https://shepherd.com/bboy/2023/f/rohit-prasad
My favorite read in 2023…
The Book of Everlasting Things
By Aanchal Malhotra
Why did I love this book?
Layered with evocative details, The Book of Everlasting Things is the story of two new nations rendered violently apart from each other, and two lovers’ fates entwined with the future of their countries.
The novel shines in its feel of the marketplace, the community, and the everyday people. The reader can clearly imagine the smells, visualize how perfumers make magic happen, and how calligraphers capture beauty.
The Partition between India and Pakistan is a painful memory for most South Asians. The author has handled it very delicately while personifying the pain and loss for two sets of families from the repercussions of that heart-rendering event.Explore this book
My 2nd favorite read in 2023…
The Bookbinder
By Pip Williams
Why did I love this book?
As the Great War draws closer, Peggy takes pleasure in her role as a bookbinder, while keeping an eye on her twin sister after her mother’s demise. She dreams of bigger things while keeping her feet firmly planted on the ground through tragedy and setbacks. The war brings upheaval in their town, and in their lives, upturning social structures and hierarchies.
While Williams’ second book has a lovely connection with her debut novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, it is equally entertaining and delightful while continuing the fascinating theme of the early days of feminism.
The reader peeps into the rich and textured daily lives of the sisters, their neighbors, their new refugee friends, and the ones they tragically lose to the war and comes back with an orchestra of experiences of the early Twentieth Century in Oxford.Explore this book
My 3rd favorite read in 2023…
The Submission
By Amy Waldman
Why did I love this book?
An American Muslim is chosen blindly by a jury to design a memorial to the 9/11 victims, opening it up to vociferous debates and dissensions, much like the Ground Zero Mosque controversy.
The author uses her vast experience as a New York Times journalist to eloquently describe the warps and wefts of the fabric of New York society, and starts tugging at several threads as it all unravels. The players’ tug-of-war is well portrayed in rich texture, while the politicians’ intent on not letting a good crisis go to waste adds satirical color to the expansive tapestry.
As a creator, one feels that art has no religion and has no boundaries. The axiom is severely tested in the face of rabid nationalism, parochial intolerance, and a media free-for-all.Explore this book
Check out the favorites of other others at the Shepherd:
A Cynic's Eye View 