September is International Literacy Month and we bibliophiles couldn’t be any happier. It is that time of the year where we add more books to our shelves, physical and virtual. Here is a list of must-read novels that will bring you inspiration and shed light on love, culture, identity and art.
“Female fireflies draw in strange males with dishonest signals and eat them; mantis females devour their own mates. Female insects, Kya thought, know how to deal with their lovers.”
A novel that revolves around an abandoned girl living in the marshland navigating love and survival. This coming-of-age novel juggles romance as well as a murder investigation and ties both aspects together in the most beautiful way possible. Where the Crawdad’s Sing will soon be a motion picture directed by Reese Witherspoon and we can’t wait!
“Russia is lost," she continued. "First we had God. Then we had Lenin. Now we have nothing.”
The story of Martin, a European student in Russia exploring the foreign culture through debauchery and gallivanting is poetic and peeks into the ‘mysterious Russian soul’. The novel takes the reader through different characters that teach the stories of love, heartbreak, happiness and sadness and how each emotion is looked at through the eyes of beautiful Russia.
“I don't have a plan, I'm afraid, but then, no one really does, no matter what they say.”
This is the story of Mia Warren, a single mother and talented artist and her teenage daughter. The story develops as they move into a new neighbourhood that strictly abides by rules that create challenges for the mother-daughter duo. The novel explores the importance of art to express identity and the overbearing weight of secrets, motherhood and rules that are meant to be bent.
“It was hard to say what it was about the northeast that had drawn him there after so many years abroad, what it was that had taken root so deeply inside him that he abandoned the life he’d built for himself in Delhi in search of another one here”
By the same author of ‘The Story of a Brief Marriage’, this novel explores the lives of those who lived in Northern Sri Lanka during the civil war. Krishan, the protagonist, takes the train from Colombo to Northern Province and the heartbreaking account of the tragedy that left nothing but pain for most people on the island. Written with his usual grace and precision, the novel “A Passage North’ has been longlisted for The Booker Prize 2021.
“Maybe-- maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure- never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself? ”
The novel tells the story of Adam Trasks and his struggle in bringing up his two young boys while his wife, Eve, is driven to madness. The story unravels the truth about love and the absence of it, the journey of self-discovery through an intricate plot. The novel is ambitious and powerful in retelling the Book of Genesis.
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