Around the World
Afterlives
Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948- author
2021
"Erudite, ambitious Ilyas was stolen from his parents by the schutztruppe askari, the Germans' colonial troops; after years at war, he returns to his village to find his parents gone, and his sister Afiya given away. Hamza was not stolen, but was sold; he has come of age in the schutztruppe, at the right hand of an officer whose zeal and control have ensured his protection but marked him for life. He does not have words for how the war ended for him, in a haze of blood. Returning to the village of his childhood, all Hamza wants is work, however humble, and security - and the beautiful Afiya. The century is young, and the blaze of empire burns hot on the east coast of Africa. The Germans and the British and the French and the Belgians and whoever else have may have drawn their maps and signed their treaties, but the embers of revolt are not yet extinguished, and the colonialists' hunger for complete dominion is far from sated. As these interlinked friends and lovers come and go, live and work and fall in love, the shadow of war lengthens and darkens, ready to snatch them up and carry them away. Raw yet rich, sweeping yet intimate, sprawling yet acutely realised, Afterlives is an epic novel about family, love, friendship, displacement empire and war; about the ways that violence defines and undoes us, and the lives that history chooses to forget."--Provided by publisher.
The beekeeper of Aleppo
Lefteri, Christy, 1980- author
2019
Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo - until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape.
Bolla
Statovci, Pajtim, 1990- author.
2021
April 1995. Twenty-two-year-old Arsim, a recently-married student, meets a young man named Milos, a Serb. Before the day is out, everything has changed for both of them. Arsim and Milos's unlikely affair is derailed by the outbreak of war, which sends Arsim's fledgling family abroad and the timid Milos spiraling down a dark path. Years later, deported back to Pristina after a spell in prison, Arsim, alone and hopeless, finds himself in a broken reality that completely questions his past.
The great reclamation
Heng, Rachel, author.
2023
"Ah Boon is born into a fishing village amid the heat and beauty of twentieth-century coastal Singapore in the waning years of British rule. He is a gentle boy who is not much interested in fishing, preferring to spend his days playing with the neighbor girl, Siok Mei. But when he discovers he has the unique ability to locate bountiful, movable islands that no one else can find, he feels a new sense of obligation and possibility--something to offer the community and impress the spirited girl he has come to love. By the time they are teens, Ah Boon and Siok Mei are caught in the tragic sweep of history: the Japanese army invades, the resistance rises, grief intrudes, and the future of the fishing village is in jeopardy. As the nation hurtles toward rebirth, the two friends, newly empowered, must decide who they want to be, and what they are willing to give up. An aching love story and powerful coming-of-age that reckons with the legacy of British colonialism, the World War II Japanese occupation, and the pursuit of modernity, The Great Reclamation confronts the wounds of progress, the sacrifices of love, and the difficulty of defining home when nature and nation collide, literally shifting the land beneath people's feet."--Publisher marketing.
Latitudes of longing : a novel
Swarup, Shubhangi, author
2018
A spellbinding work of literature, Latitudes of Longing follows the interconnected lives of characters searching for true intimacy. The novel sweeps across India, from an island, to a valley, a city, and a snow desert to tell a love story of epic proportions. We follow a scientist who studies trees and a clairvoyant who speaks to them; a geologist working to end futile wars over a glacier; octogenarian lovers; a mother struggling to free her revolutionary son; a yeti who seeks human companionship; a turtle who transforms first into a boat and then a woman; and the ghost of an evaporated ocean as restless as the continents. Binding them all together is a vision of life as vast as the universe itself. A young writer awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in India for this novel, Shubhangi Swarup is a storyteller of extraordinary talent and insight. Richly imaginative and wryly perceptive, Latitudes of Longing offers a soaring view of humanity: our beauty and ugliness, our capacity to harm and love each other, and our mysterious and sacred relationship with nature.
Our colors
Tagame, Gengoroh, 1964- author, artist.
2022
Set in contemporary suburban Japan, Sora Itoda is a sixteen-year-old aspiring painter. He wants to live honestly as a young gay man, but that is still not acceptable in Japanese society. Sora's world changes forever when he meets Mr. Amamiya, a middle-aged gentleman who is the owner and proprietor of a local coffee shop and is completely, unapologetically out as a gay man. A mentorship and platonic friendship ensues as Sora comes out to him and Mr. Amamiya counsels Sora about how to deal with who he is. But when a figure from his past suddenly appears, the situation becomes a vivid example of just how complicated life can be.
A passage north : a novel
Arudpragasam, Anuk, author
2021
As Krishan makes the long journey by train from Colombo into the war-torn Northern Province for his grandmother's funeral, so begins an astonishing passage into the heart of a country. At once a luminous meditation on connection and longing and a moving account of the legacy of Sri Lanka's thirty-year civil war, this procession to a pyre "at the end of the earth" lays bare the imprints of an island's past and the distances we bridge in ourselves and those we love.
The scent of burnt flowers : a novel
Bazawule, Blitz, author
2022
December 26, 1965, Alabama, the fateful night that triggers an avalanche of events that turn newly engaged couple, Melvin and Bernadette, into fugitives. With a persistent F.B.I. agent on their trail, they travel to Ghana to seek the help of Melvin's old college friend, who happens to be the country's embattled president, Kwame Nkrumah. What was meant to be a fresh start quickly spirals into chaos. Steeped in the history and mythologies of West Africa, at the intersection of the civil rights movement, this novel merges political intrigue, magical encounters, and forbidden romance in an epic collision of love, morality, and power.
Under the tamarind tree
Alam, Nigar, author
2023
1964. Karachi, Pakistan. Rozeena is running out of time. She'll lose her home if her medical career doesn't take off soon. But success may come with an unexpected price. Meanwhile, the interwoven lives of her childhood best friends seem to be unraveling with each passing day. The once small and inconsequential differences between their families' social standing now threaten to divide them. 2019. Rozeena receives a call from a voice she never thought she'd hear again - one that unearths buried secrets and just might ruin everything Rozeena has worked so hard to protect.
When we were birds : a novel
Banwo, Ayanna Lloyd, author.
2022
Set in Trinidad & Tobago, two outsiders will meet inside the gates of Port Angeles’ largest and oldest cemetery. Yejide is this generation’s St. Bernard’s woman responsible for the passage of the city’s souls into the afterlife. Darwin, a devout Rastafarian, has no other job options than grave digging, a direct violation of his religion’s commandment not to interact with death.
The wind knows my name : a novel
Allende, Isabel, author
2023
Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria. He boards alone. Arizona, 2019. Anita Diaz and her mother board a train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. Intertwining past and present, this novel is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make, and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers.
You're invited
Jayatissa, Amanda author.
2022
When Amaya is invited to Kaavi's wedding in Sri Lanka, she is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: she must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost. But when Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya. Nothing is as it seems as each wedding guest has their own dark secret and agenda, and Amaya may not be the only one with a plan to keep the bride from getting her happily ever after.