Here you'll find thoughtful reviews spanning a wide range of authors and styles — from contemporary literary fiction to enduring classics. Each review blends personal reflection with analysis of themes including diversity, representation, and the craft of storytelling.
It's Not About The Burqa
Edited by Mariam Khan — June 26, 2019
A collection of essays by Muslim women that challenges stereotypes and opens up nuanced conversations about faith, identity, and feminism. The review explores how the book resists a single narrative and instead offers a chorus of diverse, candid voices.
If Cats Disappeared From The World
By Genki Kawamura — May 12, 2019
A tender, philosophical novel from Japan that asks what we'd trade for more time. The review reflects on Kawamura's spare prose and the quiet emotional weight of a story about memory, mortality, and the small things that make life meaningful.
Sea Prayer
By Khaled Hosseini
An illustrated short work inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis. The review considers Hosseini's lyrical, elegiac tone and the way the book's brevity amplifies its emotional impact.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
By Marlon James
The first installment of James's Dark Star trilogy, blending African mythology with a dark, labyrinthine fantasy narrative. The review grapples with the novel's demanding structure, visceral imagery, and ambitious world-building.
The Alchemist
By Paulo Coelho
A modern classic of spiritual quest literature. The review revisits Coelho's fable-like simplicity and examines why the book continues to resonate — and divide — readers around the world.
More from the archive
- Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
- Between The Assassinations by Aravind Adiga
- Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
- The Lost Man by Jane Harper
- The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
- The Man-eater of Malgudi by R.K. Narayan
- Anne Frank's Diary (the graphic novel) adapted by Ari Folman, illustrated by David Polonsky
- A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson