Naomi Benaron has already won the Bellwether Prize for Running the Rift, a novel about a boy who grows up during the ethnic conflict in Rwanda and the 1994 genocide. The last two winners of the Bellwether were also first novelists whose work showed teen appeal: Hillary Jordan, 2006, for Mudbound (Algonquin Books) and Heidi [...]
When her parents split, Blessing is moved from the comforts of a modern apartment complex to a poor rural village in the Niger Delta. The American teens we serve are certainly familiar with changes of circumstance – often due to parents who divorce, lose jobs or relocate. Blessing experiences all of those changes in one [...]
Kamala Nair’s first novel was inspired by a trip to the tiny village in India where her father grew up. Nair describes her novel as a dark fairy tale, combined with a coming-of-age. Perfect choice for a teen summer read. NAIR, Kamala. The Girl in the Garden: A Novel. 305p. Grand Central. 2011. Tr $24.99. [...]
Much has been made of the fact that Téa Obreht was named as one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35 and to the New Yorker’s Top 20 under 40. These are wonderful honors, and yes, Obreht is very young and talented. But what really matters is her writing. Her debut novel, The Tiger’s [...]
Nathacha Appanah grew up in a traditional Indian family on Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. As an adult, she emigrated to France and is currently based in Paris. She has published four novels in French, and this is the first of her novels to be published in translation in the [...]
Wessel Ebersohn writes thrillers that illuminate the society and culture of South Africa. The October Killings is his first book based in the new, post-apartheid South Africa. The October Killings also marks the first appearance of character Abigail Bukula, who will be central to a continuing series of novels. Her partner in this novel, Yudel [...]
Lipstick in Afghanistan by Roberta Gately joins a growing number of books set in Afghanistan, both fiction and nonfiction. While I would not compare Lipstick in Afghanistan to The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns, I do believe that the same readers might enjoy it. This is a lighter treatment of the troubles in Afghanistan, from the [...]
Secret Daughter, a debut novel, has slowly but steadily become an international hit this year. It landed at #2 on the Amazon Best Books of 2010 Customer Favorites list, second only to Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Gowda is Canadian, where her novel is especially popular. This November article tells the story [...]
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