Eight books to look out for this April
Eight books to look out for this April
25 March 2020
In times of uncertainty, books are more important than ever.
Luckily for us, April brings some brilliant new releases from the Asian community that we think will be great additions to your self-isolation reading lists.
Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias
Pragya Agarwal
Bloomsbury
‘If you think you don’t need to read this book, you really need to read this book.’ – Jane Garvey, Presenter, BBC Radio 4
Included in Stylist Magazine’s ‘guide to 2020’s best non-fiction books’
One of The Bookseller’s Editor’s Choice picks for April 2020
Have you ever been told to smile more, been teased about your accent, or had your name pronounced incorrectly? If so, you’ve probably already faced bias in your everyday life.
We like to believe that we are all fair-minded and egalitarian but we all carry biases that we might not even be aware of. We might believe that we live in a post-racial society, but racial tension and inequality is pernicious and pervasive. We might believe that gender inequality is a thing of the past, but it is still ubiquitous.
Unconscious bias has become a frequently-used term in our vocabulary, but there are still so many myths around it. For the first time, behavioural scientist, activist and writer Dr Pragya Agarwal unravels the way our implicit or ‘unintentional’ biases affect the way we communicate and perceive the world, and how they affect our decision-making, even in life and death situations. She takes a unique inter-disciplinary approach combining case studies, personal experience, interviews and real world stories underpinned by scientific theories and research. She covers a wide range of implicit biases in depth, including age-ism, appearance, accents, sexism and aversive racism. Throughout, Pragya answers questions such as: do our roots for prejudice lie in our evolutionary past? What happens in our brains when our biases are activated? How has bias affected technology? If we don’t know about it, are we really responsible for it?
At a time when partisan political ideologies are taking centre stage, and we struggle to make sense of who we are and who we want to be, it is crucial that we understand why we act the way we do. This book will enable you to reflect and consider the forces that shape us all, opening your eyes to your own biases in a scientific and non-judgemental way.
PUBLICATION DATE: 2 April 2020
Find out more and buy the book here
The Frightened Ones
Dima Wannous (translated by Elisabeth Jaquette)
Viking
An electrifying new voice from contemporary Syria on life in a climate of fear
Suleima and Nassim first meet in their therapist’s tiny waiting room in Damascus. In the city’s atmosphere of surveillance and anxiety, they begin a tenuous relationship.
Some years later, after civil war breaks out, Nassim leaves Syria for Germany. He doesn’t ask Suleima to come with him; instead, from thousands of miles away, he sends her a book he has written, a novel about a woman whose experiences are very close to her own.
As Suleima reads, her past overwhelms her. Time begins to fold in on itself, her sense of identity unravels, she has no idea what to trust – Naseem’s pages, her own memory – both – or neither? As she attempts to solve the mystery of her lover’s manuscript, she must confront what has happened to her family, to her country, and start to make sense of who she is and what she has become.
Bold, contemporary, and told with captivating immediacy, The Frightened Ones is an intimate reckoning of living with fear from an electrifying new voice.
PUBLICATION DATE: 9 APRIL 2020
Find out more and buy the book here
You People
Nikita Lalwani
Viking
‘Intelligent and heart-piercing – an exceptional novel about the Britain we live in, even if we choose not to see it’ – Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire
‘Enthralling as a thriller, yet also a beautiful human drama, and a serious enquiry into the possibility of goodness’ – Tessa Hadley
The Pizzeria Vesuvio looks like any other Italian restaurant in London – with a few small differences. The chefs who make the pizza fiorentinas are Sri Lankan, and half the kitchen staff are illegal immigrants.
At the centre is Tuli, the restaurant’s charismatic proprietor and resident Robin Hood, who promises to help anyone in need. Welsh nineteen-year-old Nia, haunted by her troubled past, is running from her family. Shan, having fled the Sri Lankan civil war, is desperate to find his.
But when Tuli’s guidance leads them all into dangerous territory, and the extent of his mysterious operation unravels, each is faced with an impossible moral choice.
In a world where the law is against you, how far would you be willing to lie for a chance to live?
PUBLICATION DATE: 2 April 2020
Find out more and buy the book here
Hashim & Family
Shahnaz Ahsan
Hachette
It is New Year’s Eve, 1960. Hashim has left behind his homeland and his bride, Munira, to seek his fortune in England. His cousin and only friend, Rofikul, introduces Hashim to life in Manchester – including Rofikul’s girlfriend, Helen. When Munira arrives, the group must learn what it is to be a family.
Over the next twenty years, they make their way in the new country – putting down roots and building a home. But when war breaks out in East Pakistan, the struggle for liberation and the emergence of Bangladesh raises questions about identity, belonging and loyalty.
Hashim & Family is a story of family ties, of migration and of a connection to home, and is the debut of an extraordinary new talent.
PUBLICATION DATE: 2 April 2020
Find out more and buy the book here
Vagabonds
Hao Jingfang
Head of Zeus
A century after the Martian war of independence, a group of kids are sent to Earth as delegates from Mars, but when they return home, they are caught between the two worlds, unable to reconcile the beauty and culture of Mars with their experiences on Earth in this spellbinding novel from Hugo Award–winning author Hao Jingfang.
This genre-bending novel is set on Earth in the wake of a second civil war…not between two factions in one nation, but two factions in one solar system: Mars and Earth. In an attempt to repair increasing tensions, the colonies of Mars send a group of young people to live on Earth to help reconcile humanity. But the group finds itself with no real home, no friends, and fractured allegiances as they struggle to find a sense of community and identity, trapped between two worlds.
Fans of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and Naomi Alderman’s The Power will fall in love with this novel about lost innocence, an uncertain future, and never feeling at home, no matter where you are in the universe. Translated by Ken Liu, bestselling author of The Paper Menagerie and translator of Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem, Vagabonds is the first novel from Hao Jingfang, the first Chinese woman to ever win the esteemed Hugo Award.
PUBLICATION DATE: 14 April 2020
Find out more and buy the book here
All The Words Unspoken
Serena Kaur
Red Door Press
Things are not going well for Maansi Cavale.
Her depression is worsening, she barely passes her university exams and she winds up stuck at home, full of regret and unable to find a job. She’d do anything for a way out.
Though Maansi previously considered arranged marriage an outdated tradition (only to be agreed to if you’re in your mid-forties and unable to bag anybody yourself), a chance meeting at an Indian wedding party changes everything. Desperate to escape the shackles of monotony and unemployment, she agrees to marry the handsome and wealthy Aryan Alekar. She convinces herself a new lifestyle and wealth will lift her out of the pit. She secures the marriage, but not before serving up a few lies about herself…
As they settle into married life, Aryan remains a mystery to Maansi: some days warm and loving, others cold and distant. Maansi can’t help but wonder…who is Aryan Alekar really? And why did he choose to marry so young? While living with Aryan, Maansi realises she could never be satisfied playing housewife. After all, she once had goals and dreams.
While searching for the ambitious Maansi she has buried, Maansi starts to realise that the man she has married is even further from what he seems… Can she salvage their union or will they set each other free?
PUBLICATION DATE: 16 April 2020
Find out more and buy the book here
Wanderland
Jini Reddy
Bloomsbury
‘What a wonderful book Wanderland is! A witty, gentle, original and very modern quest for the magical (not the mythical) in Britain’s landscape, which both made me laugh and moved me.”’ – Robert Macfarlane
‘Warm, open-minded and endlessly curious, Jini is an ideal guide to Britain’s more unusual places and people. Wanderland is a truly engaging exploration, full of heart and soul.’ – Melissa Harrison
One of The Bookseller’s Editor’s Choice pics for April 2020
Alone on a remote mountaintop one dark night, a woman hears a mysterious voice.
Propelled by the memory and after years of dreaming about it, Jini Reddy dares to delve into the ‘wanderlands’ of Britain, heading off in search of the magical in the landscape.
A London journalist with multicultural roots and a perennial outsider, she determinedly sets off on this unorthodox path. Serendipity and her inner compass guide her around the country in pursuit of the Other and a connection to Britain’s captivating natural world. Where might this lead? And if you know what it is to be Othered yourself, how might this colour your experiences? And what if, in invoking the spirit of the land, ‘it’ decides to make its presence felt?
Whether following a ‘cult’ map to a hidden well that refuses to reveal itself, attempting to persuade a labyrinth to spill its secrets, embarking on a coast-to-coast pilgrimage or searching for a mystical land temple, Jini depicts a whimsical, natural Britain. Along the way, she tracks down ephemeral wild art, encounters women who worship The Goddess, falls deeper in love with her birth land and struggles – but mostly fails – to get to grips with its lore. Throughout, she rejoices in the wildness we cannot see and celebrates the natural beauty we can, while offering glimpses of her Canadian childhood and her Indian parents’ struggles in apartheid-era South Africa.
Wanderland is a book in which the heart leads, all things are possible and the Other, both wild and human, comes in from the cold. It is a paean to the joy of roaming, both figuratively and imaginatively, and to the joy of finding your place in the world.
PUBLICATION DATE: 30 April 2020
Find out more and buy the book here
The Tainted
Cauvery Madhavan
HopeRoad Publishing
‘Unfolding largely through conversations among the principal characters is an elegiac tale of the Anglo-Indian community, their heritage and their uncertain future. The intricate details of every experience are captured in simple language and with great precision. A moving story, compellingly told.’ – Shashi Tharoor
It’s spring 1920 in the small military town of Nandagiri in south-east India.
Colonel Aylmer, commander of the Royal Irish Kildare Rangers, is in charge. A distance away, decently hidden from view, lies the native part of Nandagiri with its heaving bazaar, reeking streets and brothels.
Everyone in Nandagiri knows their place and the part they were born to play – with one exception. The local Anglo-Indians, tainted by their mixed blood, belong . . . nowhere.
When news of the Black and Tans’ atrocities back in Ireland reaches the troops in India, even their priest cannot cool the men’s hot-headed rage. Politics vie with passion as Private Michael Flaherty pays court to Rose, Mrs Aylmer’s Anglo-Indian maid . . . but mutiny brings heroism and heartbreak in equal measure. Only the arrival of Colonel Aylmer’s grandson Richard, some 60 years later, will set off the reckoning, when those who were parted will be reunited, and those who were lost will be found again.
PUBLICATION DATE: 30 April 2020
Find out more and buy the book here
