DESPERATION & THE SCARS OF UPHEAVAL: THREE STORIES – FICTION
In Ivonne Lamazares’ The Tilting House: A Novel, identity, family loyalty, and the scars of political upheaval wreak havoc when teenager Yuri, living in a Havana suburb with her strict and religious aunt, meets Mariela, a glamorous artist from the United States who claims to be her sister – and reveals shocking truths that upend life as she knows it. Set in a near-future Kolkata, India, ravaged by climate change and food scarcity, Megha Majumdar’s A Guardian and a Thief: A Novel tells two intertwined stories: Ma’s desperate search for the thief who has stolen long-awaited visas for America for her and her family; and Boomba’s, the thief, whose desperation leads him to commit escalating crimes whose consequences he cannot fathom. In the opening of Emma Pattee’s Tilt: A Novel, Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband and no phone or money, there’s nothing to do but walk, experiencing both human desperation and kindness in her journey. If she can just make it home, she’s determined to change her life.
Buy The Tilting House: A Novel – Lamazares
Buy A Guardian and a Thief: A Novel – Majumdar
