San Francisco South Asian Bookclub

Our final book of the year is a short story collection by various authors. From different parts of the South Asian diaspora, they explore themes of identity, culture and home. It includes stories by THE faces of South Asian literature such as Salman Rushdie, jhumpa Lahiri, Anita Desai, Rohinton Mistry and many more

This “anthology is essential reading for anyone with an interest in South Asian writers and the dynamic, important tales they have to tell.”

Happy reading!

Written by a master storyteller! The struggles that have made Burma, India, and Malaya the places they are today are illuminated in this novel.

Book description:

“Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her.”

For April, we will be reading A Suitable boy by Vikram Seth. I feel that reading this book is a true rite of passage for a Southasian bookworm. It’s heavy and artfully complex in its characters and themes explored. Start reading as soon as possible because it’s a paperweight!

Book description:

“Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: the tale of Lata's - and her mother’s - attempts to find a suitable boy for Lata, through love or through exacting maternal appraisal. Set in the early 1950s in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multi-ethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence.”