Book Group Choices
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (China)
“The Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao Zedong altered Chinese history in the 1960s and '70s, forcibly sending hundreds of thousands of Chinese intellectuals to peasant villages for "re-education." This moving, often wrenching short novel by a writer who was himself re-educated in the '70s tells how two young men weather years of banishment, emphasizing the power of literature to free the mind. Sijie's unnamed 17-year-old protagonist and his best friend, Luo, are bourgeois doctors' sons, and so condemned to serve four years in a remote mountain village, carrying pails of excrement daily up a hill. Only their ingenuity helps them to survive. …The warmth and humor of Sijie's prose and the clarity of Rilke's translation distinguish this slim first novel, a wonderfully human tale.” –Publishers Weekly
“Ultimately, the book is a simple, lovely telling of a classic boy-meets-girl scenario with a folktale's smart, surprising bite at the finish. The story movingly captures Maoism's attempts to imprison one's mind and heart (with the threat of the same for one's body), the shock of the sudden cultural shift for "bourgeois" Chinese, and the sheer delight that books can offer a downtrodden spirit.” –School Library Journal
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (South Africa)
“In search of missing family members, Zulu priest Stephen Kumalo leaves his South African village to traverse the deep and perplexing city of Johannesburg in the 1940s. With his sister turned prostitute, his brother turned labor protestor and his son, Absalom, arrested for the murder of a white man, Kumalo must grapple with how to bring his family back from the brink of destruction as the racial tension throughout Johannesburg hampers his attempts to protect his family.” --Publishers Weekly
“Throughout his narrative, Paton describes so vividly the problems that plagued South Africa during the apartheid era that the reader is left completely disillusioned. But, using the story of Reverend Kumalo as a symbol for the restoration of South Africa, Paton shows there is still hope. For while fear may be a powerful emotion, love is yet more powerful: love holds the power to heal the people's deep-set wounds. Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country remains relevant for modern readers, given the parallels between South Africa in the 1940s and the world today. Fear of terrorist attacks have gripped the globe, as the war against terror wages on. Despite all this violence and gloom, Cry reminds us that in each one of us there is the potential to do good. We have the power to change the world; pity if we lack the will to do so.” -- Wenkai Tay
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Brazilian author, set in Spain and northern Africa)
“This inspirational fable by Brazilian author Coelho has been a runaway bestseller throughout Latin America and seems poised to achieve the same prominence here. The charming tale of Santiago, a shepherd boy, who dreams of seeing the world, is compelling in its own right, but gains resonance through the many lessons Santiago learns during his adventures. He journeys from Spain to Morocco in search of worldly success, and eventually to Egypt, where a fateful encounter with an alchemist brings him at last to self-understanding and spiritual enlightenment. The story has the comic charm, dramatic tension and psychological intensity of a fairy tale, but it's full of specific wisdom as well, about becoming self-empowered, overcoming depression, and believing in dreams. The cumulative effect is like hearing a wonderful bedtime story from an inspirational psychiatrist.” –Publishers Weekly
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (German author, set in India)
“Siddhartha is that most unusual of all stories -- one that follows a character throughout most of his life . . . and describes that life in terms of a spiritual journey. For those who are ready to think about what their spiritual journey can be, Siddhartha will be a revelation. For those who are not yet looking for "enlightenment," the book will seem peculiar, odd, and out-of-joint. That's because Hesse was presenting a mystery story, also, for each reader to solve for herself or himself. The mystery is simply to unravel the meaning of life.”--Professor Donald Mitchell
“Siddhartha's life takes him on a journey toward enlightenment. Afire with youthful idealism, the Brahmin joins a group of ascetics, fasting and living without possessions. Meeting Gotama the Buddha, he comes to feel this is not the right path, though he also declines joining the Buddha's followers. He reenters the world, hoping to learn of his own nature, but instead slips gradually into hedonism and materialism. Surfeited and disgusted, he flees from his possessions to become a ferryman's apprentice, learning what lessons he can from the river itself. Herman Hesse's 1922 Bildungsroman parallels the life of Buddha and seems to argue that lessons of this sort cannot be taught but come from one's own struggle to find truth.” -- Library Journal
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
“Splendid Suns follows the lives of two Afghani women, Mariam and Laila, as they move from children to adults. The book spans 30 years, beginning with the Soviet invasion and ending with the overthrow of the Taliban. [It] is a moving story about the power of love, the bonds of friendship, the love of country, and the struggle to survive.” –Cynthia K. Robertson
“Khaled Hosseini's second novel A Thousand Splendid Suns is wide in scope and has the vast and violent recent history of Afghanistan as a backdrop. But like distant mountains, the towering events of the post-Russian period and the rise of the Taliban are huge but in a mist behind the main characters of the novel. …What is most startling in this novel are the acts of cruelty and violence, which are depicted in a continuum from simple cruelty to each other, to domestic violence to murder to the acts of the Taliban. By showing each act in bald, uncommenting detail, Hosseini has made the profound statement that evil, violence and hurt in life starts within each of us, and each act of cruelty is no different for the victim, no matter who perpetrates it. This takes the novel from a mere story about history and current events to becoming a parable about our own morals and acceptance of evil. …His style is deceptively simple and clear, the characters drawn deftly and swiftly, his themes elemental and huge. This is a brilliant writer and I look forward to more of his work.” –Joanna Daneman
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