Inte bara USA och England
– romaner från andra länder med engelska som huvudspråk
Sammanställd på Sundstabiblioteket juni 2007.
Böckerna är försöksvis graderade:i svårighetsgrad A – Bearbetad/förkortad; B – Lättläst; C – Medel; D –
Avancerad nivå. Kommentarerna tagna från förlagspresentationer och annat håll…
Indien
Gavin, Jamila. Out of India An AngloIndian childhood 120 s. (B)
'I am truly a child of both countries and both
cultures.' Born to an Indian father and an English
mother, Jamila Gavin's childhood was divided
between two worlds. Her earliest memories are of
India, where she lived in a crumbling palace built
for a prince, and learned to steal sugar cane and
suck mangoes.
Rai, Bali. Rani & Sukh. 311 s. (C )
In 1950s Punjab, a secret
affair goes terribly wrong and
the bride commits suicide after
her lover is attacked by her
family. The two families part in
violence and conflict. In
Leicester in 2004, Rani and
Sukh fall in love, unaware of
the terrible legacy of the past
and the conflict between their
families.
After the wedding, she returns to school, while he
goes home to finish his studies out in the desert
state of Rajasthan. But when she goes to visit her
in-laws, she is met with hatred, beatings and
imprisonment
Karibien
Kincaid, Jamaica. The autobiography of
my mother 228 s. (D)
Xuela, a childless Dominican woman in her 70s
whose own mother died while giving birth to her,
tells the story of a life filled with tragedy and small
triumphs: Sent at birth to live in the home of her
father's washerwoman, she moves back to her
father's house after seven years and must fend off
the murderous rage of her jealous stepmother. The
neglect and cruelty she suffers as a child sets the
pattern for her life, as Xuela treats herself and
others with calculated and often cruel disregard.
Södra Afrika (Sydafrika, Zimbabwe,
Rai, Bali. (Un)arranged marriage.272 s.
(C ) Set partly in the UK and partly in the
Punjab region of India, "(Un)arranged Marriage"
is a perceptive look at a young man's fight to
free himself from family expectations and an
arranged marriage he doesn't want.
Perkins, Mitali. Monsoon summer. 257
s. (C)
Fifteen-year old Jazz Gardner leaves California for
a life-changing summer in an Indian orphanage.
Jazz doesn't want to leave her best friend Steve
to go with her family to India to help at an
orphanage. But will the monsoon work its magic
on Jazz?
Desai, Anita. The village by the sea. 156
s. (D)
One of a series of classic fiction for schools, this
novel won the 1982 "Guardian" Award for
Children's Fiction. As the eldest children of a
poor family in India, 13-year-old Lila and her
younger brother have to cope when their
parents cannot support them.
Hendry, Frances Mary. Chandra. 120
s. (C)
In Delhi, 11-year-old Chandra is delighted to be
getting married; she is sure she'll be happy with the
16-year-old husband her father has chosen for her.
Botswana)
Wicomb, Zoë. You can’t get lost in Cape
Town Noveller. 208 s. (D)
Zoe Wicomb's complex and deeply evocative
fiction is among the most distinguished recent
works of South African women's literature. It is
also among the only works of fiction to explore the
experience of "Coloured" citizens in apartheid-era
South Africa, whose mixed heritage traps them -
Dangarembga, Tsitsi.
Nervous conditions 208 s.
(D)
This stunning first novel, set in
colonial Rhodesia during the
1960s, centers on the coming of
age of a teenage girl, Tambu,
and her relationship with her
British-educated cousin Nyasha.
Tambu, who yearns to be free of
the constraints of her rural village, thinks her
dreams have come true when her wealthy uncle
offers to sponsor her education. But she soon learns
that the education she receives at his mission school
comes with a price.
Alan Paton. Cry, the beloved country
237 s. (D)
Set in South Africa, the novel opens with Reverend
Stephen Kumalo preparing to make a journey to
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Johannesburg. His sister Gertrude and his son
Absalom left the countryside village of Ndotsheni
some time ago in search of better job prospects. But
Kumalo has not heard from them for a long time.
When Kumalo arrives at Johannesburg, he is
heartbroken to find his sister living as a prostitute,
and his son arrested for the murder of a white man.
Alexander McCall Smith. The Kalahari
Typing school for men. 210 s. (C )
Naidoo, Beverley. No
turning back.189 s. (C )
Nigeria
Twelve-year old Sipho runs away
from his home and his violent
stepfather to a life on the streets.
Set amidst the political change in
South Africa in 1994, it is a tale of
survival and friendship, of despair
and hope.
Nkosi, Lewis. Mating birds. 140 s. (D)
The story of a young South African black man
obsessed with an English girl whom he
encounters on the segregated Durban
beachfront is told from the narrator's prison cell
in this classic African novel. Although no words
are exchanged, a connection develops between
the two mismatched lovers, leading to an
intense and ambiguous sexual encounter. He is
charged with rape and receives the death
sentence. Reconstructing his own history, his
obsession with the girl, and his court
proceedings, the narrator offers a powerful
examination of the warped racial morality and
brutality of apartheid.
Brink, André. A dry white season .244 s.
(D)
The story concerns Ben Du Toit, a mild-mannered
Afrikaner living the placid life of a middle-class
school teacher. Gordon Ngubene, the black janitor
at the school, seeks Ben's help in his search for his
son Jonathan, last seen during a demonstration
during which many blacks were killed or taken
away by police
Coetzee, J M. Disgrace. 217 s. (D)
At fifty--two Professor David Lurie is divorced,
filled with desire but lacking passion. An affair
with one of his students leaves him jobless and
friendless, except for his daughter, Lucy, who
works her smallholding with her neighbour,
Petrus, an African farmer now on the way to a
modest prosperity. David's attempts to relate to
Lucy, and to a society with new racial
complexities, are disrupted by an afternoon of
violence that changes him and his daughter in
ways he could never have foreseen.
Fugard, Athol. Tsotsi. 226 s. (D)
In the Johannesburg township of Soweto, a
young, black gangster in South Africa, who
leads a group of violent criminals, slowly
discovers the meaning of compassion, dignity,
and his own humanity.
In this fourth volume of the 'The No. 1 Ladies'
Detective Agency', the ever-popular Precious
Ramotswe - Botswana's leading, and only,
female private detective - faces a new and
unwanted problem: competition.
Naidoo, Beverly. The other side of the
truth. 223 s. (C )
Twelve-year-old Sade and her brother Femi
have to flee Nigeria when their mother is killed
and their father won't stop criticizing the
military rulers. The woman paid to bring them
to London as her children abandons them and
they are alone in a new, often hostile,
environment.
Achebe, Chinua. Things fall apart. 191 s.
(D)
Chinua Achebe is one of Africa's most well-known
and influential contemporary writers. His first
novel, Things Fall Apart, is an early narrative about
the European colonization of Africa told from the
point of view of the colonized people. Published in
1958, the novel recounts the life of the warrior and
village hero Okonkwo, and describes the arrival of
white missionaries to his Igbo village and their
impact on African life and society at the end of the
nineteenth century
Emecheta, Buchi . The joys of
motherhood. 224 s. (D) “Nnu Ego, a hardworking, optimistic Ibo woman, remains fiercely
determined to save her children from the
devastation of war, the erosion of village life,
and the breakdown of tradition
Emecheta, Buchi. The bride price. 168 s.
(D) Aku-nna, a young Ibo girl schooled in her
people's rituals and beliefs, undergoes
kidnapping, forced betrothal, and near-shame
out of love for Chike, son of a former slave
Australien
McDonald, Meme & Boori Monty
Pryor. Njunjul the sun 161 s. (C)
A 16-year-old Aboriginal boy leaves his family
and home for the big city, and as he struggles
to make sense of his experience he realises that
he must have the knowledge of his own people
and culture in order to know who he is, and to
find his direction.
Pilkington, Doris. Rabbit proof
fence. 133 s.(C )
Three mixed-race Australian girls,
having been taken from their
Aboriginal families, escape and
return home on foot, without
supplies or gear, while trying to
evade recapture, in an account
based on a true story.
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Marshall, James Vance.
Walkabout. 124 s. (C )
Two American youngsters find
themselves the sole survivors of a
plane crash in the Australian
wilderness
Southall, Ivan. Ash road. 191
s. (C)
When a brush fire strikes, a small group of
children must cope with a major crisis, with only
two old men to aid them.
Southall, Ivan. Josh 209 s. (C)
For fourteen-year-old Josh plowman, Ryan
Creek, the country town that was settled by his
great grandfather, is a jungle compared to the
city life he's used to. During his three day visit,
his encounters with the young people of Ryan
Creek move inexorably from mutual
bewilderment and confusion to an explosion of
violence.
Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Does my hair look
fat in this? 364 s. (C )
Amal is a 16-year-old Melbourne
teen with all the usual obsessions
about boys, chocolate and Cosmo
magazine. She's also a Muslim,
struggling to honor the Islamic
faith in a society that doesn't
understand it. This title presents
the story of her decision to "shawl
up" and its attendant anxieties.
Marsden, John. Tomorrow when the
war began.286 s. (C )
Seven Australian teens celebrate a break from school
with a camping trip in the bush. They return to find their
homes abandoned; while they were gone, Australia was
invaded by another country-
Ihimaera, Witi. Whale rider. 152 s. (C)
As her beloved grandfather, chief of the Maori
tribe of Whangara, New Zealand, struggles to
lead in difficult times and to find a male
successor, young Kahu is developing
a mysterious relationship with
whales, particularly the ancient bull
whale whose legendary rider was
their ancestor.As her beloved
grandfather, chief of the Maori tribe
of Whangara, New Zealand,
struggles to lead in difficult times
and to find a male successor, young
Kahu is developing a mysterious
relationship with whales.
Duff, Alan. Once were warriors. 208 s.
(D)
Once Were Warriors is Alan Duff's harrowing
vision of his country's indigenous people two
hundred years after the English conquest. In
prose that is both raw and compelling, it tells
the story of Beth Heke, a Maori woman
struggling to keep her family from falling apart,
despite the squalor and violence of the housing
projects in which they live. Conveying both the
rich textures of Maori tradition and the wounds
left by its absence, Once Were Warriors is a
masterpiece of unblinking realism, irresistible
energy, and great sorrow.
Campion, Jane. The piano 224 s. (D)
Ada, together with her nine-year-old illegitimate
daughter Flora, and her piano, leave Scotland to
arrive in the remote bush of 19th-century New
Zealand for a marriage arranged by her father.
Although mute, she does not consider herself
silent as her piano is the vehicle of her
expression.
Park, Ruth. Playing Betty Bow. 192 s.
(C)
The story is set in Australia and is about a girl
named Abigail who travels back in time to colonial
Sydney-Town where she meets Beatie Bow, a girl
whose name has become part of Abigail's local
folklore.
Nya Zeeland
. Gunn, Kirsty. The boy
and the sea 140 s. (C )
A coming-of-age story that
captures the discomforts and
challenges of being fifteen years
old with the world stretching out
in front of you. Alex, Ward's
friend wants him to come to a
party at Alison's where there'll
be girls and drinks and the
possibilities of fun. But Ward
would rather wait on the beach
for the surf to come up.
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