“The Goddess of Macau”, stories by Graeme Hall
A raven-haired young woman in a red dress is the deity which presides over this slim collection of eight short stories set in modern-day Macau.
“A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing” by Jessie Tu
Jena Lin was a child prodigy; now, in her early twenties, she uses sex to fill the void left by fame. Jena is still a musician, her professional life taking her from practice to rehearsal and back again. But once a solo violinist who traveled the world, she now finds herself auditioning for a position…
“The Reign of Arrows: the Rise of the Parthian Empire in the Hellenistic Middle East” by Nikolaus Leo Overtoom
When the 11th-century poet Ferdowsi reaches the reigns of the Parthian Kings in his epic chronicle of the kings of Iran, he admits, کزیشان جز از نام نشنیدهام نه در نامهی خسروان دیدهام “About them I heard nothing but their name, I saw nothing about them in the book of the Khosrows”
“How the Man in Green Saved Pahang, and Possibly the World” by Joshua Kam
Well, what can one say? The guy can write. Joshua Kam’s How the Man in Green Saved Pahang, and Possibly the World is quite the debut, accomplished, deft, unabashed and exuberant.
“Inheritors” by Asako Serizawa
The histories of Japan and the United States have been intertwined for a hundred and fifty years. In her new collection of similarly interrelated short stories, Asako Serizawa both mines events from this history as well as reaches into the future.
“Away from Chaos: The Middle East and the Challenge to the West” by Gilles Kepel
The first takeaway from Gilles Kepel’s new book Away from Chaos is the immense complexity of Middle East politics.
“Rebel City: Hong Kong’s Year of Water and Fire”, edited by Zuraidah Ibrahim and Jeffie Lam
There will, one imagines, be quite a few books written about Hong Kong’s year of protests, from journalistic retellings from the front-lines, memoirs from influential figures, and attempts to tie the protests to a broader “New Cold War” narrative. There have already been a few.
“Every Color of Light: A Book about the Sky” by Hiroshi Osada
The gentle pitter-patter of falling rain intensifies into a storm: “Wetter / And wetter / The blues darker / And so do the greens…”
“Recipe for Persuasion” by Sonali Dev
Loosely inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Sonali Dev’s new book is enriched with culinary allusions, replete with the aromas of tea and spice and based in a modern South Asian family (of royal lineage), as was her prior Austen revamp.
“The Son of Good Fortune” by Lysley Tenorio
When Excel Maxino turns ten, his mother, Maxima, takes him to Pier 39 in San Francisco, revealing a life-changing secret: She and Excel are TNT: tago ng tago, Tagalog for hiding and hiding. In his new novel, The Son of Good Fortune, Lysley Tenorio tells a captivating story of undocumented immigrants and their never-ending resolve…
New Book Announcement: “Painter and Patron: The Maritime Silk Road in the Códice Casanatense” by Peter Gordon and Juan José Morales
Just around the corner from Rome’s Pantheon, on the Via di Sant’Ignazio, is the famed Biblioteca Casanatense. Among its precious books and manuscripts is an album of 76 striking watercolours made in Goa around 1540, the work of an anonymous Indian painter for an unknown Portuguese patron.
“Other Moons: Vietnamese Short Stories of the American War and Its Aftermath” & “The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975”
For my generation, born after the “Renovation” reform of Đổi Mới in 1986, “The War”—as most Vietnamese call what almost everyone else calls the Vietnam War—only exists in history books.
“x + y: A Mathematician’s Manifesto for Rethinking Gender” by Eugenia Cheng
Eugenia Cheng, author of the cleverly-titled x + y: A Mathematician’s Manifesto for Rethinking Gender, is—goes Wikipedia—“a British mathematician, concert pianist, and an honorary fellow of pure mathematics at the University of Sheffield. Her mathematical interests include higher-dimensional category theory, and as a pianist she specialises in lieder and art song.” Her current gig is…
“The Mountains Sing” by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
“The challenges faced by the Vietnamese people throughout history are as tall as the tallest mountains,” writes Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai in the first chapter of The Mountains Sing. This is no exaggeration: wars, famine and political revolution test her characters, various members of the extended Tran family, to the limit. This engrossing family saga,…
“All the Way to the Tigers” by Mary Morris
When Mary Morris is awarded a sabbatical year from teaching at Sarah Lawrence College, she planned to travel with her husband and adult daughter. A travel writer and novelist, Morris enjoys nothing more than roaming around other countries. But then a freak accident on the ice rink shattered her ankle; her dreams of traveling for…
