Reading Groups Collection Multiple-Copy Titles Available for Loan Master list revised January 2014 Susan ABULHAWA - Mornings in Jenin Palestine, 1948. A mother clutches her six-month-old son as Israeli soldiers march through the village of Ein Hod. In a split second, her son is snatched from her arms and the fate of the Abulheja family is changed forever. Forced into a refugee camp in Jenin , the family struggles to rebuild their world. Their stories unfold through the eyes of the youngest sibling, Amal, the daughter born in the camp who will eventually find herself alone in the United States; the eldest son who loses everything in the struggle for freedom; the stolen son who grows up as an Israeli, becoming an enemy soldier to his own brother. Mornings in Jenin is a devastating novel of love and loss, war and oppression, and heartbreak and hope, spanning five countries and four generations of one of the most intractable conflicts of our lifetime. (2011, 352 pages) Chimamanda ADICHIE – Half a Yellow Sun (3 sets) This is a heartbreaking, literary masterpiece. set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at the time of a vicious civil war in which a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood. The three main characters in the novel are swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. As these people's lives intersect, they have to question their own responses to the unfolding political events. This extraordinary novel is about Africa in a wider sense: about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race; and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things. (2007, 448 pages) Chimamanda ADICHIE – Purple Hibiscus (2 sets) A haunting tale of an Africa and an adolescence undergoing tremendous changes. The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili's world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her repressive and fanatically religious father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, and more prayer. When Nigeria begins to fall apart during a military coup, Kambili's father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to live with their aunt. In this house, full of energy and laughter, she discovers life and love – and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family. (2003, 307 pages) Aravind ADIGA – The White Tiger (2 sets) Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur and murderer, is born in a back- water village on the River Ganges, the son of a rickshaw-puller. He works in a teashop, crushing coal and wiping tables, but nurses a dream of escape. When he learns that a rich village landlord needs a chauffeur, he takes his opportunity, and is soon on his way to Delhi behind the wheel of a Honda. Amid the cockroaches and call-centres, the 36,000,004 gods, the slums, the shopping malls, and the crippling traffic jams, Balram learns of a new morality at the heart of a new India. (2008, 336 pages) Jose Eduardo AGUALUSA – The Book of Chameleons Set in contemporary Angola, The Book of Chameleons is populated with characters whose stories never quite settle...It is some pages in before you realise that the narrator - rather charming, witty as he is - a lizard, living on Felix Ventura's living room wall. Felix trades in an usual commodity - he sells pasts. If you don't like yours, he can come up with an entirely new one for you, full of better memories and with a complete lineage. This is a book about the landscape of memory, its inconsistencies and its randomness. (2006, 256 pages) Mitch ALBOM – Tuesdays with Morrie (Non-Fiction) Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly 20 years ago. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying 1 Morrie visited Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live. (2003, 212 pages) Kitty ALDRIDGE – Cryers Hill In July 1934, Walter Brown went alone to the woodland pond. He saw his girl swimming there. She turned over like an otter and dived down. She did not come up again. In July 1969, Sean Matthews finds himself in the very same woodland, where he witnesses an event he later cannot bear to remember. Both have each seen something they shouldn't… (2007, 352 pages) Monica ALI – Brick Lane (2 sets) Still in her teenage years, Nazneen finds herself in an arranged marriage with a disappointed man who is twenty years older. Away from the mud and heat of her Bangladeshi village, home is now a cramped flat in a high-rise block in London's East End. Nazneen is forced to depend on her husband, but unlike him she is practical and wise. She keeps in touch with her sister Hasina back in the village, but the rebellious Hasina has kicked against cultural tradition and run off in a 'love marriage' with the man of her dreams. When he suddenly turns violent, she is forced into the degrading job of garment girl in a cloth factory. Confined in her flat by tradition and family duty, Nazneen also sews furiously for a living until the radical Karim steps unexpectedly into her life. On a background of racial conflict and tension, they embark on a love affair that forces Nazneen finally to take control of her fate. (2003, 491pages) Rosie ALISON – The Very Thought of You As Hitler prepares to invade Poland, thousands of children are evacuated from London to escape the impending Blitz. Torn from her mother, eight-year-old Anna Sands is relocated with other children to a large Yorkshire estate which has been opened up to evacuees by Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, an enigmatic childless couple. Soon Anna gets drawn into their unhappy relationship, seeing things that are not meant for her eyes - and finding herself part-witness and part-accomplice to a love affair, with tragic consequences. A story of love, loss and complicated loyalties, combining a sweeping narrative with subtle psychological observation. (2009, 350 pages) Clare ALLAN – Poppy Shakespeare The routine at the Dorothy Fish day hospital has been much the same for as long as anyone can remember. Contentedly institutionalised patients do whatever is necessary to avoid being discharged. Their strategies have proved successful, but change is in the air. One morning, obsessive-compulsive Brian the Butcher returns late for the break in his hand-washing sessions. He bursts through the door into the common room to announce that Manic Pollyanna has been discharged. Much consternation ensues as a) there’s no way she was ready to leave and b) her place is filled not, as expected, by Paolo, who’s been waiting on the next floor up for years, but by a new patient, the eponymous Poppy Shakespeare. But Poppy, as she keeps telling everyone, isn’t mad… (2006, 352 pages) Isabel ALLENDE – House of the Spirits (2 sets) Spanning four generations, Isabel Allende's magnificent family saga is populated by a memorable, often eccentric cast of characters. Together, men and women, spirits, the forces of nature, and of history, converge in an unforgettable, wholly absorbing and brilliantly realised novel that is as richly entertaining as it is a masterpiece of modern literature. (1982, 490 pages) Anita AMIRREZVANI – The Blood of Flowers (2 sets) The Blood of Flowers envelops you in 17th-century Iran. This is an unforgettable novel of love and friendship, dishonour and deceit. The sudden death of her beloved father forces our heroine and her mother to move to Isfahan. Taken in by relatives, they become caught up in a world of competing loyalties, uncertain friendships and the lure of wealth. The girl has a remarkable ability to weave magical carpets, a natural talent that gets her noticed by the city's finest carpet-maker. But her new life unravels after one disastrous decision leads to disgrace. The vivid descriptions of Isfahan make the city leap off the page. The heroine’s journey from country-girl innocent to streetwise carpet-maker is breathtakingly painful and uplifting in equal measure. (2007, 384 pages) 2 Tahmina ANAM – A Golden Age A Golden Age is the story of Rehana, a widow, and how she seeks to protect her children during the Bangladeshi War of Independence in 1971. Her student children want to become active in the war and Rehana reluctantly adds her support. But soon she is pulled more and more into supporting her adopted land of Bangladesh. The war is brutal and is graphically described and the narrative is gripping. The relationships between Rehana and her children, the Major and her neighbours are all very well drawn and perceptive. Rehana is forced to make some hard choices – but having once lost her children in a custody battle she is determined to do anything within her capability to keep her son and daughter safe. (2007, 288 pages) Maya ANGELOU – I Know why the Caged Bird Sings (Biography) Maya Angelou's six volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer.