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Staff Picks View other newsletters  |  Read books in your email Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat Published 2007 by Knopf Publishing Group Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781400041152 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: From the bestselling author of "The Dew Breaker" comes a major work of nonfiction: a powerfully moving family story that centers around the men closest to the author's heart--her father, Mira, and his older brother, Joseph. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 07/16/2007 In a single day in 2004, Danticat (Breath, Eyes, Memory ;The Farming of Bones ) learns that she's pregnant and that her father, André, is dying-a stirring constellation of events that frames this Haitian immigrant family's story, rife with premature departures and painful silences. When Danticat was two, André left Haiti for the U.S., and her mother followed when Danticat was four. The author and her brother could not join their parents for eight years, during which André's brother Joseph raised them. When Danticat was nine, Joseph-a pastor and gifted orator-lost his voice to throat cancer, making their eventual separation that much harder, as he wouldn't be able to talk with the children on the phone. Both André and Joseph maintained a certain emotional distance through these transitions. Danticat writes of a Haitian adage, "-'When you bathe other people's children, you should wash one side and leave the other side dirty.' I suppose this saying cautions those who care for other people's children not to give over their whole hearts." In the end, as Danticat prepares to lose her ailing father and give birth to her daughter, Joseph is threatened by a volatile sociopolitical clash and forced to flee Haiti. He's then detained by U.S. Customs and neglected for days. He unexpectedly dies a prisoner while loved ones await news of his release. Poignant and never sentimental, this elegant memoir recalls how a family adapted and reorganized itself over and over, enduring and succeeding to remain kindred in spite of living apart.(Sept.) 01/01/2008 REVIEW: School Library Journal Adult/High School-A family memoir, this book is sad, but it's a worthy and touching read. The author's parents moved from Haiti to New York in 1976, leaving the two eldest children in the care of an aunt and uncle until they earned enough money to relocate the entire family. Brother vividly describes the political unrest of Haiti in the 1970s and '80s, and Danticat details the various elections and upheavals. It is clear that the family must leave, but they maintain much affection for their home country. Their eventual immigration to the United States is difficult and near impossible for some, like Uncle Joseph, who at age 81 and suffering multiple health problems is treated like a political prisoner at the hands of immigration officials. While the book often shifts between various periods of the family history, Danticat narrates the story from 2005. Her father is dying, and their relationship holds the narrative together. While the birth of her daughter provides the author with hope, Brother may prove to be a little too grim for some teens. Others, however, will appreciate its realism.-Jennifer Waters, Red Deer Public Library, Alberta, Canada The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry Published 2008 by Viking Books Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780670019403 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: Set against an Ireland besieged by conflict, "The Secret Scripture" is an epic story of love, betrayal, and unavoidable tragedy, and a vivid reminder of the stranglehold that the Catholic Church had on individual lives for much of the 20th century. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 03/31/2008 The latest from Barry (whose A Long Way was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker) pits two contradictory narratives against each other in an attempt to solve the mystery of a 100-year-old mental patient. That patient, Roseanne McNulty, decides to undertake an autobiography and writes of an ill-fated childhood spent with her father, Joe Clear. A cemetery superintendent, Joe is drawn into Ireland's 1922 civil war when a group of irregulars brings a slain comrade to the cemetery and are discovered by a division of Free-Staters. Meanwhile, Roseanne's psychiatrist, Dr. Grene, investigating Roseanne's original commitment in preparation for her transfer to a new hospital, discovers through the papers of the local parish priest, Fr. Gaunt, that Roseanne's father was actually a police sergeant in the Royal Irish Constabulary. The mysteries multiply when Roseanne reveals that Fr. Gaunt annulled her marriage after glimpsing her in the company of another man; Gaunt's official charge was nymphomania, and the cumulative fallout led to a string of tragedies. Written in captivating, lyrical prose, Barry's novel is both a sparkling literary puzzle and a stark cautionary tale of corrupted power. (June) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz Published 2007 by Riverhead Hardcover Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781594489587 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: Rendering with warmth the endless human capacity to persevere, this is the long-awaited--and thrillingly satisfying--first novel from the unmistakable voice behind the short story collection "Drown." REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/18/2007 SignatureReviewed by Matthew SharpeA reader might at first be surprised by how many chapters of a book entitledThe Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are devoted not to its sci fi-and-fantasy-gobbling nerd-hero but to his sister, his mother and his grandfather. However, Junot Diaz's dark and exuberant first novel makes a compelling case for the multiperspectival view of a life, wherein an individual cannot be known or understood in isolation from the history of his family and his nation.Oscar being a first-generation Dominican-American, the nation in question is really two nations. And Dominicans in this novel being explicitly of mixed Taíno, African and Spanish descent, the very ideas of nationhood and nationality are thoughtfully, subtly complicated. The various nationalities and generations are subtended by the recurring motif offuk , "the Curse and Doom of the New World," whose "midwife and... victim" was a historical personage Diaz will only call the Admiral, in deference to the belief that uttering his name brings bad luck (hint: he arrived in the New World in 1492 and his initials are CC). By the prologue's end, it's clear that this story of one poor guy's cursed life will also be the story of how 500 years of historical and familial bad luck shape the destiny of its fat, sad, smart, lovable and short-lived protagonist.The book's pervasive sense of doom is offset by a rich and playful prose that embodies its theme of multiple nations, cultures and languages, often shifting in a single sentence from English to Spanish, from Victorian formality to "Negropolitan" vernacular, from Homeric epithet to dirty bilingual insult. Even the presumed reader shape-shifts in the estimation of its in-your-face narrator, who addresses us variously as "folks," "you folks," "conspiracy-minded-fools," "Negro," "Nigger" and "plataneros." So while Diaz assumes in his reader the same considerable degree of multicultural erudition he himself possesses-offering no gloss on his many un-italicized Spanish words and expressions (thus beautifully dramatizing how linguistic borders, like national ones, are porous), or on his plethora of genre and canonical literary allusions-he does helpfully footnote aspects of Dominican history, especially those concerning the bloody 30-year reign of President Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.The later Oscar chapters lack the linguistic brio of the others, and there are exposition-clogged passages that read like summaries of a longer narrative, but mostly this fierce, funny, tragic book is just what a reader would have hoped for in a novel by Junot Diaz.Matthew Sharpe is the author of the novels Jamestown and The Sleeping Father. He teaches at Wesleyan University. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice Published 2007 by Plume Books Paperback, English. ISBN: 9780452288096 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: With mannered prose dripping in the charm of 1950s London, TheLost Art of Keeping Secrets centers around Penelope, the wide-eyed daughter of a legendary beauty, Talitha, who is unable to move beyond the loss of her charmed husband to the war. Penelope, with her mother and brother, struggles to maintain their vast and crumbling ancestral homeand the lifestyle to which they have grown accustomedwhile postwar London spins toward the next decades cultural revolution. Penelope wants nothing more than to fall in love. When her new best friend, Charlotte, a free spirit in the young society set, drags Penelope What Happened to Anna K. by Irina Reyn Published 2008 by Touchstone Books Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416558934 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: This debut novel--declared as wondrous a feat as I can recall in contemporary fiction (Darin Strauss, author of "Chang and Eng")--skillfully retells the classic tragedy of "Anna Karenina" by setting it in present-day New York City within a community of Russian-Jewish immigrants. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 06/02/2008 Set among early 21st-century Russian Jewish immigrants in New York City, Reyn's debut beautifully adapts Anna Karenina's social melodrama for a decidedly different set of Russians. Anna, 30-something with a string of bad relationships behind her and a restless, literarily inclined soul, is wooed into marriage by the financial stability and social appropriateness of Alex K., an older businessman with roots in her Rego Park, Queens, community. As Anna chafes at her unromantic life, trouble hits in the form of David, the hipster-writer boyfriend of her sweet, naïve cousin, Katia. The furiously flying sparks between Anna and David provide cover as Katia is quietly pursued by Lev, a young Bukharan Jew who, like Anna, is a dreamer whose relationship with the émigré community is fraught. Reyn's Anna is perhaps even harder to sympathize with than Tolstoy's original, but Reyn's sparkling insight into the Russian and Bukharan Jewish communities, and the mesmerizing intensity of her prose, make this debut a worthy remake. Lev's and Anna's divergent trajectories and choices illuminate how perilous the balance between self and society remains. (Aug.) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Fiery Barrows Published 2008 by Dial Press Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780385340991 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: London, 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of Guernsey during the German occupation, and about a society as extraordinary as its name. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 04/21/2008 The letters comprising this small charming novel begin in 1946, when single, 30-something author Juliet Ashton (nom de plume "Izzy Bickerstaff") writes to her publisher to say she is tired of covering the sunny side of war and its aftermath. When Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams finds Juliet's name in a used book and invites articulate-and not-so-articulate-neighbors to write Juliet with their stories, the book's epistolary circle widens, putting Juliet back in the path of war stories. The occasionally contrived letters jump from incident to incident-including the formation of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while Guernsey was under German occupation-and person to person in a manner that feels disjointed. But Juliet's quips are so clever, the Guernsey inhabitants so enchanting and the small acts of heroism so vivid and moving that one forgives the authors (Shaffer died earlier this year) for not being able to settle on a single person or plot. Juliet finds in the letters not just inspiration for her next work, but also for her life-as will readers. (Aug.) When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa by Peter Godwin Published 2007 by Little Brown and Company Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780316158947 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: A brilliant memoir about a son's return to Africa to uncover the secrets of his family and his home. Bearing witness to Zimbabwe's dramatic spiral downwards, Godwin discovers why Africa was his father's sanctuary from another identity and why his family chose to stay amidst the chaos. REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 02/26/2007 In this exquisitely written, deeply moving account of the death of a father played out against the backdrop of the collapse of the southern African nation of Zimbabwe, seasoned journalist Godwin has produced a memoir that effortlessly manages to be almost unbearably personal while simultaneously laying bare the cruel regime of longstanding president Robert Mugabe. In 1996 when his father suffers a heart attack, Godwin returns to Africa and sparks the central revelation of the book-the father is Jewish and has hidden it from Godwin and his siblings. As his father's health deteriorates, so does Zimbabwe. Mugabe, self-proclaimed president for life, institutes a series of ill-conceived land reforms that throw the white farmers off the land they've cultivated for generations and consequently throws the country's economy into free fall. There's sadness throughout-for the death of the father, for the suffering of everyone in Zimbabwe (black and white alike) and for the way that human beings invariably treat each other with casual disregard. Godwin's narrative flows seamlessly across the decades, creating a searing portrait of a family and a nation collectively coming to terms with death. This is a tour de force of personal journalism and not to be missed.(Apr.) Come with Me to Babylon by Paul M. Levitt Published 2008 by University of New Mexico Press Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780826341785 Find this book in our catalog. Jacket Notes: In 1910 the Cohen family, in search of the Golden Medina, undertakes a dangerous journey from Russia to the United States, where the new world exposes family secrets, cultural conflicts, the corruption of the American Dream, and love's divides. Traveling in steerage to Ellis Island, the family endures the poverty and dirt of New York City and retreats to a farm in southern New Jersey--to find not the agricultural Eden they were promised, but Babylon. Told in several voices, this tale bears witness to a new generation learning to find hope in a land that often sacrifices human decency for profit and greed.