Thrilled to wake up to this over the long weekend! A review of The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali headlines the New York Times section "New Historical Fiction To Read This Summer" by Alida Becker.
Excerpt:
"Uzma Aslam Khan's THE MIRACULOUS TRUE HISTORY OF NOMI ALI (Deep Vellum) is indeed a miraculous performance, although the young girl called Nomi Ali is only one of the many characters whose histories are entangled here. Set in the Andaman Islands, a British penal colony in the Bay of Bengal, just before and during World War II, Khan's suspenseful, thought-provoking narrative is a challenge to simple assumptions about enemies and friends, loyalty and betrayal.
"What was the 'terrible mistake' that sent Nomi's father from India to this brutal labor camp along with his innocent wife and children? Did the lone female political prisoner really manage to escape, as rumor has it? Will the invading Japanese Army, with its 'Asia for Asians' propaganda, yield an occupation that's any less vicious for the people of the archipelago than that of the Raj?
"Clandestine spies abound, as well as some obvious villains. But most of the compromised yet deeply sympathetic inhabitants of South Andaman Island have a single aim: to live for one more day ... (and) must maneuver 'between so many worlds.'"
Read the full review here.
Read an excerpt of the book in Lithub.
Buy the book from your favorite local bookstore, or here.
And don't forget, if you're in or around western Massachusetts, join me in person on Thursday, June 2nd at 7:00 p.m., at Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, for a book reading & signing. To register, click here. Thank you!
 |
| The New York Times, "New Historical Fiction to Read This Summer," May 27, 2022 |
No comments:
Post a Comment