It’s that time of year again. For the best of… For the worst of… For everything in between.
At Write Beyond Borders headquarters, we have been thinking about our highlights of 2023. This project is certainly our highlight of the year. So then we decided to make a list. But this is a list with a difference!
We invited the mentors of Write Beyond Borders to showcase their own book and give us a recommendation of another book by a South Asian writer.
These are the books to read, everyone!
First up is Gita Ralleigh’s book for children, The Destiny of Minou Moonshine.
The story of a Queendom set in an alternate India. It is a debut rich in fantasy, friendship and faith, and an original middle grade adventure that sparkles with storytelling magic.
Available from Amazon & Bookshop.org.
Gita would love to highlight Sylvia by Maithreyi Karnoor available from Neem Tree Press.
“I loved this short, lyrical and often funny novel in interlocking stories. Set in Goa and Karnataka, we encounter recurring character Sylvia in flashes and glimpses to build a picture of her life,” says Gita.
Catherine Menon’s debut, Fragile Monsters, is a story of the fractured family relationships between a grandmother and her granddaughter, living in Malaysia during WW2 and the subsequent Malayan Emergency. It explores secret, stories, and the way we reconstruct our own identities through a lens of the past. It’s available from Waterstones.
“The book I’d like to recommend is Huma Qureshi’s Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love. It’s a short story collection set across multiple countries, with beautiful, measured prose that brilliantly captures human relationships. I’d thoroughly recommend!”
Wonderful choice, Catherine!
Amanthi Harris’s novel, A Beautiful Place has such a wonderful sense of place.
In a villa by the sea on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, Padma has opened a guesthouse at her former home, where she had been left as a child with Gerhardt, the villa’s owner. by Sunny, Padma’s father. Soon guests start to arrive at the new guesthouse, searching for escape and belonging and opening new vistas for Padma through their friendship and love.
Then Sunny appears, ready to reclaim his daughter…
You can buy it through the Salt bookshop or Amazon.
The book Amanthi recommends is A Strange and Sublime Address by Amit Chaudhuri (Amazon UK).
“The writing is poetic, delicate and precise, portraying the details and rhythms of a household in Calcutta. It was the first time I had seen that languid hidden daytime world so perfectly captured, so familiar and evocative and reminiscent of my own childhood in Colombo. I found it incredibly exciting and inspiring as I realised that I could draw on the people and places I had truly loved for my own writing!” says Amanthi.
Prajwal Parajuly’s novel, Land Where I Flee, centres around a Nepali-Indian family from the state of Sikkim. Chitralekha Neupaney, a 84-year-old woman is the matriarch of the family who has raised her grandchildren after their parents passed away. On the occasion of her 84th birthday (Chaurasi), there is a reunion in the family of those four grandchildren who live in different parts of the world. Prasanti is the eunuch maid of the house who is very bossy. The novel deals with various themes like identity and family. You can buy it from Amazon (UK).
Prajwal recommends, A Rustle in the Foliage by Suraj Gurung, published by Rachna Books & Publications. It is a must-read for nature enthusiasts and travellers alike, featuring a collection of travelogues and poems that showcase over 100 different bird species, accompanied by 84 colour photographs.
He says, “This book has my heart. Wholesome, poignant, and poetic, A Rustle in the Foliage is that rare book that I will frequently revisit. You will marvel at the words and pictures, discover the joys and complexities of avian life, and see the natural world anew.”
Awais Khan’s book, Someone Like Her is set in Multan, Pakistan.
A conservative city where an unmarried woman over the age of twenty-five is considered a curse by her family. Ayesha is twenty-seven. Independent and happily single, she has evaded an arranged marriage because of her family’s reduced circumstances. When she catches the eye of powerful, wealthy Raza, it seems like the answer to her parents’ prayers. But Ayesha is in love with someone else, and when she refuses to give up on him, Raza resorts to unthinkable revenge…
Ayesha travels to London to rebuild her life and there she meets Kamil, an emotionally damaged man who has demons of his own. They embark on a friendship that could mean salvation for both of them, but danger stalks Ayesha in London, too. With her life thrown into turmoil, she is forced to make a decision that could change her and everyone she loves forever. You can buy it from Waterstones.
The book Awais would like to recommend is This House of Clay and Water by Faiqa Mansab.
“I believe that Faiqa Mansab is one of the best writers Pakistan has ever produced and her novel is the kind of compelling literary fiction that ought to be read and then reread. I finished reading this book in two breathless days, and there were many times when I paused just to admire the beauty of her writing. Unmissable!”
So there you go! The 2023 list of book recommendations by some of our wonderful mentors. Wishing everyone a wonderful new year, full of books, notebooks, pens, writing and reading. And if you read a book by a writer of colour and enjoy it, shout about it from the rooftops!
Happy holidays!
Aiysha and Susmita
Write Beyond Borders 