Book picks similar to
A Labour of Moles by Ivan Vladislavić
south-africa
africa
english-literature
african
Mine Boy
Peter Abrahams - 1946
It presents a portrait of labour discrimination, appalling housing conditions and one man's humanitarian act of defiance.
Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away
Christie Watson - 2011
Without running water or electricity, Warri is at first a nightmare for Blessing. Her mother is gone all day and works suspiciously late into the night to pay the children's school fees. Her brother, once a promising student, seems to be falling increasingly under the influence of the local group of violent teenage boys calling themselves Freedom Fighters. Her grandfather, a kind if misguided man, is trying on Islam as his new religion of choice, and is even considering the possibility of bringing in a second wife.But Blessing's grandmother, wise and practical, soon becomes a beloved mentor, teaching Blessing the ways of the midwife in rural Nigeria. Blessing is exposed to the horrors of genital mutilation and the devastation wrought on the environment by British and American oil companies. As Warri comes to feel like home, Blessing becomes increasingly aware of the threats to its safety, both from its unshakable but dangerous traditions and the relentless carelessness of the modern world.
The Smell of Apples
Mark Behr - 1993
Using his family as a microcosm of the corroding society at large, Marnus tells a troubling tale of a childhood corrupted, of unexpected sexual defilements, and of an innocence gone astray.
Sleep Donation
Karen Russell - 2014
Hundreds of thousands have lost the ability to sleep. Enter the Slumber Corps, an organization that urges healthy dreamers to donate sleep to an insomniac. Under the wealthy and enigmatic Storch brothers the Corps' reach has grown, with outposts in every major US city. Trish Edgewater, whose sister Dori was one of the first victims of the lethal insomnia, has spent the past seven years recruiting for the Corps. But Trish’s faith in the organization and in her own motives begins to falter when she is confronted by “Baby A,” the first universal sleep donor, and the mysterious "Donor Y."Sleep Donation explores a world facing the end of sleep as we know it, where “Night Worlds” offer black market remedies to the desperate and sleep deprived, and where even the act of making a gift is not as simple as it appears.
The Fox
D.H. Lawrence - 1923
Lawrence’s The Fox is a captivating work exploring the dual themes of power and supremacy in the aftermath of the First World War. Banford and March live and work together on their meager farm, surviving hardship only by sheer determination and dedicated labor. The farm is their world, a place of safety—that is, until a young soldier walks in and upsets the women’s delicate status quo. None could have predicted the effect his presence would have on their lives.
Stay with Me
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ - 2017
Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage--after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures--Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time--until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin's second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant, which, finally, she does--but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine. An electrifying novel of enormous emotional power, Stay With Me asks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.
Homegoing
Yaa Gyasi - 2016
Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation. Generation after generation, Yaa Gyasi's magisterial first novel sets the fate of the individual against the obliterating movements of time, delivering unforgettable characters whose lives were shaped by historical forces beyond their control. Homegoing is a tremendous reading experience, not to be missed, by an astonishingly gifted young writer.
Inkling: A Short Story Compilation
N.F Afrina (Nur Fatin Afrina) - 2019
A girl sins and expects a thunder to strike her. Two grown up souls in the rain. The twist of heart of a heartbreak motel’s founder. A doctor prescribes daily dose of “I love you”s to cure Alzheimer. A boy gets hit by Ugg boots multiple times. A chocolate prince turns to ice. The ocean girl and her secret meetings with the desert boys mother.
Blockade Billy
Stephen King - 2010
He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first--and only--player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game's history.Every effort was made to erase any evidence that William Blakely played professional baseball, and with good reason. Blockade Billy had a secret darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today. His secret was much, much worse... and only Stephen King, the most gifted storyteller of our age, can reveal the truth to the world, once and for all.
The Girl with the Louding Voice
Abi Daré - 2020
Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her path, Adunni never loses sight of her goal of escaping the life of poverty she was born into so that she can build the future she chooses for herself - and help other girls like her do the same. Her spirited determination to find joy and hope in even the most difficult circumstances imaginable will “break your heart and then put it back together again” (Jenna Bush Hager on The Today Show) even as Adunni shows us how one courageous young girl can inspire us all to reach for our dreams...and maybe even change the world.
The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
Vincent Goodwin - 2013
But when the details of several Napoleon statues being destroyed are revealed, he decides it may be worth looking into after all. Follow the clues with Holmes and Dr. John Watson as they uncover their biggest find yet. Graphic Planet is an imprint of Magic Wagon, a division of ABDO Group. Grades 3-8.
Ghachar Ghochar
Vivek Shanbhag - 2013
As they move from a cramped, ant-infested shack to a larger house on the other side of Bangalore, and try to adjust to a new way of life, the family dynamic begins to shift. Allegiances realign; marriages are arranged and begin to falter; and conflict brews ominously in the background. Things become “ghachar ghochar”—a nonsense phrase uttered by one meaning something tangled beyond repair, a knot that can't be untied. Elegantly written and punctuated by moments of unexpected warmth and humor, Ghachar Ghochar is a quietly enthralling, deeply unsettling novel about the shifting meanings—and consequences—of financial gain in contemporary India.
Big Sky
Kimberly Krey - 2019
What more could a woman want?THE COWBOY’S CATCH by Kimberly Krey: When Jason Keller bids on a date with Marlee at the town’s annual fundraising event, she’s quick to turn him down. First of all, an evening with Marlee was never on the table; just dates with each of her younger sisters. Beyond that, Jason Keller—a man with Hollywood ties—is the last cowboy in town she’d go on a date with. Being abandoned because of her own mother’s Hollywood pursuits taught her well. But when the Keller Cowboy offers a hefty sum for the charities in question, in front of half the town no less, Marlee’s compelled to accept. It’s just one date after all, and it’s not like she’d ever fall for a man like him. Or so she thinks.SELLING HER RANCH, STEALING HIS HEART by Annette Lyon: Teresa adores her job as manager of the J-Bar-D Ranch, which boards horses and offers riding lessons. The owner, Dorothy, has become like a grandmother to Teresa. But when Dorothy passes away unexpectedly, the ranch is put up for sale by none other than Dorothy’s only grandson, Derek. Even with the obvious chemistry between them, Teresa refuses to consider dating the guy who’s going to turn her beloved ranch into a strip mall. Derek wishes more than anything that he didn’t have to sell, but Grandma Dorothy ran the ranch into deep debt, and Derek’s own mother has ongoing medical bills. Without selling the ranch, he can’t pay off the debts or take care of his mother. If only he’d met Teresa had met at in a different time and place, they might have a future.THE COWBOY’S SECOND GO by Cindy Roland Anderson: When recently divorced Callie Stewart, an aspiring country music artist, confronts the dishonest talent agent who stole her new song, he turns the tables on her, and her world spins out of control. Without proof she composed the hit song, Callie is forced to take her twin boys with her, move out of Nashville and live with her aunt in Montana. Having her dreams shattered leaves her trying to figure out how she will support her little family. Reconnecting with Ty Carter, her long-ago crush from high school and the guy who broke her heart, has her questioning her resolve to leave romance out of her new life. Ty isn’t just a good-looking cowboy, he’s sweet to her boys and makes Callie feel beautiful and alive. As her feelings for Ty grow stronger, the music reawakens inside her, inspiring her creativity and the desire to sing. Giving love a second chance might be the key to a forever love, and the start of a new music career…but can it be both?
A Day, a Night, Another Day, Summer
Christine Schutt - 2005
Many of the stories take place in the home, where what is behind the thin domestic barriers of doors tends toward violence, unseemly sexual encounters, and mental anguish. Schutt opens these doors in sudden, bold moments and exposes the unsettling intimacy of the rooms and corridors of our innermost lives. Yet at the same time, her characters are often hopeful, even optimistic.Startling and smartly wrought, A Day, a Night, Another Day, Summer is a breathtaking follow-up to Schutt's widely revered debut collection, Nightwork, and her critically acclaimed debut novel, Florida, which was a National Book Award Finalist.