Ms. Maggie Kayayan

Modern Literature

 

Here are some suggestions of works by modern authors that you might like to read.

 

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress – by Sijie Dai. Two teenage boys are sent to the countryside for “re-education” during the Cultural Revolution in China

Beneath a Sky of Porphyry by Aïcha Lemsine. Describes life in an Algerian village before, during & after the war of liberation against French.

Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria De Jesus by Carolina Maria De Jesus, Written between 1955 and 1960, journal of a single mother who supports her three young children by picking through garbage in a Brazilian slum.

The Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai   Present day Indian family and their experiences since the death of Gandhi.

A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer. Girl’s hard life in a village in Mozambique and her escape to Zimbabwe.

House of the Winds by Mia Yun.  A family whose lives have been affected by Japanese occupation and the Korean War

The Kite Runner  Amir, haunted by his betrayal of Hassan, the son of his father's servant and a childhood friend, returns to Kabul as an adult after he learns Hassan has been killed, in an attempt to redeem himself by rescuing Hassan's son from a life of slavery to a Taliban official.

Paradise of the Blind – Duong Thu Huong – effects of the Vietnamese revolution on a particular family.