Short stories by writers from South Asia. The table of contents identifies authors from Trinidad, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Fiji, South Africa, Guyana, Singapore, Tanzania, England, Canada, USA, and Bangladesh. Although all are of South Asian descent, most are ex-patriots or children of immigrants from South Asia to other countries.

Wow, I really enjoyed most of the stories in this book! There was a nice variety, and they took me to so many places and situations. I will pick a couple, though, to say something more about.

I enjoyed The Perfection of Giving by Chitra Fernando who grew up in Sri Lanka until she moved to Australia in her late-20s. This story reminds me of the saying, "Watch out what you ask for, you might get it."

The story Pigs Can't Fly by Shyam Selvadurai (also from Sri Lanka until he was 19 and the editor of this compellation), considers how children are forced into roles, especially gender roles. I think it's true in most cultures, not just Sri Lanka. I particularly liked this passage, near the end: The large waves, impersonal and oblivious to my despair, threw themselves against the beach, their crests frothing and hissing. Soon I would have to turn around and go back to my grandparents' house, where Ammachi awaited me with her thinnest cane, the one that left deep impressions on the backs of our thighs, so deep that sometimes they had to be treated with gentian violet.

I'll be counting several stories from this book toward the Olympic Challenge - an attempt to read works by authors from all 202 countries that participate in the Summer Olympics. In particular, I plan to count it for Fiji, Sri Lanka, and Guyana.

An anthology like this is so helpful for both this Olympic Challenge and the 5-5-5 Challenge (to read 5 books from 5 different countries on each of the 5 continents), so I will be offering it as a ring or ray.

This book is being shared as a bookring.
Guidelines:

• Journal the book as soon as you get it. Contact the next person in the list for their mailing address.
  
• When done, I'd like it if you take a minute to journal your impressions as well as note that you're sending the book on. I enjoy reading various people's feelings on books - we're bound to have different viewpoints!
  
• Yes, sometimes “life happens”. If you find yourself running behind or need to be skipped, etc., please PM me letting me know what’s up and we can work it out.
  
• I don't mind adding people to the ring ... just PM me if you want to join.
  

Participants (username /location/ shipping):

• Hobbit /US/international (originator)
  
• katyan / Finland / Europe if possible
  
• Piggeldy / Germany / international (Europe if possible)
  
• Sheepseeker /Germany/ international
  
• Amanida / UK / international
  
• Purple-lilly / Australia / Australia if possible < -- Here
  
• PRCS / Canada
  
• Charlenemartel / Canada
  
• shpriz1 / US / US if possible
  
• back to hobbit
  

Wow, this book arrived to me today! It looks really interesting, I hope to read it soon. Thank you for sharing it, hobbit!

Oh, finally I finished reading this book, I'm sorry it took so long. Normally I love reading novels, but these ones were not maybe the best ones I've read. Mmm, sometimes I started to wonder why this book has been published as a book, maybe the novels would have suited betters some journals etc. The language of at least one novel was so strange that it was hard to understand for a reader whose mother tongue is not English.
So I thought this was quite an average collection of novels. But the best thing in it was the cultural perspection it gave to the reader, I really enjoyed "going back" to Asia & India & read things happening there. It was really nice, and finally, made the book worth reading for.
I'll also use these book for my Book from every country in the world-challenge, and choose even the same countries as hobbit, which are Fiji, Sri Lanka, and Guyana.
Thank you for sharing this book, it will head to Germany soon! :)

Oh my dear, somehow I expected something with half that number of pages... I think I won't read everything, but pick out those, I need or I'm interested in, otherwise, it might be difficult for me to send this book on within a reasonable amount of time...

Edit, October 12th: For the Olympic Challenge, I picked stories from Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Fiji. I also started reading the story from Guyana, but it was quite hard to read this "spoken" English.

The book arrived today - thanks!

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I'll count the Sri Lankan, the Tanzanian and the author from Bangladesh as my Olympic Challenge reads!

I read not only the sories from those countries, I read them all and found most of them quite entertaining, some I simply did not understand, but maybe this was a language problem... Monica Ali's story was one of the highlights, I'll definately read more of her.

Thanks for sharing this book with us, hobbit! It's already on its way to Amanida.

Arrived today, thanks!
Some famous names on the front, looking forward to it.

Great collection - I really enjoyed it. The stories have been well chosen and complement each other very well. I'll pick out "The Perfection of Giving", "Winterscape" and "The Courter" as my favourites.
I'll be sending off to Purple-lilly later this week, as soon as I can get to the post office.
Update 23/11: sent off to Purple-lilly today.

Wow this arrived quickly ! I a looking forward to reading this thankyou, and for the lovely postcard, much appreciated.