty and loyalty—struggles to make a new life, we become as entranced with this family, its adventures and complications, as Mina is.And with her we celebrate a time and place where, although sometimes difficult, life was for the most part as sweet as honey.   

As Sweet as Honey

Indira Ganesan

ISBN 0307960447 

In her latest novel, Indira Ganesan, a writer often likened to Arundhati Roy and Chitra Divakaruni (see back of jacket for reviews), gives us an enchanting story of family life that is a dance of love and grief and rebirth set on a gorgeous island in the Indian Ocean.

The island is filled with exotic flora and fauna and perfumed air. A large family compound is presided over by a benign, stalwart grandmother. There is a very tall South Asian heroine with the astonishing un-Indian name of Meterling, who has found love at last in the shape of a short, round, elegant Englishman who wears white suits. There are also numerous aunts, uncles, and young cousins—among them, Mina, grown now, and telling this story of a marriage ceremony that ends with a widowed bride who, in the midst of her grief, discovers she is pregnant.            

While enjoying their own games and growing pains, Mina and her young cousins follow every nuance of gossip, trying to puzzle out what is going on with their favorite aunt, particularly when the groom’s cousin arrives from England and begins to woo her. As Meterling—torn between Eastern and Western ideas of love and family, duty and loyalty—struggles to make a new life, we become as entranced with this family, its adventures and complications, as Mina is.

And with her we celebrate a time and place where, although sometimes difficult, life was for the most part as sweet as honey.