On The Shelf

Everything happens for a reason
By Kavita Daswani
HarperCollins
Price: Rs 295
Chick lit continues to thrive. In Daswani’s frothy and more than occasionally witty narrative, it expands to encompass the oddities of non-resident Indian life on America’s west coast as well as the barriers of orthodoxy and culture that a young bride must conquer to realise her variant of the Great American Dream.

It is a telling coincidence when Priya’s very first brush with jet lag occurs upon her shift to Los Angeles after marrying a “handsome young Indian man”. She literally hits the ground running. From making dizzying acquaintance with mountains of apple sauces and frozen pizzas in the neighbourhood supermarket to learning those strange expressions of American life (why do you need a flashlight, asks Sanjay of Priya. “For the blackouts.” “That’s what happens when you have too much to drink.”) But the biggest surprise comes when her parents-in-law ask her to consider getting a job. From this first step in empowerment begins a roller-coaster ride in secrecy and subterfuge, as she signs up as a showbiz reporter.

Daswani, a former fashion editor, combines an Austen-ish attention to manners and comic social configurations with an immigrant’s advantage in profiling a new home at one remove.

Skeletons on the Zahara
By Dean King
William Heinemann
Price: £11.25
In this reconstruction of a voyage almost two centuries ago, Dean King employs both extensive historical detail and present-day experiences in the Western Sahara. In 1815, an American ship ran into rocks opposite the Canary Islands, and its captain, James Riley, began a heroic effort to bring his men to safety. Besides highlighting the ways and troubles of the Sahrawis, Skeletons of the Zahara casts the spotlight on the institution of slavery in the United States at the time. But most of all, this historical reconstruction speaks of man’s capacity for survival and adjustment.