Calcutta 1967. Impelled by their character flaws and their culture, the middle-class Ghoshes slide inexorably to their mutually assured destructions. Utterly compelling and almost completely, horribly, tragic.
View The Lives of Others
A harrowing tale, based on true accounts of the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by jihadist group Boko Haram in 2014. This book shows one young girl’s courage and determination to survive against all the odds whilst battling with her new identity as a mother. This is a violent, forced coming of age story, told with a shocking detachment and a terrible growing understanding of people and power.
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Set in modern Japan, this is a tense and compelling read. It tells the tale of four ordinary working-class women and the profound effect that one event has on their lives. At first glance I didn't think I would enjoy this book but I was totally wrong - I was hooked from the first page and couldn't put it down.
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Esther is one of 139 schoolgirls abducted by warlord Joseph Kony and forced to become a child soldier. Though she eventually returns home she must then attempt to reconcile herself with all that she has seen, done, and suffered. Told in parallel we learn of Jane, an American writer who goes to Africa to find herself after her marriage fails. Minot weaves their stories together to examine suffering and loss in a suspenseful, heart-rending novel.
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Life is hard for the women of Vardo, harder still after a freak storm drowns the men of the village. The women find new ways to survive, but the arrival of a witch hunting commissioner and his young wife, threaten everything that island life has been. Like the landscape, emotions and relationships are raw and wild and I was captured by the tension and threat of this story. This is a harsh and emotionally stirring read inspired by true events.
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A chorus of voices combine to reclaim the story of Teha-amana, muse and child-bride of artist Paul Gauguin, and subject of his painting 'Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch'. Set in Tahiti, the book interweaves exquisite retellings of Polynesian origin myths with troubling colonial power abuses behind the painting. Familiarise yourself with the artwork before reading if you can, as this makes the book's multiple voices resonate even more profoundly.
View I Am Not Your Eve
Yejide does not have an easy life. In fact, her life is a tragedy of huge proportions reeling from crisis to crisis, as it approaches disaster. Ayobami Adebayo transfixes you with her tale, like the Ancient Mariner clutching the wedding guest's arm. You will certainly emerge sadder. Whether you emerge wiser depends on your ability to listen.
View Stay With Me
This is a tale of the friendship group of Filipino maids working in Singapore, which would be light-hearted but for the unthinking exploitation of their employers, and the threat of execution hanging over Flordeliza when she is framed for murder. Downtrodden girl power at its best!
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A disturbing, coming of age story of a young slave girl in 17th century Brazil, seeking to find her identity. As she is moved from plantation to plantation she hears of a place called Palmares where former slaves are said to be free. But is it the paradise it seems? This complex tale is told in a dispassionate way, but is woven with magic realism and mysticism. bringing a sense of hope to an otherwise bleak struggle.
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A wonderful, lyrical set of short stories that will set your mind on fire with their passion, their strangeness and yet, despite all the differences in culture, their very familiarity because of their humanity, and because they describe the kind of predicament that we all know only too well in our own lives.
View Drifting HouseYou won’t find the biggest bestsellers on Whichbook as everyone knows about them already. But you can use your enjoyment of a current bestseller to see titles with a similar mood that you might try next.
