Wednesday 23 February 2011

Book 48, Country 54 - Burma

Burma Boy by Biyi Bandele – first published in 2007

14 year old Nigerian Ali Banana lies about his age in order to join the British Army in 1944 to fight the Japanese as a Chindit in the Burmese jungle.  One by one his comrades are killed in skirmishes with the Japanese.  A quick and compelling read but the author doesn’t spare us the gory details.  It could have done with a glossary of terms used by the Nigerian soldiers e.g. Kingi Joji = King George VI.  7/10

20th February 2011

Book 47, Country 54 - Bangladesh


Faker by Katy Gardner – first published 2009

Sarah meets and falls in love with Ed while doing voluntary work in Bangladesh.  They move to a coastal village to start a community school. Ed soon gets involved in a campaign to stop a multi-national oil company from compulsorily purchasing land nearby but his efforts are not appreciated by everyone.  Then there is a typhoon, Ed disappears and their village is destroyed.  Everyone except Sarah thinks he is dead.  She returns to London to stay with Ed’s sister and learns that he wasn’t the man she thought he was.    This book is billed as a psychological thriller but I thought the plot line was thin and the tension sadly lacking.  However it was a quick read and it gave a good description of village life in Bangladesh.  6/10

16th February 2011

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Book 46, Country 53 - India

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

Mr Ali has recently retired and is looking for some extra income and for something to fill his time, so he decides to set up a marriage bureau in his house in the city of Vizag in Southern India.  At last a light hearted book after all the trouble and strife in Africa and the Middle East.  It is very similar in many ways to the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.  7/10

Book 45, Countries 51 & 52 - Afghanistan and Pakistan

Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples – first published 2006

Najmah lives with her parents and her elder brother Nur, who farm in a remote village in the Kunduz Hills in North Afghanistan.  The family is torn apart  in 2001 when her father and Nur are taken away by the Taliban and then her mother and newly born brother are killed in an American bombing raid.  Najmah sets off with some other refugees from the same village to walk across the mountains to Peshawar in Pakistan in search of her father and brother.  In Peshawar she is cared for by Nusrat, an American Muslim who is waiting anxiously for her Afghan doctor husband to return from working in Afghanistan.  In the meantime she has set up a school for refugee children in her garden.  Don’t expect a happy ending because there isn’t one.   The book is written for teenagers and is a worthwhile and informative read.   7/10

30th January 2010