CULTURAL EXPECTATIONS & COMPLICATED CHILDHOODS

In NIGAR ALAM‘s Under the Tamarind Tree: A Novel, it is 1964 in Karachi, Pakistan, and Rozeena is about to lose her home as the lives of her childhood best friends seem to be unraveling. Fifty-five years later, she receives a call – and a voice she never thought she’d hear again unearths long-buried secrets. In ETAF RUM’s Evil Eye: A Novel – a striking exploration of the expectations of Palestinian American women – when Yara is placed on probation at work for fighting with a racist coworker, her Palestinian mother claims the provocation was the result of a family curse. And in JENNY XIE’s Holding Pattern: A Novel, Kathleen returns to her childhood home, where she and her mother must peel back the complicated layers of their history to learn how they can propel each other forward.

Buy Under the Tamarind Tree: A Novel. – Alam

Buy Evil Eye: A Novel. – Rum

Buy Holding Pattern: A Novel. – Xie