Book Box: Watery curses, literary flings
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In this week’s Book Box, The Straits Times discovers four books that give fresh spins to history, from uncanny encounters with famous writers in Singapore to vampires in revolutionary France. Buy the books at Amazon
Book review: The Covenant Of Water uses medicine to combat drowning curse in an Indian village
PHOTOS: JASON HENRY, PANSING BOOKS
Best-selling author Abraham Verghese’s first book in over a decade begins with the tears of a mother and daughter.
“The saddest day of a girl’s life is the day of her wedding,” he writes – and Mariamma, 12, is about to be married to a much older man in South India in 1900.
She will be ripped from her mother’s bosom to learn the rhythms of self-contained Parambil, a village in Kerala, though she soon discovers a strange affliction.
Her sagely husband prefers the height of treetops to being transported in a raft. The eyes of her son, Jojo, roll uncontrollably in their sockets when she pours water over him for a bath.
Thus begins a slice-of-life, multi-generational tale full of reverence and compassion for the way people handle tragedy and cope with a condition they cannot fully understand.
Book review: Singapore Flings traces the little-known connections famous writers have with Singapore
PHOTOS: EPIGRAM BOOKS
This studied anthology put together by Canadian biographer Ira Nadel showcases the interactions of 21 literary writers with Singapore in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
From Russian playwright Anton Chekhov to notorious imperial apologist Rudyard Kipling to Indian Nobel Prize winner and pan-Asianist Rabindranath Tagore, their travels to Singapore and the island’s impact on their writing are succinctly captured in 21 footnoted chapters, each just a few pages long.
Book review: Scarlet puts vampires and magic into French Revolution
PHOTO: PANSING
If you are expecting a dose of historical fiction and gothic horror in the form of a vampire story here – a category where American author Anne Rice set a high bar – don’t.
Sadly, Interview With A Vampire this book is not.
British author Genevieve Cogman’s addition of vampires and magic into the story may be her attempt to retell a well-known moment in history.
But the supernatural creatures and magic play second fiddle to moral arguments about who was right or wrong in the French Revolution (1789-1799), as well as commentaries on class and gender divides during that time.
Book review: Tale of North Korean trickster survivor is too ambitious, but still enthralling
PHOTO: VICTOIRE LETHIELLEUX
A middle-aged personal assistant going through a divorce decides to write one-page obituaries for elderly residents in the nursing home where she works. Meanwhile, an old woman, who survived the Korean War and World War II, becomes a resident at the home.
At its best, Mirinae Lee’s debut novel 8 Lives Of A Century-Old Trickster thrills with adventures inspired by her great-aunt’s escape from North Korea.
Readers cheer for the underdog, and there are few more delightful than gifted trickster Mook Miran, who grows from victim to bad-a** as she reclaims her life and takes those of her abusers.
The Straits Times’ Weekly Bestsellers July 1
This week’s bestsellers include Ali Hazelwood’s third standalone romance novel.
