Shantaram – Gregory Roberts

Lin is a convict who escapes his Australian prison and flees to India to hide in the slums among the masses of people living there.  He is eventually caught, and extradited back to Australia, but Shantaram, loosely based on author Gregory Roberts’ life, is the story of the highs and lows of his time in Bombay.

Over the course of the story, Lin sets up a makeshift clinic, works as a mafia agent, finds a lover, is betrayed and seeks revenge, spends time in a Bombay prison and runs guns to Afghanistan.

Shantaram is only the first in a planned series of four books spanning Gregory Roberts’ life and comes in at a whooping 933 pages.

Shantaram is now available as a book group set from Maribyrnong Library.

The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger is an old-fashioned ghost story set in post World War II English countryside at Hundreds Hall, an eerie old mansion home to a host of varied characters most of whom form the local genteel society.  The story follows Dr Faraday, a hapless and penniless man who has returned to his home town to find the glorious hall he remembers from his childhood reduced to a shadow of what it once was.

Strange happenings begin to occur at Hundreds Hall and Dr Faraday, who considers himself a rational man, is often the one called upon to provide the terrified occupants with a reasonable explanation.

Sarah Waters has won much critical acclaim with past works (Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith, The Night watch) for her ability to build a rich atmosphere and complex narrative and now she brings that style to a suspense/mystery/horror genre.

The Little Stranger is now available as a book group set at Maribyrnong Library.

Caleb’s Crossing – Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks was inspired to write Caleb’s Crossing after discovering that the first Native American to graduate from Harvard was from her home town, Martha’s Vineyard, and graduated in 1665.  Caleb’s Crossing is set at this time and told primarily from the perspective of Caleb’s good friend Bethia Mayfield.  

Both characters are hungry for knowledge but Caleb struggles with racism and Bethia struggles with sexism.  Bethia’s mother died when she was 12 and so she runs the household and while her father is quite liberal, arguing against the subjugation the local native Indians and tutoring Caleb, he sees books and learning as a purely male domain.  It is this struggle against the bounds imposed upon these characters by their culture and religion that dominates Caleb’s Crossing.

Caleb's Crossing is available as a Book Group Set at Maribyrnong Library.

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

I first read The Handmaid's Tale for Year 12 English and the totalitarian theocracy it is set in really struck a chord with me.  I had read stories set in dystopian worlds before reading The Handmaid's Tale, but the way Margaret Atwood described her dystopian world through the eyes of the protagonist, Offred, really hit home just how powerless most people, and in particular women, were within this society.  Despite being set in the future, it was as if society had regressed.  Offred's only sorce of information was the propaganda spewing news service and snippet's of guarded gossip with strangers who could easily be spies.

It was particularly striking because, while foreign to me, Atwood's dystopian society shared a lot of traits with real-life countries where religion or culture separates the rights of men and women.  It made real for me a lot of talk about freedom and the phrase "to live in fear."

The Handmaid's Tale is one of our new Book Group titles for 2012.