Blasco de Castiglione is now a professional soldier, in love with Violante, a beautiful nun-to-be, and with the Donna Gabriella who has captured his heart

The themes of betrayal, friendship, intrigue, and justice start slowly but are brought more and more to the foreground as the hero’s journey of advances

I felt that the book is most poignant when the characters are interacting. The sense of desperation they feel everyday is something that’s felt on every page

The Rain God by Arturo Islas is a complex and layered novel beautifully portrays family dynamics and assimilation struggles in a small immigrant town.

The Books of Jacob is a superb masterpiece. In my humble, layperson’s opinion, the book is in the same class as Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

I enjoyed reading about life in Jordan, the country always fascinated me with its culture and history. From legends about Petra, stories of King Hussain

How Beautiful We Were is, in a word, fatalistic. The villagers are fighting a lost cause,– The David vs. Goliath story slowly morphs into a nuanced conflict.

Solovyov and Larionov by Eugene Vodolazkin (translated from Russian by Lisa C. Hayden) – A Russian novel which is part military history, part academic satire.

Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina is a novel about a Tartar widow who has been exiled to Siberiawinner of the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award & other Russian book awards

Chinonso is a poultry farmer living in Nigeria, when his stops the suicide attempt of Ndali, an upper class, educated woman from a rich family