This week You! takes a look at the compilation of literary works by female authors encompassing the diverse array of books penned and published throughout year 2023, showcasing the rich tapestry of literary creations that have emerged during this period. Read on…
books
Books play a pivotal role in shaping and enriching human lives beyond being repositories of knowledge, they serve as windows into different worlds, offering insights into cultures, histories, and perspectives. Literature, in its various forms, acts as a catalyst for intellectual growth, fostering critical thinking and analytical skills. Books have the power to transport us to new realms of imagination, fostering empathy by allowing individuals to inhabit the lives and experiences of characters from diverse backgrounds. This week You! takes a look at the compilation of literary works by female authors encompassing the diverse array of books penned and published throughout year 2023, showcasing the rich tapestry of literary creations that have emerged during this period. Read on…
With its totally immersive first-person voice, ‘Yellowface’ grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
The story revolves around June Hayward, an unsuccessful young author. When Athena (June’s former classmate) dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited girl alone in the wilderness, trying to survive. Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The ‘Vaster Wilds’ is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how - and if - we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.
“A Living Remedy is a bouquet of feeling. Nicole Chung weaves a ground-breaking narrative steeped in love, humour, the infinitude of memory, and the essentiality of community. Chung approaches the kaleidoscope of grief from its many angles, excavating its complexity with heart and candour; but Chung’s prose also soothes, uncovering hidden corners of the heart and its many permutations. A Living Remedy is elegiac and heart-expanding, a memoir that’s both an exploration of loss and a beacon for moving forward,” Bryan Washington, author of Memorial.
“A Living Remedy is a book about love, loss, leaving home, and finding home. Nicole Chung has a rare precious gift: the ability to tell an intimate story with vast social implications. A Living Remedy is a book that honours the way families are made through a collage of close encounters and shared struggles. Brimming with insight about class, race, identity, and politics, it will move and transform readers with its beauty, spirituality, and wisdom,” Imani Perry, author of South to America
Exploring the enduring strength of family bonds in the face of hardship and tragedy, ‘A Living Remedy’ examines what it takes to reconcile the distance between one life, one home, and another – and sheds needed light on some of the most persistent and grievous inequalities in American society.
‘‘Forty Words for Love’ is a dual point-of-view magical realism novel following the lives of two teens in a town on the brink of economic collapse following a tragedy. The story follows Yas, a local, and Raf, who is an immigrant, as they navigate these tensions and seek refuge in each other through these troubling times. Saeed’s luminous novel is timely: Rafay’s story echoes the experiences of refugees worldwide, especially those displaced by climate change. The story explores what it is to love, and what we owe one another and ourselves.
‘How to Say Babylon’ is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, ‘How to Say Babylon’ is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about.'
Ann Napolitano’s new novel ‘Hello Beautiful’ is alluring, perceptive, and wistful. A rich, complex family saga, ‘Hello Beautiful’ is a portrait of love and grief in equal measure. It is a profoundly moving and propulsive novel about the deepest connections of family and love, trauma and healing. Vibrating with tenderness, ‘Hello Beautiful’ is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what’s possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it. In intricately elegant prose, Ann Napolitano explores both the cost and power of loyalty and honesty. This is a book to treasure and share with friends and loved ones. Equally immersive, emotional, and brilliantly crafted, ‘Hello Beautiful’ can be described as one of the best novel of the year.
Taut, propulsive, and impossible to look away from, ‘The Guest’ is a spellbinding literary achievement. The novel follows Alex, a young, pretty girl who is forced to leave her older boyfriend Simon’s mansion in the Hamptons, and is left with nowhere to go. She then tries to make do by sponging off wealthy people in the area in the hope that she can crawl her way back to Simon’s home and lifestyle.
‘‘What a Desi Girl Wants’ by Sabina Khan is a rollercoaster of emotions. You start by not knowing what’s going to happen, then, when something does happen, it leaves you feeling disorientated (in a good way) and wanting more. It is like a warm hug of a story. Mehar’s journey back to India for her father’s wedding after years away sets the stage for a heart-warming tale of reconciliation. Sabina Khan's storytelling is like a magic spell that pulls you right into Mehar's world. In a nutshell, ‘What a Desi Girl Wants’ is a heart-warming journey of love, family, and finding oneself.
Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humour, ‘The Rachel Incident’ is a triumph. Two 20-something roommates become enmeshed with an older married couple in this smart and colourful outing from O’Donoghue. In addition to the interpersonal drama, O’Donoghue pulls no punches in her depiction of the abortion crisis in Ireland during the period, showing how women either travelled abroad or resorted to illegal and potentially dangerous methods to terminate pregnancies. Key to it all is O’Donoghue’s spot-on portrayal of Rachel’s youthful yearning. In O’Donoghue’s world, there’s plenty to fall in love with. According to Time Magazine, “The Rachel Incident is a coming-of-age story, but also ultimately a love story - revealed in starkly funny and heart-breaking turns.”
Makkai’s powerhouse novel has all the draw and momentum of the wildly entertaining mystery that it is, but lurking behind the plot is a series of escalating existential questions about trauma, memory, and the ever-shifting terrain of the past . . . Makkai brings to the story a vertiginous sensation of falling again and again into new doubts and desires, one that brings to mind Hitchcock at his best and forces the reader constantly to double back and wonder where the story has taken them, really. ‘I Have Some Questions for You’ is a smart, sophisticated mystery, crafted with verve. It asks us to examine many things: high school, the ’90s, privilege, justice, sexual harassment, what we owe the dead. Like the true crime podcasts it’s modelled on, it’s addictive, well told and a little bit unsettling. Makkai combines skilled storytelling with abundant human insight. The novel is so well-plotted and thought-provoking that readers may struggle with conflicting impulses to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next or to stop and think about what it all means.
- Compiled by Ayesha Anjum
