Fiction Pick of the Week: Half Life

Half Life by Roopa Farooki

What a compelling read! This is London based Roopa Farooki’s fourth book and this latest tale will delight lovers of literary fiction. Her previous nominations for the Orange Prize and Impac Dublin Literary Prize attest to a very gifted writer.
The story swirls around Dr. Aruna Ahmed Jones, an academic raised in Singapore but living in London. Aruna is a quirky character who is not easy to like as she self-destructs on alcohol, drugs, sex and cigarettes in an effort to find herself. She feels she doesn’t belong in Singapore or England.

Married after a brief encounter to an adoring, devoted doctor she abruptly abandons him one morning without a word of goodbye, clutching only her purse and passport as she boards a plane bound for Singapore and her former life. A sentence in a book she had picked up set her in motion: “It’s time to stop fighting and go home.” The secrets that come to light as she meets with her childhood friend, who was her lover, and his father provide a passionate and emotionally rewarding story as Aruna makes peace with the ghosts of her past.