Review by Abeer Hoque

Punch Me Up to the Gods is Brian Broome’s memoir, an astonishing literary act of radical empathy. It doesn’t matter how differently you grew up from him, a poor dark-skinned Black gay boy in small town Ohio. You will understand every terrible choice he makes and why.

Reviewed by Abeer Hoque

“You were white, you were brown, you were red, you were dust.” I had been enthusiastically recommended There There by Tommy Orange a few times before I picked it up. There are precious few Native books in the American literary canon, let alone the particular and fascinating urban Indian perspective that Orange lays out.

Review by Abeer Hoque

I Am, I Am, I Am is a memoir in essays by Maggie O’Farrell. Each chapter deals with a different “near death” experience from her life. The chapters are unevenly written with three brilliant pieces (the first, the last, and the one on miscarriages).

Review by Abeer Hoque

I had heard from a friend that listening to Michelle Obama’s Becoming was like being in a conversation with friends. So I eschewed my normal e-book ways and splurged for the Audible book. I wasn’t disappointed.

By Abeer Hoque “People are never as afraid as their rulers think they should be,” Vic said. “Every regime finds this out the hard way.” Chaitali Sen’s debut novel The Pathless Sky is remarkable for its assured and intense politics and intimacy. John and...

By Abeer Hoque

“One can tell instinctively what sort of flower a person would be if born a plant.”

The Door is the plainspoken eloquent and devastating novel by Hungarian great, Magda Szabó (translated by Len Rix).

by Abeer Hoque“By May 16, a surge of newly installed floodlights lit up the east side like a Christmas tree. In one house tambourines were tied to every door and window. Hammers went under pillows. Nearly 3000 guns were sold in Sacramento County between January and...

By Abeer Hoque“Anger is easier than shame.”Ayobami Adebayo’s debut novel Stay With Me is the stunning story of Yejide and Akin. They are a young married Yoruba couple living in Ilesa, a southwestern town in Nigeria. Although the two are madly in love, their failed...

By Abeer Hoque

“How time plays its jokes. It raises dwarves and hobbles giants.”

Nadifa Mohamed’s second novel The Orchard of Lost Souls is a gorgeous harrowing story of Somalia’s war-torn history as seen through the eyes of three very different women in the city of Hargeisa.

By Abeer HoqueHer Body and Other Parties is Carmen Maria Machado’s brilliant first book, a finalist for the 2017 National Book Awards. It is a collection of dark, beautiful (and sometimes supernatural) stories about women. Machado’s prose is stunning and erotic, her...

Review by Abeer Y. Hoque

“Stolen bodies working stolen land”

I’ve been fjording my way slowly through the 2017 Booker long list this summer.

By Abeer Y. Hoque “Our hopes are coiled up so tight as to be deadly, or holy.”I have highly enjoyed George Saunders’ essays and nonfiction but hadn't read any of his highly acclaimed fiction until the Booker long-listed Lincoln in the Bardo. Although he has written a...

By Abeer Hoque“We are all migrants through time.”Mohsin Hamid’s 4th novel Exit West like much of his work reflects and refracts our troubled times. The book follows two young lovers, Nadia and Saeed, from an unnamed country that is being torn apart by civil war. Their...

Review by Abeer Hoque

“His beauty was that his beauty was behind him, his appeal reflecting what he had already survived.”

Lisa Ko’s debut novel The Leavers is a sprawling multi-generational story of working-class undocumented Chinese immigrants in New York City.

By Abeer HoqueThe Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing is Mira Jacob’s debut novel about an immigrant South Asian girl growing up with feet in two worlds, reluctantly tied to the old country, inexorably to the new. It’s the book I’ve been wanting to read for years.The...

By Abeer Hoque The Fishermen is a magnificent debut novel by Nigerian writer Chijioke Obioma. It follows the lives of four young brothers: Ikenna (14), Boja (13), Obembe (11), and Ben (9). They are growing up in a small town in southwestern Nigeria although their Igbo...

By Abeer Hoque

“Revolutions are long in the making.”

headscarvesIn 2012, Egyptian American writer and journalist Mona Eltahawy published her sensationally titled article, “Why Do They Hate Us” in Foreign Policy’s “Sex” issue.

By Abeer Hoque“In that garden of text, you could sell a goldfish, a blowjob, an ottoman, your love.”I wanted to read American visual artist, activist, and writer Molly Crabapple’s graphic memoir Drawing Blood before seeing her at the Jaipur Lit Fest in January 2016....

By Sara Wainscott“My nationality, my accent, changes with the landscape, with the very weather,” Abeer Y. Hoque writes of herself in Olive Witch, and her resolute exploration of the limits of identity—both personal and cultural—give focus to the book’s disparate...

By Abeer Hoque

Ghana Must Go is Taiye Selasi’s tour de force first novel about a Nigerian-Ghanaian family falling apart between Ghana, the US, England, and Nigeria.

By Abeer Hoque“St. Petersburg lay under its enormous, grey sky like a carefully posed, regal creature…”Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel (LFMB) is Anya Ulinich’s fantastic second book, a graphic novel about love, immigration, and relationships. I read the entire book in...

By Abeer Hoque

Don’t Let Him Know is Sandip Roy’s debut novel in stories. Each chapter stands on its own, but they come together in a tour de force of this structure to tell a story of three generations, reaching from old Calcutta to chilly Carbondale to sunny California. She watched a lonely matchstick of a fry sitting in a smear of ketchup.

The three main characters are Avinash, a closeted gay Calcuttan, his sharp and dreaming wife Romola, and their son Amit. Each is nuanced and real, leaping off the page without sensationalism or gimmick. Their stories, secret or spoken, are told with a light and poignant touch.