International Fiction | Self-Publishing Review

Path of the Ancients: Space Time Illusion by Ancient Philosophy

A daughter’s scientific and metaphysical inquiry after the loss of her father forms the scaffolding of this intriguing novel about the ultimate question: Who am I? A complex but rewarding story guided by Hindu scripture, the novel tells the story of Kalki as she tries to understand the apparent death of her inventor father, Anadi, while posing a number of questions around religion, science, and philosophy.

Path of the Ancients: Space Time Illusion, credited only to the author “Ancient Philosophy,” imagines a near-future India dominated by technology. There, Kalki and friend Shiva combine science and the Upanishads in the […]

Greg Rideout2018-03-27T13:24:45+02:00March 26th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: International Fiction, Science Fiction, Visionary Fiction|

Review: Amballore Thoma by Jose Thekkumthala

Thoma and his wife Ann have a hard life, and many, many children, in a world that is also fantastically surreal. In Amballore Thoma by Jose Thekkumthala, fabulism twines with magic realism and surrealism as the poverty-stricken family meets werewolves, Chicken Little, Old Man Monsoon, an eight-armed woman, and more.

Throughout it all, the family’s talking fortune-telling parrot serves as the family conscience and clown. People come back from the dead in disguise, children eat each other, and each event moves as seamlessly as a description of Thoma’s spitting habits or the shape of the family’s apartment. Each chapter in […]

Mindy Hood2019-02-11T08:49:54+02:00October 12th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: International Fiction|

Review: Maddie & Sayara by Sanjyot P. Dunung

Maddie and Sayara meet the way many new friends do – enjoying their vacations. After their time together on the water slides and in the swimming pools, however, they return to vastly different worlds.

Maddie lives in an open society where the government does not enforce severe dress and behavioral restrictions. Sayara’s home, the Kingdom, denies women the right to choose their own clothing or drive a vehicle. Everywhere Sayara goes, she must be accompanied by a man. Sayara’s vacation is, in fact, cut short after her cousin is arrested for daring to drive. Maddie struggles to understand the differences […]

Mindy Hood2019-02-11T08:51:02+02:00September 13th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: International Fiction, Young Adult|

Review: If Nobody Listens by Rikard Sommer

Scandinavian writers have recently captivated the attention of the literary world, beginning with Stieg Larsson’s breakout trilogy, and Rikard Sommer’s debut novel certainly follows in those illustrious footsteps. If Nobody Listens is a novel that defies classification to a certain degree – one part social commentary, one part an emotional tale of personal growth, and a final dash of thrills and danger for good measure. The subject of medical research and the struggles of global pharma companies may not sound like compelling reading, but in this case, you would be mistaken.

With a patient, methodical approach to exposition and storytelling, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-02-11T08:53:04+02:00August 8th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: International Fiction, Thriller|

Review: It Is Myself That I Remake by Jaclyn Maria Fowler

From great heartache comes even greater happiness and fulfillment…such is the message beautifully conveyed in It is Myself That I Remake, a hauntingly evocative love story by Jaclyn Maria Fowler.

Sophie O’Connor is the only child of Kerry O’Connor, an Irish-American high school English teacher, and Maggie O’Connor, an American professor of literature. With both parents being literary academics who revere the classics, especially Yeats, it’s no surprise that Sophie is able to finish lines from her father’s favorite Yeatsian verses by age six. From a very young age, Sophie has an imaginary friend who she speaks to all […]

Marta Cheng2019-02-11T08:52:24+02:00July 13th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Contemporary Fiction, International Fiction, Literary Fiction|

Review: Nannion by Andreas Androutsellis-Theotokis

Everyone loves a cat story, and Nannion by Andreas Androutsellis-Theotokis features the eponymous off-white street cat in a surprising science fiction tale of earth sciences and Greek history. Although not a story for children (Nannion, the cat’s namesake, was in fact a prostitute in Ancient Greece) there is a childlike quality to the narration that makes the cat’s relationship with Claire, a lonely and dying marine biologist working in the Aegean Sea around Athens and the island of Dioptra, cozy reading.

As the book goes on, other characters working in marine sciences come into the story. The team learns about […]

Cate Baum2019-02-11T08:52:05+02:00June 6th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: International Fiction, Science Fiction|

Review: Something Olde (The Divel Series Book One) by Denis Jay Klein

When heiress Sandy Waters decides she’s getting married in Bermuda, she wants to wear Something Olde – the cursed family heirloom, The Divel Necklace, once lost overboard from the ship Sea Venture in 1609, into the Atlantic ocean’s churning seas surrounding the island in a hurricane so awful that it inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest – and worn ever since its recovery at Waters’ family weddings.

The only problem is, it’s locked in a vault, and the only man that can open it, Clark Dearborne, is having second thoughts about turning up with it. He’s got a choice – deliver the […]

Lysa Grant2019-04-29T12:16:45+02:00May 30th, 2017|Categories: Lead Story|Tags: Humor, International Fiction|

Review: Maybe God Was an Irishman by Bernie Donnelly

The complexities of religion, faith, love and tragedy tangle in the pages of Maybe God Was an Irishman, an entertaining and insightful novel by Bernie Donnelly. With an overflowing cast of peripheral characters and multiple story lines that brilliantly overlap, this is an expansive novel that stretches across oceans and philosophies, making it an addictive read for anyone who appreciates clever writing and heartfelt narratives.

Initially, it is difficult to determine who the protagonist of the story is, but that is Donnelly’s way of setting the stage for what is to come. Readers are soon introduced to Sean, an […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-05-28T10:12:35+02:00February 12th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Bernie Donnelly, International Fiction, Religious Fiction|