“A young Southern boy travels to the Middle East to find his father in this delightful and intimate modern epic.” ramadan ramsey
a coastal Bulgarian city trafficked into sex work in Amsterdam; Aksinia Levina, a former ballerina aging alone as the neighborhood cat lady, and more. While these interspersed narratives sometimes veer into the territory of trope, the novel as a whole succeeds in making visible both the dignity and the intimate familiarity of lives lived on the fringes of a society that would much rather pretend they do not exist. A strong debut that uses gauzy impression to explore the harsh realities of post-communist Eastern Europe.
RAMADAN RAMSEY
Edwards, Louis Amistad/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $27.99 | Aug. 10, 2021 978-0-06-301203-5
A young Southern boy travels to the Middle East to find his father in this delightful and intimate modern epic. Guggenheim fellow and Whiting Award winner Edwards harnesses the best of his storytelling powers to tell the tale of Ramadan Ramsey, a young boy who is at once blessed with the fierce love and protection of his maternal grandmother, Mama Joon, and whose privileged place in her heart sparks the enmity of the rest of his family. The novel begins in 1999, when Mustafa Totah, a Syrian immigrant in New Orleans, takes a job at his uncle Adad’s convenience store. There, he meets Alicia Ramsey, a Black native of the city who beguiles him into breaking his Ramadan fast before sunset one day. Their love affair provokes the ire of uncle Adad, who informs Mustafa’s family in Syria and sends him back. Unbeknownst to Mustafa, however, Alicia is pregnant with his child, whom she names Ramadan in an attempt to atone for having coaxed his father into breaking religious laws. Tragedy strikes again when Alicia dies of meningitis, leaving Ramadan under the guardianship of her mother, Mama Joon, who lavishes him with affection and, much to the chagrin of her eldest daughter, Clarissa, plans to bequeath him everything she owns, including her house. When Mama Joon dies, 12-year-old Ramadan decides to flee the wrath of the envious Clarissa and her vicious sons, traveling to the Middle East to find his father. Borrowing from the episodic structure of epic tales, the novel sustains a swift pace that only picks up momentum as it advances. The narrative voice is highly engaging, often combining humor and pathos in a single sentence so that even tragic events are imbued with lightness. A novel that is as exhilarating as it is moving; a fine achievement.
AFTER THE SUN
Eika, Jonas Trans. by Hellberg, Sherilyn Nicolette Riverhead (208 pp.) $26.00 | Aug. 24, 2021 978-0-593-32910-8 A collection of surreal stories from a Danish wunderkind. This debut book brings together five strange, challenging works of fiction and has already won its 30-year-old author several Nordic literary awards. Difficult and mesmerizing, the stories range from formally formidable to downright mind-melting in their creative disregard for convention. “Alvin,” relayed in one paragraph that spans 32 pages, follows a narrator 16
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1 july 2021
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fiction
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kirkus.com
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