Fiction Pick of the Week: The English American

The English American by Alison Larkin

Alison Larkin was adopted at birth by a British couple; her birth parents were from Georgia. This novel is partially based on her quest to find her birth parents.  Her mother had an affair with a married man who was a prominent politician in the United States and she had to give up her daughter for adoption.    Larkin needed to find out who she inherited her looks and talents from as she felt so out of place with her loving adopted parents who had totally different personalities from her.  In the end this journey was painful but resulted in Larkin feeling better about herself and being able to love both set of parents regardless of their faults.  This book would make an excellent choice for a book club group and is an excellent choice for  for adoptees and their adopted and birth parents.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon  2011

Told by an American journalist, this is the inspirational story of Kamila Sidiqi, a young woman living in Kabul in a time of war.  Kamila was teaching at a local school when the Taliban seized control in 1996. What followed was a terrifying time for all the citizens of Kabul, especially the women. The Taliban decreed that all women must remain at home and only leave the house fully covered in a chadri and accompanied by the male of the house. Many women found themselves isolated and unable to support their families.

To support her five brothers and sisters, Kamila secretly started a dressmaking business.  Under extremely dangerous conditions, while adherring to the repressive rules of the Taliban, Kamila successfully grew her tailoring business to support her family and up to 100 other women.

A compelling true story of a young woman who finds herself faced with incredible hardship, and how she reinvents herself for the betterment of her family and dozens of other women and their families.

Fiction Pick of the Week: Without a Backward Glance

Without a Backward Glance by Kate Veitch 2006
Without a Backward Glance is a thought-provoking novel about family ties and how these have an impact on a person’s psychological development. Rosemarie McDonald, a British-born mother of four is living in Melbourne and is very unhappy about her life. On Christmas Eve 1967 she leaves her home to run an errand and never returns. Her husband Alex, soon discovers that his wife has deserted them to return to England to pursue a career in fashion design. Forty years later, her son James meets someone who knows of his mother’s existence in England and this sets in motion a reunion of Rose (Rosemarie)with the family that she left.

All of her children have developed psychological and substance abuse problems due to the trauma of her desertion. The reunion is a bittersweet event and all of them seem to benefit from confronting Rose with their anger and sorrow. What I liked about this novel was how Veitch presented a realistic portrait of the trauma this family went through and how each adult coped with the reunion in a different way. Many family issues are brought forth in this novel, and I think it would make a good book for a book club.

Fiction Pick of the Week: Little Bee

Little Bee by Chris Cleave (2009) is without doubt one of the best books I have read this year. Little Bee is a 16-year old Nigerian girl who has a terrifying confrontation with some wild, crazed men wielding machetes with murderous intent on an African beach. Two English tourists, Sarah and her husband Andrew, become a part of this hideous event. This is a profound and deeply moving story of two alien cultures whose lives are irrevocably changed by those events . After a two-year incarceration as a political refugee in an English detention centre, Little Bee once again enters Sarah's life as she shows up unannounced on Sarah's doorstep in London, England. Little Bee is naive, and capable of great courage and hope but her presence in England profoundly changes the life of everyone she encounters.

This bittersweet novel with an emotionally charged plot and vivid characters is a very special book indeed that will cause you to think deeply and feel a desire to have the story go on forever.