Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Here's for another attempt at completing this challenge.

1. Sharlene Teo – Ponti (Singapore)
2. Shehan Karunatilaka – The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Sri Lanka)
3. Tan Twang Eng – The Garden of Evening Mists (Malaysia)
4. David Zukerman – San Perdido (Panama)
5. Katherena Vermette – The Break (Canada)
6. NoViolet Bulawayo – Glory (Zimbabwe)
7. Karina Sainz Borgo –It Would Be Night in Caracas (Venezuela)
8. Tran Nhut - Le temple de la grue écarlate (Vietnam)
9. Wu Ming-Yi – The Stolen Bicycle (Taiwan)
10. Germano Almeida – The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo (Cape Verde)
11. Donal Ryan – The Spinning Heart (Ireland)
12. Badr Ahmad – Five Days Untold (Yemen)
13. Katerina Tuckova – Gerta (Czech Republic)
14. Sharon Maas - The Far Away Girl (Guyana)
15. Rollan Seisenbayev – The Dead Wander in the Desert (Kazakhstan)
16. Paulo Scott – Phenotypes (Brazil)
17. Khaled Khalifa – Death Is Hard Work (Syria)
18. Cynthia Mc Leod – The Cost of Sugar (Surinam)
19. Mario Vargas Llosa – The Time of the Hero (Peru)
20. Saud Alsanousi – The Bamboo Stalk (Kuwait)
21. Kunzang Choden – The Circle of Karma (Bhutan)
22. Nuruddin Farah - North of Dawn (Somalia)
23. Youozas Baltouchis – La Saga de Youza (Lithuania)
24. Florent Couao-Zotti – Western tchoukoutou (Benin)

January read - San Perdido

A very disappointing read. The book is set in a city in Panama and is meant to follow the story of a mysterious child with unhuman physical powers, who will grow up as an 'avenger' of the vile and corrupt individuals that rule over the city. The book dragged terribly and there was so much unnecessary eroticisation of women's bodies. Really not worth picking up.

March read - The Stolen Bicycle

I greatly enjoyed this International Booker longlisted book, which explores memory and family. Framed around the narrator's search for his late father's stolen bicycle, the story weaves through the lives of several eccentric and fascinating characters to explore the 20th century history of Taiwan (in particular WWII) - sprinkled with some side explorations of the weird world of antique bicycle collectors.

April read - Western tchoukoutou

I like the idea of this book - creating an African version of the American Western genre through a story of revenge by a woman against the men who fatally harmed her three years. The story is very pacey and the writing was nice. However, I could have really done without the over-sexualised description of women's bodies - it felt trite and wasn't needed for the story.

June read - Death Is Hard Work

Another one from my war novels bookshelf. While war rages in Syria, three siblings who have fallen out with each other travel across the country and endless checkpoints to bury their father in his home town. The novel is a searing reflection on the futility of war and the unravelling of families.

July read - The Break

This was a dark and heartbreaking read. Centred on the lives of a Canadian indigenous family, mostly composed of women, and the forms of mental and physical violence they have had to suffer (and even inflict on others). But it is also about how strong familial ties are central in building the resilience of these women.

Catching up on my February read

Kunzang Choden - The Circle of Karma

I greatly enjoyed this novel in which we follow the life trajectory of a Bhutanese woman who suffers through various hardships and lives a perambulatory existence, but who manages to live through these with determination and an open heart towards others. It is sad at moments and terrible things happen to some of the women in the book but overall it is a hopeful story.

Catching up on my May read

Tan Twan Eng - The Garden of Evening Mists

Such a beautiful yet heartbreaking novel about Malaysia's World War II experience under Japanese occupation and the Emergency in the 1950s. It is told through the intertwined lives of a Chinese Malaysian woman who was held in a Japanese labour camp, an exiled Japanese gardener, and an Afrikaner tea plantation owner who ended up in Malaysia after the Boer War in South Africa. As all good novels about war should be, the story focuses on the grey areas of morality and the construction of memory.

Valerie wrote: "Catching up on my May read

Tan Twan Eng - The Garden of Evening Mists

Such a beautiful yet heartbreaking novel about Malaysia's World War II experience under Japanese occupation a..."

I agree its a beautiful book

October read - The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo

In this short novel the life of a capeverdean self-made businessman is recounted through the more than 300 page will he leaves behind. It tells of the little secrets lurking behind the facade of a recluse slightly odd old man, secrets though which everyone in the community probably already knew of but pretended not too. It was an enjoyable slice of life type novel.