Tag Archives: Fiction

In My Hands Today…

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Queen of Dreams – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

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Rakhi, a young painter and single mother, is struggling to come to terms with her relationship with ex-husband Sonny, a hip Bay Area DJ, and with her dream-teller mother, who has rarely spoken about her past or her native India.

Rakhi has her hands full, juggling a creative dry spell, raising her daughter, and trying to save the Berkeley teahouse she and her best friend Belle own.

But greater challenges are to come. When a national tragedy turns her world upside down and Rakhi needs her mother’s strength and wisdom more than ever, she loses her in a freak car accident.

But uncovering her mother’s dream journals allows Rakhi to discover her mother’s long-kept secrets and sacrifices–and ultimately to confront her fears, forge a new relationship with her father, and revisit Sonny’s place in her heart.

In My Hands Today…

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The Last Kestrel – Jill McGivering

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Ellen Thomas, experienced war correspondent, returns to Afghanistan’s dangerous Helmand Province on assignment, keen to find the murderer of her friend and translator, Jalil. In her search for justice in a land ravaged by death and destruction, she uncovers disturbing truths.

Hasina, forced by tradition into the role of wife and mother, lives in a village which is taken by British Forces. Her only son, Aref, is part of a network of underground fighters and she is determined to protect him, whatever the cost.

Ellen and Hasina are thrown together – one fighting for survival, the other searching for truth – with devastating consequences for them both.

In My Hands Today…

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Hinterland – Caroline Brothers

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Two boys are crossing Europe. Only fourteen and eight years old, they have nothing but the clothes on their backs and a dwindling inheritance stitched into the lining of a belt. Their goal is a future they can no longer wait for in Afghanistan, one they hope to find in faraway England.

As they travel, the older, Aryan, teaches his brother Kabir the capitals of the countries they’ll pass through-a way of mapping the course in case anything should happen to separate them. Together they recite a list of cities they can’t yet imagine, so as not to forget the names: Kabul-Tehran-Istanbul-Athens- Rome-Paris-London. Though their journey is filled with moments of boyish wonder and adventure, the two also confront hunger and exhaustion, cold and heat, violence and confusion, and are exploited for their labor and forced to rely on strangers who shouldn’t be trusted.

In My Hands Today…

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Gabriel’s Gift – Hanif Kureishi

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Gabriel’s father, a washed-up rock musician, has been chucked out of the house. His mother works nights in a pub and sleeps days. Navigating his way through the shattered world of his parents’ generation, Gabriel dreams of being an artist. He finds solace and guidance through a mysterious connection to his deceased twin brother, Archie, and his own knack for producing real objects simply by drawing them.

A chance visit with mega-millionaire rock star Lester Jones, his father’s former band mate, provides Gabriel with the means to heal the rift within his family.

In My Hands Today…

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An Obedient Father – Akhil Sharma

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My general incompetence and laziness at work had been apparent for so long that I now think it was arrogant of Mr. Gupta to pick me as his money man. I am the type of person who does not make sure that a file includes all the pages it must have or that the pages are in the right order. I refuse to accept even properly placed blame, lying outright that somebody else misplaced the completed forms or spilt tea on them, even though I was the last one to sign them out, or had the soggy papers still on my desk.

As an inspector for the Physical Education Department in the Delhi school system, Ram Karan supports his widowed daughter and eight-year-old granddaughter by collecting bribes for a small-time Congress Party boss. On the eve of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, one reckless act bares the lifetime of violence and sexual shame behind Ram’s dingy public career and involves him in a farcical, but terrifying, political campaign that could cost him his life.