#INTLYALITMONTH: The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

Review by: Wendy Guyer The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar As a sixteen-year-old, Nishat already has a lot going on in her life: balancing the demands of her Bangladeshi family, the demands of her Catholic high school, the demands of her social life in her town of Dublin, Ireland, and her own desire to come … Continue reading #INTLYALITMONTH: The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

The Booktrekker: Bangladesh

READ For Bangladesh, I was planning to read Tahmima Anam’s The Good Muslim. But just as I finished the first few pages, I found out that it was a sequel to Anam’s first novel, A Golden Age. So I stopped reading The Good Muslim (for now), and picked up A Golden Age. The book opens with widow Rehana Haque losing … Continue reading The Booktrekker: Bangladesh

International YALit Month: I Remember Abbu

I Remember Abbu by Humayun Azad, translated by Arunava Sinha, interior illustrations by Sabyasachi Mistry I Remember Abbu by Bangladeshi writer Humayun Azad is a short novel about a loving father-daughter relationship, but also a book about loss and memory. The narrator, a girl or young adult woman remembers her early childhood, and especially her … Continue reading International YALit Month: I Remember Abbu

GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: Rasha by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (Bangladesh)

The breathtaking story of a feisty young girl. Fifteen-year-old Rasha is abandoned by her mother in a village with her aged and probably mad grandmother. Uprooted from her school and her friends back in cosmopolitan Dhaka, a disgruntled Rasha has to start life afresh in a faraway place with no electricity, incessant rains, nosy neighbors, … Continue reading GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: Rasha by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (Bangladesh)