Fiction

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Frankenstein in Baghdad

Frankenstein in Baghdad

Set in Baghdad after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Frankenstein in Baghdad follows Hadi, an eccentric junk dealer who collects body parts left behind by bombings and other acts of violence. Hoping to ensure that the dead receive proper recognition, he stitches the remains together into a single body. When the assembled corpse mysteriously disappears, a series of gruesome murders begins, and rumours spread about a creature that cannot be killed. As the authorities and local residents attempt to understand the violence, the creature becomes a disturbing symbol of a society overwhelmed by revenge and injustice. Blending horror, dark humour, and political satire, Saadawi explores the human cost of war and the difficulty of assigning responsibility when violence produces an endless cycle of retaliation. The novel asks whether a society fractured by conflict can distinguish justice from revenge.

The Widows of Malabar Hill

The Widows of Malabar Hill

Set in Bombay in 1921, The Widows of Malabar Hill introduces Perveen Mistry, one of India’s first female lawyers. Educated in England and working in her father’s legal practice, Perveen encounters an unusual inheritance case involving three Muslim widows who live in seclusion and communicate with the outside world through male representatives. When she discovers inconsistencies in the documents governing their late husband’s estate, she begins to suspect that the women may be vulnerable to manipulation or exploitation. Her investigation becomes more dangerous when a murder draws her deeper into the case. Alongside the mystery, Perveen’s own experiences reveal the limitations placed on women in colonial Indian society, particularly in matters of marriage, education, and professional independence. Massey combines historical detail with a compelling detective story, exploring women’s rights, religious traditions, and the pursuit of justice in a changing society.

The Storyteller's Secret

The Storyteller's Secret

The Storyteller’s Secret follows Jaya, an Indian American journalist whose personal life begins to unravel after she experiences a painful miscarriage and the breakdown of her marriage. Seeking answers and a fresh perspective, she travels to India to reconnect with her family’s roots. There, she meets Ravi, her grandmother’s former servant, who shares the story of Amisha, Jaya’s grandmother, and the difficult choices that shaped her life in a small Indian village during the 1930s. Amisha was a gifted storyteller whose aspirations extended beyond the traditional roles available to women, but her ambitions were constrained by social expectations and a marriage that offered little freedom. As Jaya uncovers her grandmother’s past, she begins to understand her own struggles differently. Badani explores family secrets, women’s independence, cultural traditions, and the healing power of understanding previous generations.

Salt Houses

Salt Houses follows several generations of the Palestinian Yacoub family as political upheaval repeatedly forces them to leave their homes and rebuild their lives elsewhere. Beginning in Nablus in the 1960s, the story traces the family’s experiences through the Six-Day War, the displacement caused by regional conflicts, and the subsequent lives of their descendants across the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. Each generation inherits a complicated relationship with Palestine, balancing memories of a lost homeland with the practical demands of creating a future in unfamiliar places. As family members develop different ideas about belonging, identity, and home, their relationships are shaped by both shared history and personal choices. Alyan explores the intergenerational effects of displacement, revealing how exile can become part of family identity even for those who have never experienced their ancestral homeland themselves.

Last Days of Café Leila

Last Days of Café Leila

The Last Days of Café Leila follows Noor, an Iranian-American woman who returns to Tehran with her young daughter, Lily, after years of living in the United States. She comes back to the family café, a beloved gathering place run by her father, Zod, whose cooking and hospitality have long brought people together. Although Noor hopes to find comfort and reconnect with her roots, returning home forces her to confront painful memories, unresolved family tensions, and the choices that led her to leave Iran. As Noor and her father attempt to rebuild their relationship, the café becomes a symbol of belonging, cultural memory, and the traditions that bind generations together. Through food, family stories, and the changing atmosphere of Tehran, Donia Bijan explores the complexities of immigration, identity, and the meaning of home. The novel also examines the tensions between personal freedom and cultural expectations, revealing how family bonds can endure despite distance and disappointment. Warm and reflective, it celebrates the power of shared meals and inherited traditions to reconnect people with their past.

Scenes from a Childhood

Scenes from a Childhood

Scenes from a Childhood brings together a series of short prose pieces by Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, offering glimpses into the memories, experiences, and inner life of a boy growing up in rural Norway. Through seemingly ordinary moments—family encounters, childhood fears, religious experiences, and observations of the surrounding landscape—Fosse reveals how early experiences shape a person’s understanding of the world. Written in his characteristic minimalist style, the collection relies on repetition, silence, and subtle shifts in perspective rather than conventional storytelling. Memories appear fragmented and sometimes dreamlike, reflecting the uncertain nature of recollection and the persistence of childhood emotions into adulthood. Beneath the quiet surface, the stories explore family relationships, loneliness, spirituality, and the tension between belonging and isolation. Fosse transforms small, everyday events into moments of profound significance, suggesting that the foundations of identity are often formed through experiences that seem insignificant at the time but remain with us long after childhood has passed.

How to Love a Jamaican

How to Love a Jamaican

How to Love a Jamaican is a collection of short stories exploring love, family, migration, and the complexities of Jamaican identity. Moving between Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora in the United States, Alexia Arthurs portrays characters navigating the tensions between cultural heritage and the desire for a different life. Her stories follow young people confronting sexuality and social expectations, immigrants struggling to belong in unfamiliar places, and families negotiating the emotional distance created by migration. Through intimate relationships and everyday encounters, Arthurs examines how race, class, religion, and national identity shape the ways people understand themselves and one another. Blending humor, tenderness, and emotional honesty, the collection offers a nuanced portrait of Jamaican life across borders, revealing the complicated meanings of home, belonging, and love.

The Poppy War

Rebecca F. Kuang

An orphan from a poor southern province. An elite military academy. A power that could destroy an empire. When Rin unexpectedly earns a place at Sinegard, the Nikara Empire’s most prestigious military academy, she believes she has finally escaped a future of poverty and forced marriage. But prejudice, relentless training, and the discovery of her extraordinary shamanic abilities soon push her into a world far more dangerous than she imagined. As war threatens to engulf the empire, Rin discovers that the gods are real—and that the power they offer comes at a terrible price. Inspired by twentieth-century Chinese history, particularly the Second Sino-Japanese War, this dark and uncompromising fantasy explores the brutal realities of warfare, the seduction of vengeance, and the devastating consequences of power. Rin must decide what she is willing to sacrifice to protect her people—and what remains of her humanity when survival demands unimaginable choices.

The Mourning Bird

The Mourning Bird

Mubanga Kalimamukwento

Set in Zambia during the turbulent 1990s, The Mourning Bird follows eleven-year-old Chimuka and her younger brother, Ali, whose lives are shattered by a series of family tragedies. After their father dies and their mother’s struggle to keep the family together ends in further heartbreak, the siblings are left facing an uncertain future. Rejected by their abusive extended family, they escape to the streets of Lusaka, where survival means navigating poverty, violence, drugs, and police brutality. As Chimuka grows into adolescence, she confronts the limited choices available to vulnerable girls in a society where poverty and gender inequality expose them to exploitation. Meanwhile, Ali becomes increasingly entangled in crime and addiction. Their struggle unfolds against a backdrop of political instability, economic decline, and the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on Zambian families. Unflinching yet deeply compassionate, Kalimamukwento’s debut novel examines childhood, grief, and resilience while revealing the hidden suffering of those living on the margins of society. It is both an intimate story of two siblings fighting to survive and a portrait of a nation grappling with profound social upheaval.

Fractured Soul

Akira Mizubayashi

Tokyo, 1938. During a private musical gathering, military police burst in and arrest Yu, a Japanese musician whose love of Western classical music has drawn suspicion. His young son, Rei, witnesses the destruction of his father’s violin and the sudden collapse of their family. With the help of a compassionate stranger, Rei escapes to France, carrying the fragments of the broken instrument. Decades later, now living in Paris as a violin maker, he dedicates himself to restoring damaged instruments—but the wounds of his childhood remain unresolved. When a young violinist unexpectedly reconnects him with his past, the broken violin becomes a symbol of memory, loss, and the possibility of healing. Moving between Japan and France, Fractured Soul explores the enduring power of music to transcend political violence and bring people together across generations. It is a poignant story about what war destroys, what art preserves, and how beauty can emerge from the deepest suffering.

Swanfolk

Kristín Ómarsdóttir

Set in a strange, unsettling future, Swanfolk follows Elísabet Eva, a young intelligence agent whose life begins to unravel after a traumatic assignment in Paris. Seeking solitude, she takes long walks beside a lake, where she encounters mysterious creatures that are half-woman and half-swan. Fascinated by these beings, she gradually enters their hidden world and becomes entangled in their obsessive, sometimes violent struggle to exist alongside humans. As her involvement deepens, Elísabet begins to question her own perceptions and the reliability of her memories. Blending surrealism, dark fantasy, and psychological fiction, Kristín Ómarsdóttir’s novel explores the fragile boundaries between reality and imagination, belonging and alienation, and the human desire to escape one’s past. Strange, lyrical, and unsettling, Swanfolk uses its mythical creatures to examine the complexities of identity and the difficulty of understanding oneself.

The Dead Wander in the Desert

The Dead Wander in the Desert

Rollan Seisenbayev

Set on the vast steppes of Soviet Kazakhstan during the final decades of the USSR, The Dead Wander in the Desert tells the story of a community whose existence is threatened by the ecological destruction of the Aral Sea. Nasyr, an elderly fisherman who becomes a village mullah, watches as the waters that once sustained his people recede, leaving behind a barren landscape and a vanishing way of life. His son, Kakharman, challenges the authorities responsible for diverting the rivers that feed the sea to support ambitious agricultural projects, particularly cotton cultivation. But his struggle against the Soviet bureaucracy seems almost impossible. Through the lives of a Kazakh family and their neighbors, Seisenbayev explores the devastating consequences of environmental mismanagement, political oppression, and the pursuit of progress at any cost. Blending social history, philosophical reflection, and the rhythms of traditional storytelling, the novel also recalls the wider tragedies endured by the Kazakh people under Soviet rule. Both an elegy for a disappearing world and a warning about humanity’s relationship with nature, it gives a deeply personal dimension to one of the twentieth century’s greatest environmental catastrophes.

Kazakhstan 2019

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