by Dhumketu ; translated by Jenny Bhatt ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 26, 2022
These stories invite readers to rediscover the wonder in the quotidian.
A curated collection of 26 stories from Dhumketu (1892-1965), a celebrated Gujarati writer who wrote more than 500 in his lifetime.
The book begins with “The Post Office,” Dhumketu’s most anthologized work, about an elderly man waiting for a letter from his daughter, who'd married and moved to her husband’s faraway town years earlier. The opening line sets the tone: “The hazy dawn sky was glittering with the previous night’s stars—big and small—like happy memories shimmering in a person’s life.” The title story invokes the beauty of nature, with the shimmer of moonlight, and of music, with its sonorous joys and sorrows, and the way they can stir the soul; the rest follow suit in demonstrating the ways literature can do the same. While many of these stories portray the lives of ordinary folks, others feature leaders engaged in questions of politics and power. What unites them is their lush language and the author’s skill in addressing a myriad of subjects with hope and humility. Bhatt selected at least one significant story from each of the author’s 24 published volumes, setting out to demonstrate his stylistic and thematic range. She accomplishes her mission with grace; the stories are as varied as they are rich with description about everything from their characters’ inner struggles to their settings, whether a small lakeside village, the Himalayas, or an alternate reality where individualism is eradicated, as in the “The Rebirth of Poetry.” This story is a love letter to the power of art and the human spirit that feels like the engine of the whole book. Gujarati speakers represent a large portion of the Indian diaspora in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, and Bhatt’s translation is a significant contribution to an English-speaking audience’s appreciation of Indian literature.
These stories invite readers to rediscover the wonder in the quotidian.Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-646051-68-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Deep Vellum
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
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by Matt Haig ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2024
Haig’s positive message will keep his fans happy.
A British widow travels to Ibiza and learns that it’s never too late to have a happy life.
In a world that seems to be getting more unstable by the moment, Haig’s novels are a steady ship in rough seas, offering a much-needed positive message. In works like the bestselling The Midnight Library (2020), he reminds us that finding out what you truly love and where you belong in the universe are the foundations of building a better existence. His latest book continues this upbeat messaging, albeit in a somewhat repetitive and facile way. Retired British schoolteacher Grace Winters discovers that an old acquaintance has died and left her a ramshackle home in Ibiza. A widow who lost her only child years earlier, Grace is at first reluctant to visit the house, because, at 72, she more or less believes her chance for happiness is over—but when she rouses herself to travel to the island, she discovers the opposite is true. A mystery surrounds her friend’s death involving a roguish islander, his activist daughter, an internationally famous DJ, and a strange glow in the sea that acts as a powerful life force and upends Grace’s ideas of how the cosmos works. Framed as a response to a former student’s email, the narrative follows Grace’s journey from skeptic (she was a math teacher, after all) to believer in the possibility of magic as she learns to move on from the past. Her transformation is the book’s main conflict, aside from a protest against an evil developer intent on destroying Ibiza’s natural beauty. The outcome is never in doubt, and though the story often feels stretched to the limit—this novel could have easily been a novella—the author’s insistence on the power of connection to change lives comes through loud and clear.
Haig’s positive message will keep his fans happy.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593489277
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
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by Jodi Picoult ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 20, 2024
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
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New York Times Bestseller
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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