Literary studies: post-colonial literature – The Bell Bookshop

Cereus blooms at night

Emma — Thu, 04 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

EVERYONE THINKS MALA IS A MURDERER

‘A Caribbean classic’ Monique Roffey, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch

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Everyone in Paradise thinks Mala Ramchandin is a murderer. But with no body, no evidence and no witnesses, Mala is sent to an Alms House as a madwoman instead of prison. Here she meets Tyler, the only openly queer person on the island of Lantanacamara with whom she feels an affinity as an outsider. Despite Mala’s muteness, she manages to communicate with Tyler about her missing sister, Asha.

This is Mala’s story, and an appeal to find Asha, told in Tyler’s words. He dives deeply into Mala’s family history, uncovering years of trauma passed down through generations and – staggeringly, beautifully – the love that has survived through it all.

With an introduction by Ingrid Persaud.

‘Visceral, sensual and heartbreakingly tender’ Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, author of When We Were Birds
‘A story of magical power’ Alice Munro, author of Dear Life
‘Will remind many readers of Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things’ Kirkus
‘Clearly ahead of its time’ Bookseller

FINALIST FOR THE GILLER PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE ETHEL WILSON FICTION PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE

Places of Mind

Emma — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PALESTINE BOOK AWARDSDrawing on extensive archival sources and hundreds of interviews, Timothy Brennan’s Places of Mind is the first comprehensive biography of Said, one of the most controversial and celebrated intellectuals of the 20th century. In Brennan’s masterful work, Said, the pioneer of post-colonial studies, a tireless champion for his native Palestine, and an erudite literary critic, emerges as a self-doubting, tender, and eloquent advocate of literature’s dramatic effects on politics and civic life. Places of the Mind charts the intertwined routes of Said’s intellectual development, revealing him as a study in opposites: a cajoler and strategist, a New York intellectual with a foot in Beirut, an orchestra impresario in Weimar and Ramallah, a raconteur on national television, a Palestinian negotiator at the State Department, and an actor in films in which he played himself. Brennan traces the Arab influences of Said’s thinking along with his tutelage under Lebanese statesmen, off-beat modernist auteurs, and New York literati, as Said grew into a scholar whose influential writings changed the face of university life forever. With both intimidating brilliance and charm, Said turned these resources into a groundbreaking counter-tradition of radical humanism, set against the backdrop of techno-scientific dominance and religious war. With unparalleled clarity, Said gave the humanities a new authority in the age of Reaganism that continues today. Drawing on the testimonies of family, friends, students, and antagonists alike, and aided by FBI files, unpublished writing, and Said’s drafts of novels and personal letters, Places of the Mind captures Said’s intellectual breadth and influence in an unprecedented, intimate, and compelling portrait of one of the great minds of the twentieth century.

Interpreter Of Maladies

Emma — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

‘One of the finest short story writers I’ve ever read’ Amy Tan

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD
WINNER OF THE NEW YORKER PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK

Jhumpa Lahiri’s prize-winning debut collection explores the lives of Indians in exile – of people navigating between the strict traditions they’ve inherited and the baffling New World they must encounter every day.

Whether set in Boston or Bengal, these sublimely understated stories, imbued with umour and subtle detail, speak with eloquence to anyone who has ever felt the yearnings of exile or the emotional confusion of an outsider.

‘Lahiri is a writter of uncommon elegance and poise, and with Interpreter of Maladies she has made a precocious debut’ New York Times