Martyr!

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is a beautifully told story that encompassed enough to be an epic, but personal enough to be intimate. A masterclass in writing along with a moving story.

Cyrus Shams has always been lost. He’s grown up tangled in the mysteries of his past – an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields, a haunting work of art by an exiled painter, and his mother, whose plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was just a baby. Now, newly sober and maybe in love, he’s headed for an encounter that will transform everything he thought he knew. Can a final revelation change the truth of Cyrus's life?

Electrifying, funny, and all-consuming, Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is a masterpiece. Read this book.

Akbar, Kaveh. (2024). Martyr! New York: Random House.

The Taste of Sugar

The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vera is the story of Puerto Rico and early American capitalism's effect on Puertorriqueños.

Following the saga of one Puerto Rican family through the Spanish - American war, colonialism by Spain and then the United States. After the hurricane of 1899, when Puerto Rico had already been hit hard by the high US tax, a group of sugarcane growers in Hawaii advertised what appeared to be a good job with housing for families.

The Vega family were coffee growers in the Utuado region of Puerto Rico. When the younger son, Vicente, went to the city for his cousin's wedding, he met Valentina Sanchez. Her family had a stationery and printing shop. 

Life on the coffee farm was very different for Valentina than life in the city. They were also in for more changes as the US and Spain fought and the hurricane loomed.

Vera has written an important story that is not taught in US History - one more of the many that is skipped - of Puerto Rico's introduction to US capitalism. More than 5,000 Puerto Ricans moved to Hawaii to face the horrible conditions on sugar plantations. 

Vera, Marisel. (2020). The Taste of Sugar. New York: Liveright Publishing.

Infinite Country

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel is a book everyone should read. 

Talia, who is sixteen, has a week to get across Colombia back to Bogota to catch a plane to the United States. Her mother is finally sending for her to join her siblings in New Jersey.

Unfortunately, in order to get there, Talia has to break out of a school/prison and, with no money, get about one hundred miles.

Talia born in the US, but raised in Bogota by her grandmother and father. Her parents had traveled to the US for work and stayed past their visas - living in fear, taking underpaying and dangerous jobs with no protection from their employers. 

When her father was deported back to Columbia, there was no way for him to return to the US. Two of his three children born in a country he cannot visit, the third of who cannot come see him in Colombia.

Engel has written a family epic in a small book with a giant punch. This is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story of many families. Buy a copy today.

Engel, Patricia. (2021). Infinite Country. New York: Avid Reader Press.

The Gods of Tango

The Gods of Tango by Carolina De Robertis is a beautiful story of survival during the birth of tango in Argentina.

1913. Seventeen year old Leda is about to leave Italy to marry Dante who already migrated to Argentina. He went ahead to get settled before sending for her. Leda is taking her father's violin - it has been passed from father to son for generations. Though Leda knows how to play, tradition is tradition.

When Leda arrives in Buenos Aires, she is met by a stranger who tells her that her husband Dante has died. Money has been raised for her to have a room in their tenement for a couple of months while she decides what to do next.

Her family wants her to come home to Italy. There are few jobs open to a single woman. She can join the others in her building sewing, but it will only earn her enough to share a room with a bunch of other women. A man who comes to play the violin one afternoon tells her that women cannot play - tango is played in places unsafe for a woman.

But tango calls to Leda. And her husband's clothing is in a closet in her room. Could she pass as a man to play the violin? She would have to give up everyone she knows in Buenos Aires and move away in the night, cutting off her long hair...

De Robertis's story following the growth of the tango. From it African roots, added to by other groups of migrants to Argentina - German, Italian - and influence by Paris in a cyclical loop. The music, the dancing, the characters, the whole book is a love story to both the tango and to finding you place no matter your initial circumstances. 

De Robertis, Carolina. (2015). The Gods of Tango. New York: Vintage Books.

Movie: Gypo

Gypo is a film that breaks all conventions of film making - it was the first British film shot in Dogme95, there was no script, and it tackles major social issues.

Dogme 95, for those of you (like me) who know nothing about film except how to watch, is a throwback to old style movie making. Using Dogme film means that there is no chance to add voice overs or do special effects - it has the feel of a documentary: gritty and real.

Helen (played by Pauline McLynn who is best known for her comedic genius) is an unhappy wife and mother of three. Her youngest daughter, still living at home, now has a baby. Helen feels like she takes care of everyone and does nothing for herself. When her daughter brings home a classmate, Tasha, she sees the chance to talk to someone who has a different and fresh perspective on life.

Paul, Helen's husband, is also stuck in a rut. His marriage is not working. He feels his only role is bring money home. He is not the most sympathetic character even when the story is being told from his point of view.

Tasha (Chloe Sirene) and her mother (played by the amazing Rula Lenska) are Romany Czech and have escaped to England to get away from an abusive father/husband. They are waiting on passports that will free them from having to worry about being found. Tasha has done everything she can to help keep food on the table for her mother. Without working papers she was left little option as to a career choice. When she meets Helen, her outlook on life changes.

Gypo is the story of how one person can open the eyes of some and bring out the prejudice in others. Though a hard film to summarize, it is a thought provoking look at prejudice, refugees and bigotry. It is told in three overlapping parts from the points of view of Helen, Paul and Tasha.

Gypo
Pauline McLynn.
Chloe Sirene.
Rula Lenska.

Fresh Girl

Fresh Girl by Jaira Placide is the story illustrating how the coup in Haiti affected those living there.

Mardi was born in the US to Haitian parents. When she was four, she went to Haiti to live with her sister and grandmother. When rebels attempted to kill the president, her family fled to NYC to live with her parents.

Since Mardi has returned to the US she is not the same. She is angry and sad. No one knows why she has changed.

When her Uncle Perrin is found in a refugee camp in Cuba and reunited with the family, Mardi cannot keep her feelings hidden. With the help of her uncle, she is able to face what happened in Haiti.

Placide, Jaira. (2002). Fresh Girl. New York: Wendy Lamb Books.

Sabriel (Abhorsen #1)

Sabriel is the first book in the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix. Technically it is classified as young adult fiction. But for some reason, fantasy and science-fiction seems to place all of the best books under young adult.

Sabriel takes place in a world that is somewhat different from ours. Actually, the world in the book is divided into two nations - the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre. Ancelstierre is similar to our world but perhaps a few decades behind us in technology. The Old Kingdom is where magic takes place.

Sabriel was born in the Old Kingdom but was sent to Ancelstierre to boarding school. She has little practice with magic but is called to the Old Kingdom when her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing. Along the way, she picks up some helpers (I use the term loosely here!) and makes her way through out the Kingdom in search of her father. Each step they take further into the Old Kingdom leads them closer to a battle with the forces of life and death.

This book was amazing. And each of the three in the series is better than the one before it. In my opinion, this series blows The Lord of the Rings away!

Nix, G. (1995). Sabriel. New York: Harper Collins.