FEMINIST FABLES
Suniti Namjoshi
There was once a man who thought he could do anything, even be a woman. So he acquired a baby, changed its diapers and fed the damn thing three times a night. He did all the housework, was deferential to men, and got worn out. But he had a brother, Jack Cleverfellow, who hired a wife and got it all done.
Suniti Namjoshi is elegant and subversive in creating new patterns of meaning through stories that are simultaneously spare and full of richness. An ingenious reworking of fairy tales from East and West. This is a re-release of the feminist classic, first published in 1981.
Spinifex (AU), paperback, 97811875559190
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JUDGMENT DAY
Rasha al Ameer
Translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright
Brought up in poverty in a remote part of an unstable Arab republic, the narrator studies Islamic law and Arabic and becomes a cleric and civil servant in the capital. At the age of almost 40 he accepts a position as imam of a mosque serving his compatriots in a richer and more cosmopolitan neighboring Arab country. His humdrum life changes when an educated and independent woman recruits him as consultant for a book on the great tenth-century Arab poet al- Mutanabbi. As their work together on his poetry leads to friendship and then love, the imam becomes embroiled in ideological conflict with activist Islamists at his mosque. Taken into protective custody after his enemies declare him apostate, and separated from the woman he loves, the imam chronicles how their relationship opened his eyes to a new world and taught him to overcome his old inhibitions. Judgment Day touches on debates within contemporary Islam and on the transformative and humanizing power of love between men and women.
Rasha al Ameer is a Lebanese publisher, cultural critic and author of two novels. Since 1990, she has co-directed Dar-al Jadeed, an independent Lebanese publishing house. She is also a partner in Umam, an NGO and film production company.
American University in Cairo Press (US, CAN), hardcover, 9789774164811 (December)
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DOWNRIVER PEOPLE
Bea Exner Liu
While cities burn in war-torn China, an American woman finds hope of a democratic future for her husband's country.
Bea Exner Liu (1907‒1997) was born and raised in Northfield, Minnesota, and graduated from Carleton College. She moved to China because teaching positions were scarce in the United States during the Depression. The eventuality of a Communist takeover finally brought Liu and her family back to Minnesota. She later published an award-winning children's book and her memoir Remembering China, 1935‒1945. Downriver People
New Rivers Press (US), paperback, 9780898232608
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THE PRINTMAKER'S DAUGHTER
Katherine Govier
Recounting the story of her life, Oei plunges us into the colorful world of nineteenth-century Edo, in which courtesans rub shoulders with poets, warriors consort with actors, and the arts flourish in an unprecedented moment of creative upheaval. Oei and Hokusai live among writers, novelists, tattoo artists, and prostitutes, evading the spies of the repressive shogunate as they work on Hokusai's countless paintings and prints. Wielding her brush, rejecting domesticity in favor of dedication to the arts, Oei defies all expectations of womanhood—all but one. A dutiful daughter to the last, she will obey the will of her eccentric father, the man who created her and who, ultimately, will rob her of her place in history.Vivid, daring, and unforgettable, The Printmaker's Daughter shines fresh light on art, loyalty, and the tender and indelible bond between a father and daughter.
Katherine Govier is a winner of the Toronto Book Award and Canada's Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career. Her novel Creation, about John James Audubon in Labrador, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She lives in Toronto.
Harper Perennial (US, CAN), paperback, 9780062000361 (November)
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THERE ARE SEVEN NOTES
Sudha Balagopal
Can music really communicate emotions better than words? Is a person born with music embedded in his DNA? Could two souls bound by music ever find a connection outside of it? Like a superbly arranged musical composition, There are Seven Notes endeavors to sing a song to reveal the unseen bonds between life and music. Eight year old Hamsa suffers through her vocal lessons to satisfy the cultural aspirations of her family—a skilled singer steps away from his professional performance to re-assess his life—and a celebrity father's musical hopes for his son are dashed. The seven stories in There are Seven Notes reveal the pervasiveness of classical music in Indian culture: an attempt once again to fathom the distance between life and art.
Sudha Balagopal was born and raised in India. Her stories have appeared in a number of magazines of international repute. An avid listener and admirer of Indian classical music, Sudha has lived in the United States for the past quarter century. There are Seven Notes is her first book.
Roman Books (INDIA, US, UK), hardcover, 9789380905044
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