New Fiction from Asia and the Middle East

Enjoy some of the best new novels, available from the Ferguson Library.

Albinia, Alice                                             
Leela’s Book
FIC ALBINIA

Review
Award-winning author Albinia has created an intricate story about a disastrous wedding; about two families that couldn't be more different; about faith, class, and politics in Indian society; and about storytelling itself. This is an insightful look at the sociopolitical complexity of present-day India. Source: Library Journal, Dec 01, 2011 

 Parameswaran, Rajesh
I Am an Executioner: Love Stories
FIC PARAMES

Review
In the staggering title story, the awkward, love-starved narrator maneuvers between his day job finishing off convicted criminals and his home life, where he tries unsuccessfully to reassure his new wife that he's not as bad as his profession would imply. Parameswaran should be applauded for pushing the limits of the short story genre. Source: Publishers Weekly, Feb 27, 2012

Phan, Aimee
The Reeducation of Cherry Truong
FIC PHAN

Review
In her debut novel, Phan traces the difficulties of forming identity and preserving family for Vietnamese refugees on two continents. When Sanh Truong unexpectedly marries Tuyet Vos, neither family is pleased. Both families encounter difficulties as they try to integrate into their new societies. Source: Publishers Weekly, Jan 30, 2012

 Bilal, Parker
The Golden Scales: a Makana Mystery
MYS BILAL

Review
Bilal is a pseudonym of literary-fiction author Jamal Mahjoub, and The Golden Scales is a promising start to a new series set in modern-day Cairo. The book features Makana, a former inspector with the Sudanese police who sought asylum in Egypt after the fundamentalist takeover in the early 1990s. Source: Booklist, Feb 01, 2012

Chen, Guanzhong
The Fat Years: a Novel
FIC CHEN

Review 
Banned in China but sought after, read, and commented on in pirated online versions, this is a novel of ideas in which the principal one is: what's wrong with not having any? Set mainly in Beijing, the novel gives us a China where the economy is booming, the population is complaicent, and the country appears destined to achieve world domination. Source: Booklist, Jan 01, 2012

Parssinen, Keija
The Ruins of Us: a Novel
FIC PARSSIN

Review
Twenty-five years into her marriage to wealthy Abdullah al-Baylani, an American woman is shattered to find that her husband has taken another wife, and she worries about the effect this will have on their children. Soon the family is locked in a battle over morality and cultural chasms. This is a gripping, well-crafted debut by a writer who was born in Saudi Arabia. Source: Publishers Weekly, Nov 14, 2011

Taseer, Aatish
Noon
FIC TASEER

Review
Young Rehan had a privileged childhood as the stepson of a wealthy industrialist, but he has never met his biological father, a powerful businessman.  When he travels to Pakistan's Port bin Qasim to meet the parent and siblings he has never known, he provides insight into political and cultural struggles in a part of the world that the West often misunderstands. Source: Booklist, Aug 01, 2011  

Umrigar, Thrity N.
The World We Found
FIC UMRIGAR

Review
In late-1970s Bombay, four college women share a bond of friendship and a dream of a better India. Thirty years later, sad news that one of the women is dying of cancer brings the quartet together again. As they prepare for their reunion, each revisits past hardships and joys, reconciling present lives with the world they once knew. Source: Booklist, Nov 15, 2011