Aug 22

Aug 22 The Covenant of Water

The Covenant of Water (2023) by Abraham Verghese well-deserves the title of (my personal) most anticipated book of the year. As soon as I heard that Verghese, author of the beautiful, difficult book Cutting for Stone, had a new book coming out, this one set predominantly in India, I got a little giddy. Verghese’s career as a surgeon (he is faculty at Stanford’s School of Medicine, after all) blends with his incredibly artful prose to make moving, fascinating reads. Even after many months of anticipation, The Covenant of Water wowed me, moved me, and left me feeling connected to something bigger and more beautiful than any single life.

Dec 21

Dec 21 A Place for Us

Chris Mathers Jackson

Contemporary Fiction

Fatima Farheen Mirza’s debut novel, A Place for Us (2018) is a touching a family drama punctuated on modern American issues, particularly those of immigrant families.

Sep 24

Sep 24 The Henna Artist

Chris Mathers Jackson

Contemporary Fiction

In Alka Joshi’s debut, historical fiction novel, The Henna Artist (2020), Lakshmi Shastri, the henna artist premier in 1950s Jaipur, recounts her story.

Feb 3

Feb 3 The Far Field

Chris Mathers Jackson

Contemporary Fiction

Madhuri Vijay’s debut novel The Far Field (2019) transports its reader to modern day India. This novel is a confession by thirty-year-old Shalini. She self-consciously tells her story as she leaves her native Bangalore in search of one man from Kashmir who touched her childhood. Her journey is a sort of coming-of-age even though she is in her mid-twenties when she sets off. Intertwined with her travels, Shalini reflects on her childhood and the lives of her mother and father. Ultimately her trip leads Shalini to the poverty, community, and brutality found in conflict-rife Kashmir.

Hi.