International Fiction

Review: High Andes by Rolf Margenau

High AndesHigh Andes is an international thriller with an ambitious and beautiful setting across times. The third book in the Wylie Cypher series, Rolf Margenau’s adventure follows Cypher through his “midlife crisis”, his marriage crumbling and his mind set on a trek across the White Mountains of Peru (the Cordillera Blanca) with his daughter, Mercy, stumbling into the depths of the effects of Peruvian socio-economic collapse in the 1980s as they weave the Inca trails, and unwittingly, a life and death case of espionage and smuggling with the CIA thrown in for good measure, as an exciting chase takes place to […]

2014-09-04T05:32:20+02:00September 4th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: How the Water Falls by K. P. Kollenborn

How the water fallsHistory is dominated by people including everyday people. One of the benefits for authors of historical is the ability to bring to life fictional characters set into real life events. This adds a layer of accessibility right from the start and eases the reader into the wonderful world of history. K. P. Kollenborn’s novel How the Water Falls is a fabulous addition to the vibrant and turbulent history of South Africa.

Set in the final years of the apartheid era in South Africa, Kollenborn’s novel centers on two females. Joanne is a white reporter and Lena is a banned black […]

2014-08-22T06:49:37+02:00August 22nd, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Lights of Valencia by Michael Pilcher

Lights in Valencia ReviewOliver, a twenty-something American ex-pat, escapes into Valencian culture while he prepares for the local celebrations of Fallas with his Spanish girlfriend Maria. But bad memories of his childhood back in the US are harder to escape than he thought.

Lights of Valencia is a treasure on various levels. The fact it is written by a young man who has lived in Valencia and had similar experiences means that the writing comes from first-hand reflections crafted into fiction. This kind of book will always be sturdier and deeper than those pieced together through third-hand research, and it makes all the […]

2014-07-08T17:36:51+02:00July 8th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Killing Paradise by Andrew Esposito

Killing Paradise ReviewThis debut novel by Andrew Esposito is the fictionalized story of historical events of the late nineteenth century Hawaii. Loss of habitat due to a proliferation of coffee and sugar plantations, as well as the introduction of non-native species, are speeding the extinction of many of the birds native to the Hawaiian islands. Two rival museums are completing with astonishing greed and ruthlessness to collect specimens of these birds before they are gone forever.

Underneath the basic events are deeper questions of the benefits and potential harms of collecting. This adds texture and depth to the book. The personalities of […]

2014-07-07T15:20:29+02:00June 27th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: Behind the Sun by Sherrie Todd-Beshore

behind the sunBehind the Sun by Sherrie Todd-Beshore is an ambitious book that is just shy of 600 pages. At the crux of the story is a mystery about an ancient people who captivated Dr. Guy Williams, an archaeologist, after Williams uncovers a key piece of documentation. A captain’s log surfaces after a ship sank two hundred years before. Williams is fascinated by the ancient culture and wants to secure the funds to unearth more about them since many questioned that they ever existed. However, he is unable to get the money needed and he’s never able to fulfill his dream. Years […]

2014-05-11T21:38:54+02:00April 9th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: Bangalore Baloney by Thomas Itty

Bangalore Baloney written by Thomas Itty is a story that spans several decades and takes place in several countries. At its core, though, the book is the intimate journey of three young men. Given how personal it feels, one gets the feeling that the author lived many of these experiences.

Swami, George and Venu form a trio called the Scrimshankers They become best of friends at an all-boys middle school in Bangalore, India when the book begins and when the book ends, the now thirty-something Scrimshankers’ relationship is just as strong.

Swami is our middle ground; an upper-middle class, brown-skinned […]

2020-02-21T05:47:12+02:00December 5th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: The Spark by O. H. Robsson

The Spark, by Norwegian novelist O. H. Robsson, is a love story. It’s a slow, relaxing, rambling tale of a man who rediscovers his one true love after thinking she was lost to him forever. The first three-quarters of the book are mostly devoid of tension; any complications that do arise are relatively minor and are quickly put right. This wasn’t a problem at all for me. I kept turning pages in this book, not because of cliff-hanger chapter endings, and not because I was dying to learn how it all turned out, but because this story is just […]

2014-05-05T22:11:17+02:00June 3rd, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: Forbidden by Tony Williams

As I started reading this book, I was struck by two things.  One, this book has the look and feel of a James A. Michener novel; broad, sweeping, long, intricate, descriptive and not intended to be gobbled up in a few days.  The second was the feeling of Roots in in its themes and content.  I was taken back in time to before the black man was taken from Africa as slaves to a new land, through the process of slavery and adaptation and then to the present time.  But this is no Roots, because this is not America.[…]

2014-05-09T22:02:09+02:00July 13th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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