I may be the only person who had not heard of this author. In the fall, my cousin told me about one of her books, Year of Wonders, and then loaned it to me. Then loaned me Caleb's Crossing. The library provided the rest of her works: March (for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction); People of the Book; Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over.Without intending to, I've been reading her books in almost reverse order, and am now on her first book, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, a non-fiction account based on her work in the Middle East as a reporter. Interesting and disturbing, it's not my favorite of her books but is still fascinating.
Her four most recent works are all fiction, based on some historical fact. She explains at the end of the novels what inspired her and more about the factual event that launched her fiction. She's a remarkable writer and researcher. These are books I could read again.
I haven't read any of her work, but I'll have to check it out. The only one that rang a bell was the non-fiction. (I tend to be completely unaware of modern fiction since I'm always busy reading and re-reading old fiction. I do like historical novels, though.)
ReplyDeleteI did read Year of Wonders..will have to check out the others.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Nine Parts of Desire is a wonderful, easy to understand bookw that talks about women and their lives and social conditions in many Islamic countries. Geraldine Brooks also tells the reader some stories of the prophet Mohammed which add to one's understanding of the issues she presents.
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