Encouraging readers to explore fiction outside the parameters of what is usually taught and promoted, the works discussed in this volume are by writers of African or Asian descent and Indigenous People. The 50 entries span 80 years and each one has a detailed review followed by notes on its publication history and reception, a profile of the author and suggestions for further reading.
In addition to those which have managed to reach a broader audience – often through stage or film adaptation, such as Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner – it includes lesser-known works that shed light on experiences and cultures that are often overlooked in the Western tradition. While some of these have never received the attention they deserve, others were acclaimed on publication but fell out of general awareness. These are just some of the examples that piqued our interest or jolted our memories:
Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata (1952)
Kawabata was the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, with Thousand Cranes being one of three of his novels that were singled out for attention. Echoing the deceptive simplicity of a tea ceremony, in which small gestures are imbued with deeper meaning, the narrative follows the complex relationships that office worker Kikuji develops with his father’s former mistress and her daughter.
Between Two Worlds by Miriam Tlali (1975)
Tlali presents ‘a microcosm of urban life in apartheid South Africa’ as she tells the story of Muriel, a black administrative assistant in a 1970s furniture rental shop in Soweto. The daily humiliations of discrimination are well documented in the semi-autobiographical novel, which was heavily redacted when it was first published in South Africa.
Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
Inspired by the story of a 19th-century fugitive who killed her daughter rather than handing her over to slave catchers, Beloved is set in Ohio in the aftermath of the Civil War. Morrison’s focus on the interior life of an enslaved character was considered groundbreaking when it was published in 1987 and the novel received the Pulitzer Prize the following year.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (1997)
Set against the complexity of Kerala’s caste system Roy’s story of twins Rahel and Estha is one of forbidden love, prejudice and betrayal. Told in a nonlinear fashion that brings out both their childhood and adult perspectives, the novel gradually reveals the consequences of placing social standing above all else and was awarded the Booker Prize in 1997.
Small Island by Andrea Levy (2004)
Levy’s multi-award winning novel began life as the story of two women (one Black, one white) living in Earls Court in 1948 – the year HMT Empire Windrush docked in London – but grew to explore not only racial prejudice but the strictures of gender and class. Told from different viewpoints, and often with humour and irony, it follows the challenges faced by Jamaicans Hortense and Gilbert, who come to realize Britain is not what they expected, and their landlady Queenie.
