The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti, my book club's first read of 2023; I'm listening to Little Fires by Inheritance author Dani Shapiro; and I'm reading Sarah Addison Allen's novel Other Birds.
What are you reading these days, bookworms?
01 A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti
Chakrabarti's A Play for the End of the World takes place in 1970s New York and in rural India.
A survivor of the World War II Warsaw Ghetto, Jaryk Smith arrives in New York City and falls in love with a Southern woman, Lucy Gardner.
When Jaryk learns that his father has been killed under mysterious circumstances in India, he travels home to collect his ashes.
But he becomes involved in the complicated politics of the time and finds himself stuck between past and present and struggling to find a promise of a future for himself and his love.
02 Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Signal Fires begins with three teenagers drinking in 1985, a car accident, a tragedy, young doctor Ben Wilf, who comes upon the wreck, and a family's secret.
Time passes, and a young family moves onto Division Street. Their young son befriends the retired Dr. Wilf, whose memories of past events come rushing back.
“If only time could be seen whole, then you could see the past remaining intact, instead of vanishing in the rearview mirror.”
I mentioned Dani Shapiro's fascinating memoir Inheritance in the Greedy Reading List Six More Illuminating Memoirs to Lose Yourself In.
03 Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
"There are birds, and then there are other birds. Maybe they don't sing. Maybe they don't fly. Maybe they don't fit in. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be an other bird than just the same old thing."
Addison is a North Carolina author, and her book Other Birds is set on an island off the coast of South Carolina as Zoey comes to take ownership of her deceased mother's apartment.
She befriends her mother's neighbors, and when one new friend dies suddenly, Zoey embarks on a search for answers that leads her to the heart of the island.
With magical realism, romance, and a small-town setting.