Here are 74 books that An Elegy for Easterly fans have personally recommended if you like
An Elegy for Easterly.
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As a female grown up in a working-class neighborhood in East Naples (Italy), and as an academic researching political ecologies in Italy, Brazil, and the USA, I am especially interested in how sex/gender, class/work, and race/coloniality are intersected in peopleâs lives, and especially in how this shapes their perceptions and experiences of environmental problems. This approach has led me to look for the connections between labor and the environment both within and beyond waged/industrial work and formal trade unions, including the unpaid housework and subsistence production done in working-class, peasant, Black, and Indigenous communities and the social movements that represent them.
This is a novel that I have read again over the years, gifted to my loved ones, and recommended to my friends. Set in Kerala (India) between the early 1960s and early 1990s, the book tells the story of the ill-fated love between an upper caste woman and a lower caste man, set against the grain of parallel stories and events involving other members of the two characters' families and village.
What struck me was the profound humanity with which the motivations and worldviews of all characters are depicted and the author's ability to illustrate the chain of suffering that connects them as related to larger social schemesâsuch as post-colonial relations between the British and the Indian branch of the family.
'They all broke the rules. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.'
This is the story of Rahel and Estha, twins growing up among the banana vats and peppercorns of their blind grandmother's factory, and amid scenes of political turbulence in Kerala. Armed only with the innocence of youth, they fashion a childhood in the shade of the wreck that is their family: their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher) and their sworn enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun,âŠ
I grew up in a small village in India. The nearest library was in the next town, two bus rides and a long walk away and comprised of one bookshelf, half full, the books with several pages missing. I read and reread those books, making up my own narratives for the missing pages. I suppose this was the crucial first step in my journey to author. I write stories featuring diverse protagonists. In my books, I explore themes of displacement and belonging, how people brought up in different cultures and during different times respond to challenges, how their interactions and reactions are informed by their different upbringings and values.
This book deals with knife crime and its devastating aftereffects and is told from the point of view of the victimâs mother as she comes to terms with her sonâs death. A mother myself, this was a heartbreaking read, very topical and ultimately uplifting. Beautifully written, this is a very powerful book. I think it should be part of the curriculum for teenagers in secondary schools. A truly wonderful book.
Chosen by Bernadine Evaristo as one of her Top 20 Books by Black British Womxn Writers, Yvvette Edwards' second novel, The Mother, tells Marcia's story.
Today, Marcia is heading to the Old Bailey. She's going there to do something no mother should ever have to do: to attend the trial of the boy accused of her son's murder.
She's not meant to be that woman; Ryan, her son, wasn't that kind of boy. But Tyson Manley is that kind of a boy and, as his trial unfolds, it becomes clear that it's his girlfriend Sweetie who has the answers MarciaâŠ
I grew up in a small village in India. The nearest library was in the next town, two bus rides and a long walk away and comprised of one bookshelf, half full, the books with several pages missing. I read and reread those books, making up my own narratives for the missing pages. I suppose this was the crucial first step in my journey to author. I write stories featuring diverse protagonists. In my books, I explore themes of displacement and belonging, how people brought up in different cultures and during different times respond to challenges, how their interactions and reactions are informed by their different upbringings and values.
I read this sublime short story collection just after I moved to England from India. Saying that these stories of displacement, yearning, loss, love spoke to me is an understatement. I was new to England, missing India which I still thought of as home and while some of the stories brought India back vividly to me, others I could absolutely identify with as they detailed the immigrant experience so beautifully. A book that will always be very close to my heart as I read it and laughed and cried and yearned alongside the characters.
'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.âŠ
Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: âAre his love songs closer to heaven than dying?â Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard itâŠ
I grew up in a small village in India. The nearest library was in the next town, two bus rides and a long walk away and comprised of one bookshelf, half full, the books with several pages missing. I read and reread those books, making up my own narratives for the missing pages. I suppose this was the crucial first step in my journey to author. I write stories featuring diverse protagonists. In my books, I explore themes of displacement and belonging, how people brought up in different cultures and during different times respond to challenges, how their interactions and reactions are informed by their different upbringings and values.
Oh, this book was just magical. And the ending â wow! Everything comes together and how. The writing is just beautiful and the story is enchanting. This book transported me and wowed me - truly I wasnât expecting to love it as much as I did. I cried so much while reading this book â the language is so poetic and lyrical. It is a story about stories and it is a masterpiece in my opinion.
"This is magical, lyrical, spellbinding writing." Granta
Adamine Bustamante is born in one of Jamaica's last leper colonies. When Adamine grows up, she discovers she has the gift of "warning": the power to protect, inspire, and terrify. But when she is sent to live in England, her prophecies of impending disaster are met with a different kind of fear people think she is insane and lock her away in a mental hospital.
Now an older woman, the spirited Adamine wants to tell her story. But she must wrestle for the truth withâŠ
I'm an Australian who fell in love with Africa in my 30s. I've now written 20 thrillers set in Africa and several non-fiction biographies. My wife and I have travelled extensively on the continent and now spend at least half our lives in Africa, and the remainder in Australia. I'm passionate about Africa's people, wildlife, and fragile natural environment. While my books focus on some of the continent's problems â especially the illegal trade in wildlife â I'm a sucker for a happy ending and find no shortage of positive, inspirational people on my travels who serve as the inspiration for the good guys and girls in my stories.
Douglas Rogers, a Zimbabwean journalist living in the US, tells the true story of how his elderly parents survived a harrowing period in the African country's history when former President Robert Mugabe's supporters were invading and claiming white-owned farms. Rather than fleeing, Rogers' parents transformed their backpackers' lodge into a have for a wildlife disparate group of hookers, spies, soldiers, and refugees. It's hilarious and harrowing and proof that in Africa, truth is stranger than fiction! By the way, Zimbabwe is now a beautiful, peaceful country to visit and an excellent safari destination.
Thrilling, heartbreaking, and, at times, absurdly funny, The Last Resort is a remarkable true story about one family in a country under siege and a testament to the love, perseverance, and resilience of the human spirit.
Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Douglas Rogers is the son of white farmers living through that countryâs long and tense transition from postcolonial rule. He escaped the dull future mapped out for him by his parents for one of adventure and excitement in Europe and the United States. But when Zimbabweâs president Robert Mugabe launched his violent program to reclaim white-owned land and RogersâsâŠ
Iâm a closet historian whoâs always been fascinated by the power of novels to enable readers to travel in time and space and stand in the shoes of historical charactersâblending imagination and enlightenment. As a scholar, Iâve worked to uncover womenâs unknown and secret historiesâhistories of subversion, disruption, and humor. As a South African who grew up under apartheid, I passionately believe that if we donât confront history, weâre doomed to repeat its nastier passages. As a writer, Iâve published a sequel to Jane Austenâs Pride & Prejudice that showed me how immersion in another historical era can enable us to grapple with truths about our current societies.
One of the best examples of âhistory from belowâ Iâve read.
It tells the well-known story of David Livingstoneâs last journeyâhow after he died in tropical Africa, his servants marched his body across the continent to the port of Dar es Salaam, so that it could be shipped back to England and buried there with appropriate pomp and reverence. This forms the framework for an utterly original novel that presents this epic trek from the perspective of two of Livingstoneâs slave servants: his feisty Muslim cook, Halima, who brings her gossipy sardonic perspective to the enterprise, and his devout and pompous body servant Joseph, a Christian determined to do right by his master.
This work sparkles with energy and humor, as well as presenting a fresh perspective on a well-trodden path.
ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 2020 FICTION HIGHLIGHTS: Petina Gappah's epic journey through nineteenth-century Africa is 'engrossing, beautiful and deeply imaginative.' (Yaa Gyasi)
This is the story of the body of Bwana Daudi, the Doctor, the explorer David Livingstone - and the sixty-nine men and women who carried his remains for 1,500 miles so that he could be borne across the sea and buried in his own country.
The wise men of his age say Livingstone blazed into the darkness of their native land leaving a track of light behind where white men who followed him could tread in perfect safety.âŠ
Forsaking Home is a story about the life of a man who wants a better future for his children. He and his wife decide to join Earth's first off-world colony. This story is about risk takers and courageous settlers and what they would do for more freedom.
Iâm a former journalist. Iâm nosey. I like to know whatâs going on around me. I like to know how the place I live in has evolved. I was born in the UK, but was taken to southern Africa as a child, so grew up with English parents in a colony of the former British empire. I moved to another former colony - Australia. I worked and lived in London for several years. In all of these places I have been fascinated by the history that shaped them. The books I have recommended and the research I did on my own have all helped me understand my place in the universe.
For me, a white boy going up in Southern Africa, I was force-fed only one side of the story of the war of liberation in Zimbabwe.
This book, released 20 years after so-called Independence in 1980, delves deep into the other side. It is the inside story of the liberation movement from the mid-1950s onwards: the pressures, the leading characters, the brutality of an often tribally-based internal conflict. It examines the evidence around the untimely death of some of the movementâs leaders.
Much of what Sithole writes about is again being swept under the carpet because it does not fit with the patriotic narrative of the current government.
This book is about the contradictions and infighting that occurred in the Zimbabwe liberation movement from 1957 to independence in 1980. The focus is on ZAPU, ZANU, FROLIZI, ANC/UANC, and the Zimbabwe Patriotic Front (ZPF), as well as the part played by the Frontline States in these contradictions. The book also discusses such tragic events as the death of Herbert Chitepo and others on account of the "Struggle" and the "Struggles-within-the-struggle". The book is intended for both the consumer and producer of politics in Zimbabwe and beyond."Many of the conflicts in post-colonial Africa have their origins from what Professor SitholeâŠ
I'm an Australian who fell in love with Africa in my 30s. I've now written 20 thrillers set in Africa and several non-fiction biographies. My wife and I have travelled extensively on the continent and now spend at least half our lives in Africa, and the remainder in Australia. I'm passionate about Africa's people, wildlife, and fragile natural environment. While my books focus on some of the continent's problems â especially the illegal trade in wildlife â I'm a sucker for a happy ending and find no shortage of positive, inspirational people on my travels who serve as the inspiration for the good guys and girls in my stories.
This was the first novel I read about Africa and one of the first 'grown-up' books I was allowed to read as a young teen. It had a huge impact on me. At the time, growing up in Australia, I didn't know I'd end up living in Africa and writing about the continent, but this book moved me. Set in the former Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), it's a thriller and love story told against the background of a tumultuous struggle for a country. When I first visited Zimbabwe for real it was like I'd been there already â I had, through the pages of this moving story.
A stirring and compelling story, full of adventure, set against the background of the move to freedom in Africa. In the face of opposition, hatred, violence and death, the gentler human feelings of friendship and love are nonetheless maintained. Joseph Mahoney is the last Colonial Commissioner in the Kariba Gorge, faced with easing the transition to new rule. To complicate matters, his servant Samson has been accused of murder, and he is drifting apart from Suzie, whom he loves very deeply. Yet personal matters apart, he must deal with the simmering undercurrent of violence and revenge that might envelope theâŠ
I study wolves. For the past three decades, much of that interest has focused on understanding the ecology of wolves who inhabit a wilderness island in Lake Superior, North America. I also work to improve the relationship between humans and wolvesâknowing very well that wolves are a symbol to so many of all that we love and fear about nature. As a distinguished professor at Michigan Technological University, I teach classes in population ecology and environmental ethics. What ties my interests together is the desire to gain insights from the commingling of science and ethics.
This book is motivated by the global uproar over the killing of Cecil, an African lion, by an American trophy hunter. The author is the researcher who made it his purpose to learn about lions from Cecilâs life and about humansâ relationships with lions through Cecilâs death.
I love the book for demonstrating the power that is unleashed when we care enough to name a wild animal, and that caring is reinforced by subsequently discovering that they have story-filled lives. The book warmed my heart when I found the bookâs authorâwho has the felt responsibility and privilege of telling these storiesâto be as lion-hearted as Cecil.
âUntil the lion has its own storyteller, tales of the lion hunt will always glorify the hunter.â âZimbabwean proverb
In 2015, an American hunter named Walter Palmer shot and killed a lion named Cecil. The lion was one of dozens slain each year in Zimbabwe, which legally licenses the hunting of big cats. But Cecilâs death sparked unprecedented global outrage, igniting thousands of media reports about the peculiar circumstances surrounding this hunt. At the center of the controversy was Dr. Andrew Loveridge, the zoologist who had studied Cecil for eight years. In Lion Hearted, Loveridge pieces together, for the firstâŠ
Forsaking Home is a story about the life of a man who wants a better future for his children. He and his wife decide to join Earth's first off-world colony. This story is about what risk takers and courageous settlers and what they would do for more freedom.
Before becoming an opera singer, I received my Masters in Healthcare Administration and worked in various healthcare settings, from a community health center to a large teaching hospital. I learned first-hand how the best-intentioned clinicians can make mistakes, and how those mistakes can lead to unintended consequences that can harm patients. Although itâs terrifying to think about, the best defense is to self-advocate as much as possible. Itâs your body and your decision. Donât give away your power.
I read this book for background for my first novel, in an effort to understand why some physicians (very few, thank goodness) kill. What I discovered in this book is what I experienced in real life working for eleven years in healthcare: hospitals are breeding grounds for medical error and cover-ups. Physician, protect thyself, so to speak. The number of times this insane MD (Michael Swango) was allowed to continue practicing when he could have been stopped is appalling, but not surprising to those inside healthcare.
Shows how an apparently respectable young doctor murdered patients and poisoned co-workers while being consistently protected by an oblivious and dangerously secretive medical establishment.