What we read: Travel around the world with women writers in 2021
With flights grounded and most of us stuck indoors and with we in the U.K. becoming closed off from Europe due to Brexit, books still provide a way to voyage around the world and to hold onto the humanity of our sisters, even as so much of our media and society wants to ‘other’ womxn of other colours, religions and sexualities.
Hence I’ve put together a list of fun, beautiful and thought-provoking books beyond the white Anglo-Saxon literary world, some of which are more celebrated, whilst others are classics which have stood the test of time.
Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi) is perhaps the most accessible work by this stellar Nigerian novelist and feminist thinker, being both a love story and a tale of adapting to life in the U.S. Read all her work!
Brick Lane (Monica Ali) is hilarious as well as astute in its depiction of the bonds and challenges of Bangladeshi womxn on a London council estate – it deserves all the acclaim it garnered.
The Night Tiger (Yangsze Choo) is a very original novel set in 30’s Malaysia, with an intriguing magical realist twist as the book’s various protagonists find themselves drawn together in their dreams.
Dominicana (Angie Cruz) is a touching tale of young Ana’s experience of the realities of relationships and immigration to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic.
The Girl with The Louding Voice (Abi Daré) is a charming book about a girl sold into forced marriage finding freedom – and her voice. She’s also Nigerian (you’ll see I love that country’s writers!).
Nervous Conditions (Tsitsi Dangaremgba) is the debut novel by this Zimbabwean author led to her winning The Commonwealth Prize. I studied it nearly thirty years ago and I still remember the breathtaking ending. It now has a sequel.
The Memory of Love (Aminatta Forna) was awarded The Booker Prize and it’s well-deserved. A deeply poignant story of the traumas suffered due to war in Sierra Leone and a fated love triangle, the style and ideas are unparalleled.
The House Without Windows (Nadia Hashimi) is a profound, but also somehow hopeful meditation on an Afghani womxn’s courageous imprisonment in order to protect a young girl in her traditional patriarchal culture. A more exotic Orange is the New Black!
Silver Sparrow (Tayari Jones) is the other fabulous novel by the author of An American Marriage which has garnered so much praise. However, I feel this book is even better than its more famous counterpart and beautifully captures the issues of class and race, competition and jealousy faced by two African American sisters, born inside and outside wedlock to the same father.
Breasts and Eggs (Mieko Kawakami) is a wonderful meditation on the challenges of being a womxn set in modern Japan, with the theme of motherhood being predominant, Kawakami even asking provocative questions about the ethics of the use of donors in IVF. Thought-provoking, quirky and brilliant.
Girl in Translation (Jean Kwok) is Hong Kong-born Kwok’s debut and it sensitively captures the life of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. Mambo in Chinatown has to also be mentioned as it’s a wonderfully romantic tale of a girl finding love and her soul’s passion in a dance studio, when both are forbidden. Definitely something to make you smile!
A Tale for the Time Being (Ruth Ozeki) is a perfect work of sci-fi and magic realism, weaving from Japan to America from Buddhist monks, struggling writers and teenage girls in cafes. Utterly unique.
The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy) – yes, it really is worth the hype and stands the test of time! A Booker-winning classic which delightfully captures the unusual sibling relationship of a family who owns an Indian pickle factory.
A Woman is No Man (Etaf Rum) takes an intimate look at Palestinian-American womxn’s lives in Brooklyn and the way patriarchy limits their liberty. A novel which will haunt you and make you consider gender equality in powerful ways.
Ten Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World (Elif Shafak), the tale of a sex worker’s final moments after her murder, was the beginning of my love affair with this British-Turkish novelist’s work – I’ve now read all her books and if you enjoy strong female characters and friendships, whimsical magic realist elements and even frequent mentions of cats, you’ll love her! This novel gets bonus points for depicting a fabulous trans womxn character (we still need more inclusion in literature!).
Everyone Knows You Go Home (Natalia Sylvester) is a fantastic novel about the Mexican-American experience which vividly captures the arduous journey immigrants take to get to the U.S. and the pathos of the losses it creates, using the Day of the Dead to comic and moving effect.
The Door (Magda Szabo) is a quite stunning tale of two very different Hungarian womxn, the narrator’s tale of her eccentric, elderly cleaner who never opens her door drawing you magnetically in. In a world where older womxn are marginalized, Szabo gives her character real power and successfully creates a sometimes unlikable heroine. Read our review of The Door here!
Kitchen (Banana Yoshimoto) is a classic in the short story genre, with the last tale of the collection, ‘Moonlight Shadow’ heartbreakingly showcasing the way Japanese culture has less of a concrete divide between life and death and how love is, ultimately, eternal.
I hope this little list has given you some ideas about things to read in the coming year and they help you feel like you’re stepping out of your home to the world beyond, finding new voices and characters to keep you company whilst we wait out the pandemic.
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