“Irrevocably dispersed throughout the land he abandoned, the land where he belonged.” Until page 150, I thought Jemimah Wei’s The Original Daughter (Doubleday 2025) was easily going to be a 4-star read. I enjoyed the storytelling style and, more importantly for me, I enjoyed the story. At page 150, there is a marked shift inContinue reading “THE ORIGINAL DAUGHTER – Jemimah Wei”
Author Archives: Tommi Powell
JAMAICA ROAD – Lisa Smith
“I’ve missed you too. I’ve been missing you for ages.” Lisa Smith’s Jamaica Road (Knopf 2025) is a heartbreaking debut of a love story that is very much time and place. Set primarily in South London, Jamaica Road opens in 1981 with a young Daphne. Daphne is the only Black girl in her class, andContinue reading “JAMAICA ROAD – Lisa Smith”
VERA, OR FAITH
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve read Gary Shteyngart, but thoughts of Absurdistan still make me chuckle nearly two decades later. While that filthy funny novel followed the adventures of Misha Vainberg, the 325-pound son of the 1,238th richest man in Russia, Vera, or Faith (Random House 2025) gives us ten-year-old Vera – aContinue reading “VERA, OR FAITH”
THE DREAM HOTEL – Laila Lalami
“Freedom isn’t a blank slate, she wants to tell them. Freedom is teeming and complicated and, yes, risky, and it can only be written in the company of others.” My attempt to “get a jump” on the Booker longlist by reading predictions continues with Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel (Penguin Random House 2025). I’m notContinue reading “THE DREAM HOTEL – Laila Lalami”
THE BOOK OF RECORDS – Madeleine Thien
“It is late and, in these hours, the Book of Records always takes on a new form. The train continues, a sound that blurs into the tide of water against the shore.” “The boy turned the page of his book. ‘I’m counting the hours until we get to the ocean. My mother and aunt sentContinue reading “THE BOOK OF RECORDS – Madeleine Thien”
DAYS OF LIGHT – Megan Hunter
“It was a language, she saw now, the way he touched her.” Megan Hunter’s Days of Light (Grove Press 2025) is very Bookery, and I read it as part of my “get a jump on possible longlisted books” journey. It’s The Safekeep meets Stone Yard Devotional, and while I loved both of those novels, IContinue reading “DAYS OF LIGHT – Megan Hunter”
THE HISTORY OF SOUND – Ben Shattuck
“She wished that she could read music. She might have hummed the melody, or at least understood why this phrase of music was important or original or innovative enough – or elusive enough, at the risk of being forgotten – to require being written out so urgently. But she couldn’t read music, and so theContinue reading “THE HISTORY OF SOUND – Ben Shattuck”
THE ANTIDOTE – Karen Russell
“A person can lose everything in an instant. A fortune, a family, the sun. I’ve had to learn this lesson twice in my life.” “The coroner gave me the only picture that I have of Mama, a print of her body in the ditch.” “I guess, the way I see it, you could tell theContinue reading “THE ANTIDOTE – Karen Russell”
THE UNBROKEN COAST – Nalini Jones
Nalini Jones’s debut novel, The Unbroken Coast (Knopf – expected 8/12/2025), is a story of intertwined lives, found families, regrets, and triumphs. Set in and around a Mumbai fishing village, the novel follows a prominent retired professor who is struggling with his memories, and a young Koli girl from the fishing village whose family isContinue reading “THE UNBROKEN COAST – Nalini Jones”
CO-WIVES, CO-WIDOWS – Adrienne Yabouza
Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re still in the C’s!!! Country: Central African RepublicTitle: Co-Wives, Co-WidowsAuthor: Adrienne YabouzaLanguage: FrenchTranslator: Rachael McGillPublisher: First published in Mali, 2015; Dedalus, 2021 Co-Wives, Co-Widows is the first book from the Central African Republic to be translated into English. The self-educated Yabouza fled the country in 2013, seekingContinue reading “CO-WIVES, CO-WIDOWS – Adrienne Yabouza”
A Girl Named Tommi 