Anita Rau Badami's Tamarind Mem (1996) Penguin Books, 1998 Tamarind Mem opens with a telephone call, from Kamini (who is studying in Calgary) to her mother (in India). Tension mingles with fondness: it’s an introduction in broad strokes. The conversation is relayed from Kamini’s perspective and then the narrative slips
S.J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep HarperCollins, 2011 Don’t start reading S.J. Watson’s debut novel before you go to sleep, unless you don’t mind postponing that good night’s sleep you were anticipating. It is, as the blurbs suggest, a page-turner, and you will find it difficult – if not
Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife Weidenfeld & Nicolson-Orion, 2011 (Looking for a swallow rather than a full glass? ORANGE Squirt below.) Here are the elements of Téa Obreht’s debut novel that really worked for me: * Her depiction of a society saturated by war, violence, and loss is solid. “We’re
Anne Peile’s Repeat It Today with Tears Serpent’s Tail, 2010 (Looking for a swallow rather than a full glass? ORANGE Squirt below.) Kathryn Harrison’s 1997 memoir, The Kiss, considering the author’s four-year-long consensual relationship with her father, opens, as you might have guessed, with a kiss. “Against such backdrops, my
Samantha Hunt’s The Seas (2004) Picador, 2006 (Looking for a swallow rather than a full glass? ORANGE Squirt below.) Samantha Hunt’s debut begins: “The highway only goes south from here.” You might think that this will be a linear tale. But no, by the end of the first four pages,
