Life is the first piece of Lu Yao’s writing translated into English. Originally published in 1982, the novel tells the story of Gao Jialin, a motivated young man from a small town who loses his teaching job due to corrupt local politics. The novella chronicles Gao Jialin’s struggle against traditional and class norms to feel […]
Norwegian Wood tells the story of Toru, a university student who moves to Tokyo in 1969 after his best friend from high school commits suicide. Toru’s yearning for what he has lost is clearly expressed through the novel’s tone and amplified with its 1960s ethos. Yet, the essence of Norwegian Wood cannot fully be defined in terms of
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Norwegian Wood tells the story of Toru, a university student who moves to Tokyo in 1969 after his best friend from high school commits suicide. The novel opens nearly two decades later, as 37-year-old Toru arrives in Hamburg, Germany. As the plane lands, an orchestral version of The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” plays, triggering memories that
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North Yemen secured independence in 1918 and remained an enclave of feudalistic society, often referred to as the “Tibet of the Red Sea.” Published in 1984, The Hostage depicts a bygone era in Yemen’s history. Dammaj provides a snapshot of a period in Yemen’s past, pre-unification and is an excellent entrance into a region with a
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Set in the 1940’s, Zayd Mutee’ Dammaj’s novella draws on a bygone era in Yemen’s history. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, North Yemen secured independence in 1918 and remained an enclave of feudalistic society, often referred to as the “Tibet of the Red Sea.” To the south, the city Aden, which was under
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The Last Girl, an autobiographical narrative by Nadia Murad, recounts her experience surviving enslavement and sexual violence by the Islamic State in 2014. Originally from Kocho, a Yazidi village in the Sinjar district of northern Iraq, Murad and the other women of her town were rounded up and captured, after ISIS solders murdered six of
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The Last Girl, an autobiographical narrative by Nadia Murad, recounts her experience surviving enslavement and sexual violence by the Islamic State in 2014. Originally from the Yazidi town Kocho, Murad now lives in Germany and tells her story as an advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. You can read my full post about
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Although many of the short stories share similar themes to the Black Mirror series, Chiang’s speculative fiction stories have a distinct philosophical edge without being downright dystopian. Chiang not only speculates on how technology will influence our future but also proposes a variety of scenarios within that future: “People are made of stories. Our memories
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Ted Chiang’s diverse collection of short stories challenges the limits of the speculative fiction genre. The settings vary from an argon-based planet to medieval Baghdad, and the narrators are just as varied, including a parrot, archaeologist and mechanical being. Each short story grapples with how setting only one characteristic of society askew can have a
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Romesh Gunesekera’s novel Reef tells the story of Triton, a young cook who is indentured to Mr. Salgado at 11 years old. His narrative begins on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1962, shortly after the failed coup d’état. Mr. Salgado, a marine biologist and member of the Colombo intelligentsia, runs a small government
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