Black Water Sister

One of BookPage's Best Books of 2021
Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award 2021 Best Audiobook
One of Book Riot's Best SFF Standalones of 2021
One of Tor Reviewers' Choice Best Books of 2021

A twisty, feminist, and enthralling page-turner steeped in Malaysian mythology. (BuzzFeed)

When Jessamyn Teoh starts hearing a voice in her head, she chalks it up to stress. Closeted, broke and jobless, she’s moving back to Malaysia with her parents—a country she last saw when she was a toddler.

She soon learns the new voice isn’t even hers, it’s the ghost of her estranged grandmother. Drawn into a world of Malaysian myth and real-world consequences filled with gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business, but dealing with her grandmother is just as complicated.

“[Focusing on] Malaysia’s Chinese diaspora culture. . . an immersive tale of family secrets, deities, spirits, and religious belief. Cho offers a complex emotional roller-coaster of a read.”—Library Journal

“Ghosts. Gods. Gangsters. Wildly entertaining…Black Water Sister has it all!”—Vulture

“Cho’s multifaceted characters, like her masterful plot, are never quite what they first appear. Unpredictable twists keep the pages turning while the comic but endearing relationship between Jess and her sassy grandmother provides the story’s heart. This is a must-read.”—Publishers Weekly

Note: Outstanding on audio!

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder. +A staff recommendation of hers.)

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The Gift of Rain

The recipient of extraordinary acclaim from critics and the bookselling community, Tan Twan Eng’s debut novel casts a powerful spell and has garnered comparisons to celebrated wartime storytellers Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene.

Set during the tumult of World War II, on the lush Malayan island of Penang, The Gift of Rain tells a riveting and poignant tale about a young man caught in the tangle of wartime loyalties and deceits.In 1939, sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton-the half-Chinese, half-English youngest child of the head of one of Penang’s great trading families-feels alienated from both the Chinese and British communities. He at last discovers a sense of belonging in his unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat. Philip proudly shows his new friend around his adored island, and in return Endo teaches him about Japanese language and culture and trains him in the art and discipline of aikido. But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. When the Japanese savagely invade Malaya, Philip realizes that his mentor and sensei-to whom he owes absolute loyalty-is a Japanese spy. Young Philip has been an unwitting traitor, and must now work in secret to save as many lives as possible, even as his own family is brought to its knees.

“The Gift of Rain sends the reader back into the world of Somerset Maugham-the waning British Empire, the simmering discord between classes and races, the thick tropical surroundings that are both beautiful and suffocating—but at a different angle. Maugham cast a cynical eye on human nature and its frailties; Tan Twan Eng looks upon them with compassion, like a creator might view the imperfections of his handiwork.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

(Group read suggestion from Sue Attalla, book club moderator.)

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Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder

Meet Inspector Singh: a fat, slightly bumbling, but truly lovable detective sure to charm readers of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency.

Inspector Singh is in a bad mood. He's been sent from his home in Singapore to Kuala Lumpur to solve a murder that has him stumped. Chelsea Liew—the famous Singaporean model—is on death row for the murder of her ex-husband. She swears she didn't do it, he thinks she didn't do it, but no matter how hard he tries to get to the bottom of things, he still arrives back at the same place—that Chelsea's husband was shot at point blank range, and that Chelsea had the best motivation to pull the trigger: he was taking her kids away from her. Now Inspector Singh must pull out all the stops to crack a crime that could potentially free a beautiful and innocent woman and reunite a mother with her children. There's just one problem—the Malaysian police refuse to play ball.

”Flint keeps the reader hooked right up to the unexpected resolution.” —Publishers Weekly

”A charming and solid mystery with an enticing international atmosphere.” —Booklist

”It's impossible not to warm to the portly, sweating, dishevelled, wheezing Inspector Singh from the start of this delightful debut novel.” —The Guardian

”I like Flint’s smooth style and the rhythm of her writing, as well as her ability in making real an environment so far removed from ours, globalisation notwithstanding.” —Thriller Books Journal (UK)

(Group read suggestion from Gemma Ware, book club moderator.)

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The Rice Mother

At the age of fourteen, Lakshmi leaves behind her childhood among the mango trees of Ceylon for married life across the ocean in Malaysia, and soon finds herself struggling to raise a family in a country that is, by turns, unyielding and amazing, brutal and beautiful. Giving birth to a child every year until she is nineteen, Lakshmi becomes a formidable matriarch, determined to secure a better life for her daughters and sons. From the Japanese occupation during World War II to the torture of watching some of her children succumb to life’s most terrible temptations, she rises to face every new challenge with almost mythic strength. Dreamy and lyrical, told in the alternating voices of the men and women of this amazing family, The Rice Mother gorgeously evokes a world where small pleasures offset unimaginable horrors, where ghosts and gods walk hand in hand. It marks the triumphant debut of a writer whose wisdom and soaring prose will touch readers, especially women, the world over.

A first novel of Eastern exoticism, myth and magic, and unforgettable characters, living and dead….You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more powerful, moving read this year.” —Glamour

“The Rice Mother exudes the fascination of another world…. It possesses a genuine intimacy and passionate involvement.” —The Times (London)

(A special thank you to book club member, Jordi Valbuena for the suggestion.)

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Spirits Abroad

Ray Bradbury Prize finalist, Hugo Award.”

A new expanded edition of Zen Cho’s award-winning debut collection.

Nineteen sparkling stories that weave between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead. Spirits Abroad is an expanded edition of Zen Cho’s Crawford Award winning debut collection with twelve added stories including Hugo Award winner “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again.” A Datin recalls her romance with an orang bunian. A teenage pontianak struggles to balance homework, bossy aunties, first love, and eating people. An earth spirit gets entangled in protracted negotiations with an annoying landlord, and Chang E spins off into outer space, the ultimate metaphor for the Chinese diaspora.

“A must-read!” —Bustle

“These short stories infused with Malaysian folklore are absolutely gorgeous. Just as with her novels, Cho merges humor and relatable characters with delightful prose and engaging storylines.” —Buzzfeed

“A collection of speculative stories that play on Malaysian folklore with humor and compassion. . . . the collection’s most moving stories harness seamless worldbuilding, intriguing character development, and thematic complexity. A swath of delightful and intricate stories from a wildly inventive storyteller.” —Kirkus Reviews

Note: There are 2 editions of this book. Make sure to pick up the 2021 edition as it includes more stories along with the delightful “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again,” which won a Hugo Award.

(A special thank you to book club member, Megan Stroup Tristao for the suggestion.)

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The Weight of Our Sky

A music loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur in this heart-pounding, “stunning” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) debut.

Melati Ahmad looks like your typical movie-going, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother’s death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.

A trip to the movies after school turns into a nightmare when the city erupts into violent race riots between the Chinese and the Malay. When gangsters come into the theater and hold movie-goers hostage, Mel, a Malay, is saved by a Chinese woman, but has to leave her best friend behind to die.

On their journey through town, Mel sees for herself the devastation caused by the riots. In her village, a neighbor tells her that her mother, a nurse, was called in to help with the many bodies piling up at the hospital. Mel must survive on her own, with the help of a few kind strangers, until she finds her mother. But the djinn in her mind threatens her ability to cope.

“This is a brutally honest, no-holds-barred reimagining of the time: The evocative voice transports readers to 1960s Malaysia, and the brisk pace is enthralling. Above all, the raw emotion splashed across the pages will resonate deeply, no matter one's race or religion. Unabashedly rooted in the author's homeland and confronting timely topics and challenging themes, this book has broad appeal for teens.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Melati’s growing strength gives hope to readers: If she can fight her inner demon and save the day, then they can, too.” —Booklist

(Group read suggestion from Julie Jacobs, book club moderator.)

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The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (aka The Secret Lives of the Four Wives)

First published as The Secret Lives of the Four Wives. Re-released in most countries as The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives.

Award-winning author Lola Shoneyin delivers an irresistible and entertaining story of marriage, family, power, and heartache set in modern-day Nigeria in her debut novel.

When Baba Segi woke up with a bellyache for the sixth day in a row, he knew it was time to do something drastic about his fourth wife’s childlessness.

For Baba Segi, his collection of wives and gaggle of children are a symbol of prosperity, success, and a validation of his manhood. All is well in this patriarchal home, until Baba arrives with wife number four, a quiet, college-educated, young woman named Bolanle. Jealous and resentful of this interloper who is stealing their husband’s attention, Baba’s three wives, begin to plan her downfall. How dare she not know her place, they whisper. How dare she offer to teach them to read. They will teach her instead, they vow, and open their husbands eyes to this wicked wind who has upturned the tranquility of their home.

Bolanle’s mother worked hard to educate her daughter and save her from a life of polygamy and dependence. She cannot understand why her daughter has chosen such a fate. But Bolanle hides a terrible secret—a secret that will unwittingly exposes the deception and lies, secrets and shame upon which Baba Segi’s household rests.

A stirring tale of men and women, mothers and children, servitude and independence, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives illuminates the common threads that connect the experiences of all women: the hardships they bear, their struggle to define themselves, and their fierce desire to protect those they love.

“Shoneyin's gripping debut set in modern-day Nigeria...masterfully disentangles four distinct stories, only to subtly expose what is common among them.” —Publishers Weekly

Important note: There are different versions of this book available. One version is a stage adaptation. Make sure you pick up the book & NOT the stage adaptation.

(Group read suggestion from Gemma Ware, book club moderator.)

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Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree

Based on interviews with young women who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, this poignant novel by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani tells the timely story of one girl who was taken from her home in Nigeria and her harrowing fight for survival.

A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband—these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone can see that these dreams aren’t too far out of reach.

But the girl’s dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors’ radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she’s been told.

Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life—her future—is hers to fight for.

“Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s harrowing YA debut is certain to stun readers. Nwaubani portions out the heartrending story in brief chapters with deceptively poetic prose... a disturbing, agonizing story that will surely provide rich thought and discussion.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review

“Unflinching in its direct view of an ongoing tragedy, this important novel will open discussions about human rights and violence against women and girls worldwide.” —Publishers Weekly

(Group read suggestion from Sue Attalla, book club moderator.)

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Butter Honey Pig Bread

Finalist - Lambda Literary Award, Governor General's Literary Award, Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize

An intergenerational saga about three Nigerian women: a novel about food, family, and forgiveness.

Butter Honey Pig Bread is a story of choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all, family.

Francesca Ekwuyasi's debut novel tells the interwoven stories of twin sisters, Kehinde and Taiye, and their mother, Kambirinachi. Kambirinachi feels she was born an Ogbanje, a spirit that plagues families with misfortune by dying in childhood to cause its mother misery. She believes that she has made the unnatural choice of staying alive to love her human family and now lives in fear of the consequences of that decision.

Some of Kambirinachi's worst fears come true when her daughter, Kehinde, experiences a devasting childhood trauma that causes the family to fracture in seemingly irreversible ways. As soon as she's of age, Kehinde moves away and cuts contact with her twin sister and mother. Alone in Montreal, she struggles to find ways to heal while building a life of her own. Meanwhile, Taiye, plagued by guilt for what happened to her sister, flees to London and attempts to numb the loss of the relationship with her twin through reckless hedonism.

Now, after more than a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde have returned home to Lagos to visit their mother. It is here that the three women must face each other and address the wounds of the past if they are to reconcile and move forward.

“The stories of Kambirinachi and her daughters, Taiye and Kehinde, unfold in lyrical, emotionally affecting parallel narratives . .. Written in sizzling prose, Ekwuyasi's assured, inspired debut will impress fans of Akwaeke Emezi.” —Publishers Weekly

(A special thank you to book club member, Layne Percival for the suggestion.)

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David Mogo Godhunter

Winner of the 2020 Nommo Ilube Award (an all Africa-based award) for Best Novel

A celebration of Nigerian mythology turning multiple genres on their head to create a completely new mash-up of Nigerian God-punk, David Mogo Godhunter is like nothing you've ever read…

Lagos will not be destroyed

The gods have fallen to earth in their thousands, and chaos reigns. Though broken and leaderless, the city endures.

David Mogo, demigod and godhunter, has one task: capture two of the most powerful gods in the city and deliver them to the wizard gangster Lukmon Ajala.

No problem, right?

“This story is captivating!” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“It's a fun, fresh ride brimming full of adventure. Wholeheartedly recommend if you love Zen Cho, Tade Thompson, or Nnedi Okorafor.” —Jager

“Vivid, visceral and with a strength of the voice that just pulls you right in. The god-littered world of David Mogo's Lagos just won't let go.” —Ng

“Assured, arch, and thoroughly enjoyable—an auspicious debut from one of the most promising new voices in the growing coterie of African writers.” —Wired Magazine

“A Nigerian Harry Dresden. Okungbowa's voice is great, and makes Lagos feel familiar.” —Jacey Bedford, author of Winterwood

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Dear Senthuran

Featured on the cover of Time Magazine as a 2021 next generation leader

In critically acclaimed novels, Akwaeke Emezi has introduced readers to a landscape marked by familial tensions, native belief systems, and a boundless search for what it means to be free. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, the bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji (view on Amazon) reveals the harrowing yet resolute truths of their own life. Through candid, intimate correspondence with friends, lovers, and family, Emezi traces the unfolding of a self and the unforgettable journey of a creative spirit stepping into power in the human world. Their story weaves through transformative decisions about their gender and body, their precipitous path to success as a writer, and the turmoil of relationships on an emotional, romantic, and spiritual plane, culminating in a book that is as tender as it is brutal.

Electrifying and inspiring, animated by the same voracious intelligence that distinguishes their fiction, Dear Senthuran is a revelatory account of storytelling, self, and survival.

“A once-in-a-generation voice.” —Vulture

“One of our greatest living writers.” —Shondaland

“A thing of great beauty . . . Dear Senthuran is about powerful excellence, especially the excellence that appears in bodies that aren’t white and aren’t male. Emezi is changing the world and our reaction to this kind of power.” —The Paris Review

“An audacious sojourn through the terror and beauty of refusing to explain yourself.” —New York Times Book Review

“The brilliant Akwaeke Emezi candidly shares their reflections on gender, embodiment, queerness, creativity and relationships with the same fierce dedication and candor that defines their bestselling novels.” —Ms. Magazine

(A special thank you to book club member, Heather Purcell for the suggestion.)

Note: Great on audio—read by the author herself!

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Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Achebe’s critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa’s cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man’s futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political and religious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.

With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.

“[Achebe] is one of world literature’s great humane voices.” —Times Literary Supplement

“A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.” —Barack Obama 

“Achebe’s influence should go on and on . . . teaching and reminding that all humankind is one.” —The Nation

“The first novel in English which spoke from the interior of an African character, rather than portraying the African as exotic, as the white man would see him.” —Soyinka

“The Founding Father of the African novel in English.” —The Guardian

(Group read suggestion from Julie Jacobs, book club moderator.)

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Migrations

Amazon Editors' Pick for Best Book of the Year in Fiction

Franny Stone has always been the kind of woman who is able to love but unable to stay. Leaving behind everything but her research gear, she arrives in Greenland with a singular purpose: to follow the last Arctic terns in the world on what might be their final migration to Antarctica. Franny talks her way onto a fishing boat, and she and the crew set sail, traveling ever further from shore and safety. But as Franny’s history begins to unspool—a passionate love affair, an absent family, a devastating crime—it becomes clear that she is chasing more than just the birds. When Franny's dark secrets catch up with her, how much is she willing to risk for one more chance at redemption?

Epic and intimate, heartbreaking and galvanizing, Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations is an ode to a disappearing world and a breathtaking page-turner about the possibility of hope against all odds.

“Visceral and haunting” (NY Times Book Review) · “Hopeful” (Washington Post) · “Powerful” (Los Angeles Times) · “Thrilling” (TIME) · “Tantalizingly beautiful” (Elle) · “Suspenseful, atmospheric” (Vogue) · “Aching and poignant" (Guardian) · “Gripping” (The Economist)

“At times devastating and, at others, surprisingly, undeniably hopeful...Brimming with stunning imagery and raw emotion, Migrations is the incredible story of personal redemption, self-forgiveness and hope for the future in the face of a world on the brink of collapse.” —Shelf Awareness

Note: Great on audio!

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Exit West

Finalist for the Booker Prize & winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize for Fiction & the Aspen Words Literary Prize
 
A New York Times bestseller, the astonishingly visionary love story that imagines the forces that drive ordinary people from their homes into the uncertain embrace of new lands…
 
In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet—sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair, and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors—doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through. . . .

Exit West follows these remarkable characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time.

“A breathtaking novel…[that] arrives at an urgent time.” —NPR
 
“It was as if Hamid knew what was going to happen to America and the world, and gave us a road map to our future… At once terrifying and … oddly hopeful.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“Moving, audacious, and indelibly human.” —Entertainment Weekly, “A” rating

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The Yield

Written by a First Nations author (Wiradjuri)

Winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award & Kate Challis RAKA Award

Knowing that he will soon die, Albert “Poppy” Gondiwindi has one final task he must fulfill. A member of the indigenous Wiradjuri tribe, he has spent his adult life in Prosperous House and the town of Massacre Plains, a small enclave on the banks of the Murrumby River. Before he takes his last breath, Poppy is determined to pass on the language of his people, the traditions of his ancestors, and everything that was ever remembered by those who came before him. The land itself aids him; he finds the words on the wind.

After his passing, Poppy’s granddaughter, August, returns home from Europe, where she has lived the past ten years, to attend his burial. Her overwhelming grief is compounded by the pain, anger, and sadness of memory—of growing up in poverty before her mother’s incarceration, of the racism she and her people endured, of the mysterious disappearance of her sister when they were children; an event that has haunted her and changed her life. Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that Prosperous is to be repossessed by a mining company. Determined to make amends and honor Poppy and her family, she vows to save their land—a quest guided by the voice of her grandfather that leads into the past, the stories of her people, the secrets of the river.

Told in three masterfully woven narratives, The Yield is a celebration of language and an exploration of what makes a place “home.” A story of a people and a culture dispossessed, it is also a joyful reminder of what once was and what endures—a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling, and identity, that offers hope for the future.

“Unmissable.” —The Guardian

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Our Lady of Alice Bhatti

From the author of the acclaimed A Case of Exploding Mangoes (view on Amazon) comes a subversively, often shockingly funny new novel set in steaming Karachi.

The patients of the Sacred Heart Hospital for All Ailments need a miracle. Alice Bhatti may be just what they’re looking for. She’s the new junior nurse, but that’s the only ordinary thing about her. She’s just been released from the Borstal Jail for Women and Children. But more to the point, she’s the daughter of a part-time healer in the French Colony, Karachi’s infamous Christian slum, and it seems she has, unhappily, inherited his part-time gift. With a bit of begrudging but inspired improvisation, Alice begins to bring succor to the patients lining the hospital’s corridors and camped outside its gates. But all is not miraculous. Alice is a Christian in an Islamic world, ensnared in the red tape of hospital bureaucracy, trapped by the caste system, torn between her duty to her patients, her father and her husband—who is a former bodybuilding champion, now an apprentice to the nefarious “Gentleman’s Squad” of the Karachi police, and about to drag Alice into a situation so dangerous that perhaps not even a miracle will be able to save them. But, of course, Alice Bhatti is no ordinary young woman . . .

At once a high comedy of errors and a searing illumination of the seemingly unchangeable role of women in Pakistan’s lower-caste society, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is a resounding confirmation of Mohammed Hanif’s gifts of storytelling and of razor-sharp social satire.

“Relentlessly readable. A comedy for those who think, a tragedy for those who feel. . . . Hanif does Karachi better than Rushdie does Bombay.” —The Guardian

”Rambunctious, vulgar, funny, and moving, Alice Bhatti wields enormous emotional punch. . . The world could do with more books that portray Pakistanis this way.” —Time

“Belly-laugh-inducing. Sam Lypsyte funny. Faulty-Towers funny. The silliness is anarchic and profound...a ripping story and a rowdy piece of art.” —The New York Times

“An amusingly anarchic tale of Karachi life so alive with sensations that you can smell the sewers, hear the screeching of tyres, and feel the humidity.” —The Scotsman

(Group read suggestion from Sue Attalla, book club moderator.)

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Kartography

A love story with a family mystery at its heart, Kartography is a dazzling novel by a young writer of astonishing maturity and exhilarating style

Raheen and her best friend, Karim, share an idyllic childhood in upper-class Karachi. Their parents were even once engaged to one another’s partners, until they rematched in what they call “the fiancée swap.” But as adolescence distances the friends, Karim takes refuge in maps while Raheen searches for the secret behind her parents’ exchange. What she uncovers reveals not just a family’s turbulent history, but also a country’s—and now a grown-up Raheen and Karim are caught between strained friendship and fated love.

Kartography transports readers to a world not often seen in fiction: vibrant, dangerous, sensuous Pakistan.

“[Shamsie] packs her story with the playful evidence of her high-flying intelligence.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Deftly woven, provocative . . . Shamsie’s blistering humor and ear for dialogue scorches through [a] whirl of whiskey and witticisms.” —The Observer (UK)

“A shimmering, quick-witted lament and love story . . . Rich in emotional coloratura and wordplay.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

(A special thank you to book club member, Elke Richelsen for the suggestion.)

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The Lost Children of Paradise

A self-driving cargo container crashes in rural Pakistan. Inside are 46 kidnapped street children. A traditional who-done-it mystery, set against the unique backdrop of a futuristic Pakistan with two great main characters in a fun, engrossing read…

As a grizzled, semi-retired policewala (police officer) living in rural twenty-second century Pakistan, Officer Nawaz had long ago substituted any notions of heroism with a pretty impressive drinking habit. But when he comes across a crashed cargo container near his hometown carrying kidnapped street children, curiosity drives him to investigate. Fate pairs him up with Adil Khan, a young, idealistic, and rather annoying space cadet from the global Confederation. While most of the developed world looks to the stars, Pakistan finds itself embroiled in age-old problems. The two officers must face challenges at once unique and timeless in order to untangle the mystery of the kidnapped container children.

“What a gem! One rarely encounters a genuinely strong book on [US] Kindle Unlimited. This is one of them. The narrative, the characters, the plot, and the setting create a beautifully realized world that is both recognizable and strange. This is imaginative fiction at its best!” —Chandos

“Sparkling character development and world building—noir from a Pakistan several centuries ahead. Love the dialogue, love the plot.” —Dr. Bruce

“A refreshingly unique premise with excellent pacing. A thoughtful imagining of the Third World in the future.” —Hammond

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Moth Smoke

The debut novel from the internationally bestselling author of Exit West (view on Amazon) and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (view on Amazon), both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

Moth Smoke, Mohsin Hamid’s deftly conceived first novel, immediately marked him as an uncommonly gifted and ambitious young literary talent to watch when it was published in 2000. It tells the story of Daru Shezad, who, fired from his banking job in Lahore, begins a decline that plummets the length of Hamid’s sharply drawn, subversive tale.

Fast-paced and unexpected, Moth Smoke was ahead of its time in portraying a contemporary Pakistan far more vivid and complex than the exoticized images of South Asia then familiar to the West. It established Mohsin Hamid as an internationally important writer of substance and imagination and the premier Pakistani author of our time, a promise he has amply fulfilled with each successive book. This debut novel, meanwhile, remains as compelling and deeply relevant to the moment as when it appeared more than a decade ago.

“A subtly audacious work and prodigious descendant of hard-boiled lit and film noir… Moth Smoke is a steamy and often darkly amusing book about sex, drugs, and class warfare in postcolonial Asia.” –The Village Voice

“Friends, a love triangle, murder, criminal justice, hopelessness, humidity. It’s set in Lahore, there’s a beautiful woman. Her name is Mumtez and she smokes pot and cigarettes and drinks straight Scotch. Read this book. Fall in love.” –Publishers Weekly

(Group read suggestion from Gemma Ware, book club moderator.)

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The Pakistani Bride

Wild, austere, and magnificently beautiful, the territories of northern Pakistan are a forbidding place, particularly for women. Traveling alone from the isolated mountain village where he was born, a tribal man takes an orphaned girl for his daughter and brings her to the glittering city of Lahore. Amid the pungent bazaars and crowded streets, he makes his fortune and a home for the two of them.

Yet as the years pass, he grows nostalgic for his life in the mountains, and his fifteen-year-old daughter envisions a romantic landscape, filled with tall men who roam the mountains like gods. Impulsively, the man promises his daughter in marriage to a man of his tribe. But once she arrives in the mountains, the ancient customs of unquestioning obedience and backbreaking work make accepting her fate as the bride of an inscrutable husband impossible. Unfortunately, the only escape is one from which there is no return.

Prescient and provocative in its assessment of the plight of women in a tribal society in Pakistan, the first of Bapsi Sidhwa’s novels is a story of marriage and commitment, of the conflict between adherence to tradition and indomitable force of a woman’s spirit.

“At a breathless pace [Sidhwa] weaves her exotic cliffhanger from passion, power, lust, sensuality, cruelty and murder.” —Financial Times (UK)

“Bapsi Sidhwa is a powerful and dramatic novelist who knows how to flesh out a story.” —London Times (UK)

(A special thank you to book club member, Eydis West for the suggestion.)

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