The setting is revolutionary-era Bangladesh, and political players include Pakistan, India, Bengali revolutionaries, and perhaps the central focus of the book, the Biharis. Bangladeshi author Ruby Zaman’s Invisible Lines (2011, ISBN 978-93-5029-071-2) weaves a thrilling tapestry of intrigue, war, and romance in this thriller, but Western audiences are advised to consult an encyclopaedia to understand […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Literature' Category
WoWasis book review: ‘The Good Muslim’ by Tahmima Anam from Bangladesh
Bangladeshi author Tahmima Anam’s novel, The Good Muslim (2011, ISBN 978 984 8765 90 6) isn’t all that easy to suss out, if you’re neither conversant in Islamic theory nor recent Bangladeshi history. A little background information, such as an understanding of the struggle that carved Bangladesh out of East Pakistan, is helpful. So is […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Revisiting Han Suyin’s ‘A Many-Splendored Thing’
Han Suyin died in November of 2012 at the age of 95. Her book A Many-Splendored Thing, published in 1952, was the basis for the film starring William Holden and Jennifer Jones, and has influenced numerous writers. A recently written book, Janice Y.K. Lee’s The Piano Teacher, is probably one of those. So we went […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Wave,’ a tsunami memoir by Sri Lanka’s Sonali Deraniyagala
Sri Lankan Author Sonali Deraniyagala lost her husband, two sons, and mother and father in the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami, which killed an estimated 230,000 people. Her story is told in Wave (2013, ISBN 978-0-307-96269-0). It’s a story of tragedy, a personal loss reiterated, emphasized, and relentlessly pounded into the reader on virtually every page. […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘The Piano Teacher’ by Janice Y.K. Lee
After finishing Janice Y.K. Lee’s ‘The Piano Teacher’ (2009, ISBN 978-0-14-311653-0), we went scurrying back to Han Suyin’s landmark novel of 1952, A Many-Splendored Thing. There are similarities, to be sure. The setting for both is pre-1955 Hong Kong, and they are essentially love stories that revolve around the unsettled military, political, and social situation […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Take China: The Last of the China Marines’ by Harold Stephens
Harold Stephens, author of Take China: The Last of the China Marines (2003, ISBN 0-9642521-8-X), maintains that the book is a novel, but in actuality it’s a memoir, his autobiographical tales of serving with the U.S. Marines, transitioning from the end of World War II to mainland China. He’s changed the names, but it’s all […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Education of a Travel Writer’ by Harold Stephens
Among veteran travelers, there probably aren’t too many of us who haven’t, at least for one small moment, entertained the possibility of being travel writers. It’s tempting. We see lots worthy of writing about, and many of us keep notes, in notebooks, in the back of travel guides, or in electronic devices we carry with […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘The Vets’ … Hong Kong and Bangkok intrigue by Stephen Leather
British novelist Stephen Leather has written an amazing body of fiction books centering on Southeast Asia. In The Vets (1993, ISBN 978-0-340-59770-5), he includes Hong Kong in the mix, in a fast-paced thriller that displays his knowledge of HK prior to its takeover by the Chinese as well as his understanding of the powerful mainland […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Missing in Rangoon’ by Christopher G. Moore
Veteran Bangkok-based novelist Christopher G. Moore’s book, Missing in Rangoon (2013, ISBN 978-616-7503-17-2), is the latest in his detective Vincent Calvino series. We here at WoWasis loved the plot, and the book has passages with some of the best writing we’ve seen from this prolific novelist. The story is delicious. Calvino gets a missing person’s […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘The Solitary Man,’ Golden Triangle adventure by Stephen Leather
We’d imagine that comparatively few of our WoWasis readers have served time in their nation’s prisons. Fewer have served in overseas prisons. And fewer still in the legendarily filthy prisons of Thailand. And that’s why so many people just love to read about them. From shit-encrusted holes in the floor that serve as toilets to […]
Read the rest of this entry »
