Welcome to Litsy!

The novel starts on the eve of war for Bangladesh's independence in 1971 (instigated by genocide against Bengali by West Pakistan, which is puzzling looking at geography but not so puzzling if you know about Partition.) A widow, Rehana, is the central character, suddenly having to navigate revolutionary children, a sudden turn against Bengali nationalism, and an opportunistic brother in law. ⤵️

A fictionalized account of the author's childhood in the transitional period where the Tuvan people started being regulated by Mongolian governments (taxing for wool and forcing children to go to school.) It was interesting to read about the nomadic patterns, community units, sensory communication (using smell in particular!) and living in extreme conditions. ⤵️

This book of short stories set in Thailand has been on my shelves since 2012, and I finally got to it for my #RE_ASIA2019 project. These are slice of life stories and a novella about cockfighting. They remind me a lot of the book of short stories set in Hawaii I read last year, where the locals are the focus.

The author was born in Chicago and raised in Thailand, but these stories are not translations.