BOOKWORM
APOCALYPSE NOW (AND FOREVER)
The Light at the End of the World by Siddhartha Deb, Soho Press, $36. A British soldier rides with his troops to the Himalayan foothills in 1859 on the hunt for a rebel leader. A veterinary college student in Calcutta of 1947 combs through Vedic texts to stave off a genocide. In 1984, an industrial disaster kills thousands in Bhopal. And then we travel to the near future, a post-apocalyptic India, where our worst nightmares seem very possible.
The AQI is 689 and rising, The driver is possibly only in his fifties, but he has been battered into old age, the scarf around his head like a makeshift bandage. He breaks into a series of wretched, hacking coughs and reaches for a dented Bisleri bottle wedged under his seat, its plastic casing wrinkled and translucent from repeated use.
Siddhartha Deb interweaves timelines and tales, and confronts the reader with buried truths and the secret passageways of a parallel universe that connect the dots.
Spirits, spacecraft, aliens, automatons and shape-shifting real-ity...The Light at the End of the World is an interminably long, dark tunnel where that dim brightness faraway offers just a glimmer of hope.
Catch him at TIFA this month. Details at festivalofauthors.ca.
MURDER, SHE WROTE
Murder Under A Red Moon by Harini Nagendra, Constable, $19.99. You know those murder mysteries that leave you feeling like the least smart person in the room?
In which the author does the big reveal at the end, pointing to the clues sprinkled all around, as if to say, it was here, right under your nose, and you didn’t see it! Harini Nagendra is not one of those. She builds her narrative gently (well, as gently as one can build a murder mystery!) and her protagonist, Kaveri Murthy, muddles things and stumbles along with the reader, solving the crime before anyone else in the book, yes, but always with the reader.
The second book in the series is also set in 1920s Bangalore, against the backdrop of the Freedom struggle as well as the burgeoning suffragette movement.
The larger issues of the day are rarely addressed in this genre, but Nagendra touches upon several, including casual racism. In The Bangalore Detectives Club, Mrs Roberts had said she called every female househelp Mary because she couldn’t be bothered to remember their complicated names. In this, her sister-in-law says, “Well, you know, some of these natives have such difficult names to pronounce.”
Nagendra addresses class and caste consciousness among ladies in her circle too.
At a TIFA event in June Harini Nagendra had spoken of the importance of food and clothes in setting a scene. Thus, Kaveri’s saris are described in loving detail and so is the food with recipes of some of these at the end of the book.
Kannada words are sprinkled throughout the book, many explained in context, with a glossary providing meaning.
PARADISE LOST AND FOUND
The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise by Pico Iyer, Riverhead Books, $36. Paradise is where the anxieties, struggles and burdens of life fall away. Some say it’s a place, some say it’s a state of mind. Some places on earth claim to approximate the promise of paradise. Some believe it can be attained only after death.
Pico Iyer brings together a lifetime of explorations – in India’s Kashmir, in Dalai Lama’s Himalayas, in the fraught lanes of Jerusalem and the landscape of Iran and Sri Lanka, all places of conflict, difficulty and suffering – to upend our ideas of Utopia. Why do we turn seeming paradises into war zones? Might we come upon paradise in the course of our very real lives?
Iyer doesn’t promise to deliver the answers you want to hear, but asks all the questions that have been nagging at us all for a long time.
UNVARNISHED TRUTH
Nothing But The Truth, a memoir by Marie Henein, Signal, $23. I picked up the book because I find Marie Henein intriguing. She’s arguably the most prominent lawyer in Canada. Her most successful cases have made her a “lightning rod” in some circles, and I wanted to know why she took some of those cases. After all, what’s a memoir without the juicy details?
But her opening lines set the tone. “I thought a lot about not writing this book. For many reasons. The thing that kept troubling me is that the relationship between me and my clients is deeply personal... Ethically, I must keep those confidences; I simply cannot share those moments.”
Instead, Henein tells her story from the beginning. As an immigrant from a tight-knit Egyptian-Lebanese family. Her role models, her mother and her grand mother. The ethical and practical implications of being a lawyer. Her struggles in a male dominated profession. The otherness of the immigrant experience. Even at the court she is sometimes called Maria, instead of Marie.
I am convinced it wasn’t the spelling that was confounding. It was my appearance. Long black hair. Dark features. Where are you really from, Maria? As though I should be sweeping the floor rather than litigating.
In the beginning she worked for the famous criminal lawyer Eddie Greenspan. Eddie got that my name mattered to me. He understood being an outsider as a Jewish lawyer from a small town in a profession of legacy.
As she turned 50, she became aware of the corrosive effect becoming invisible has on women.
Nothing But The Truth is raw, from the heart. It’s the story of a visible minority newcomer’s struggle in a field ruled by men. She might have called the book Success On My Terms, but it’s much more than just success in her chosen profession.
In the end, I forgot why I picked up the book, and all I remember is a life lived sans apologies.
COLLISION COURSE
The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam, Scribner, $22.99. What happens when two people fall in love and get married and then find their ambitions are on a collision course?
Asha Ray is a brilliant coder. Her future is all mapped out, but a whirlwind romance with her high school crush, Cyrus, changes everything.
Asha and Cyrus have big career dreams. Together with their friend Jules they build a social media platform that could bring meaning and greater connection to millions of lives. The partners bring different strengths to the table. Asha is the inventor of an ingenious algorithm, but Cyrus’ charisma propels him into the spotlight. The app is a big success, but Asha has become invisible in the company she helped create.
Tahmima Anam’s compelling narrative sets the stage for a battle of values versus emotions versus the realities of modern love.
TO PARIS, WITH LOVE
24 Hours in Paris by Romi Moondi, Wattpad Books, $22.99. Mira Attwal escapes on an all-expense paid business trip to Paris after breaking off her engagement.
Acutely aware of how her messy personal life has also disappointed her parents, she’s hoping for a bit of a break in Paris. But things aren’t going according to plan. In Paris, she’s stuck with the work crowd, with no time to tick anything off her – extensive – bucket list of must-dos and must-sees. To make matters worse, flights are over-booked and she’s left behind to take a later flight while everyone else takes off. Everyone, that is, except Jake Lewis.
The annoying Jake Lewis with the “hair gel sweeping his shaggy hair into a greasy salesman dome”. Who uses words like synergy, a loathsome business term in Mira’s mind, “right up there with pivot and take this offline”. And things only get worse. Subways are missed, trains don’t run and the stage is set for the two coworkers – so unlike each other in every way – to spend 24 hours in Paris.
Romi Moondi has an intimate knowledge of the city she has penned an ode to. Instead of famous tourist attractions, she explores hidden treasures – including a place selling old books that has a Canadian flag hanging outside – while Mira and Jake consume copious amounts of local wines and indulge in local delicacies.
Her skill lies in how the book never becomes a travel guide, instead serving as the most perfect backdrop to a developing relationship. Which may or may not have a future.
And in case you were wondering, the dreaded desi aunty doesn’t make an appearance – until the very end!
Catch her at TIFA this month. Details at festivalofauthors.ca.
MEENA’S BOOK TURNS 25!
The Girl Who Hated Books by Manjusha Pawagi, illustrated by Leanne Franson, Second Story Press, $24.95. First published in 1998, The Girl Who Hated Books was given to every grade 1 student in Canada and has gone on to be translated into 18 languages, published in 14 countries and loved by kids who love books around the world.
The 25th anniversary edition with a delightful note from the author and the sweetest letters from little readers, reproduced in their handwriting, is proof that a good story is timeless.
DREAM ON
My Bollywood Dream by Avani Dwivedi, Candlewick Press, $24.99. It’s Friday night and a little girl heads to a movie theatre with her family, capturing the sights and sounds around her with her camera,
She imagines a day in Mumbai as a movie unfolding before her eyes in this love letter to the magic of Bollywood. Author-illustrator Avani Dwivedi offers a whimsical, joyful tribute to the city of dreams. Seeing signs and names of shops in the Hindi script is a special treat. There’s even a song written in Hindi– Tip tip karte hain yeh badal – as they drive along in the monsoon rain!
ILLUMINATING READ
Peacemaker by Joseph Bruchac, Dial Books, $29.99. The people are divided. Tribes are at war with one another. The land of the Five Nations of the Iroquois is awash in hate and intrigue. Raids and killings are everyday occurrences. People live in fear. We see this through the eyes of twelve-year-old Okwaho who wants to avenge the kidnapping of his dear friend. He wants to retaliate.
Enter the Peacemaker. He materializes from nowhere, and believes he can convince the leaders of the five fighting nations to set down their weapons.
Poet-novelist Joseph Bruchac’s tautly paced tale for young readers is an illuminating read for all age groups.
TEEN REVIEW
By JAPMAN RANGI
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Tom Doherty Associates, $14.99. Ender’s Game is an incredible science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card.
Ender is a gifted boy who is employed by the military to help fight a war. I would recommend this novel to teenagers and young adults interested in the sci-fi genre and interesting and abstract yet logical takes on morality and humanity.
While very intellectual, it’s also very personal to the struggles of its main characters, and their smallest insecurities and fears. I like the way this seemingly slow-moving novel handles the story. Although there is always a sense of urgency, the book finds time to slow down and handle Ender’s personal struggles.
My favourite sections were those of Ender’s siblings, as the takes on politics and humanity were surprisingly intellectual and thought-out. Every character feels very fleshed out and their motivations make their actions very understandable. This makes it hard to see any character as the villain.
This book has some mild pacing issues in that it can either feel too slow or too fast at times, especially near the beginning and ending. All in all, Ender’s game is a fantastic take on people and humanity that is a wonderful and thought-provoking read.
• Japman Rangi s a youth volunteer at Brampton Library.