Bali Rai

It's stomach churning to say the least. Bali Rai charts the disparity between the Sikh faith and its environmental, atrophied Punjabi culturalism where gender equity is concerned. 'Killing Honour' is more than just a young reader's novel charting the brutally inhumane aspect of South Asian culture.

How Rai conveys his hard-hitting points is through the medium of fiction. In my opinion, he's a master at harnessing the power of narrative to subtly punch patriarchy in the face. We follow our show more protagonist who discovers that his sister's supposed elopement is in reality a convenient visage for concealing her brutal murder. The most harrowing account in the novel is that of how another 'bride' is slaughtered by her husband in a bout of honor killing.

To say that this book is visceral is a colossal understatement. But it altered my life and my comprehension of South Asian cultural dynamics. For this, I will be forever thankful to Bali Rai for opening my eyes to what transpires behind closed doors. show less

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/rebellion-on-treasure-island-by-bali-rai/

This book is one of a sequence bringing the Doctor into classic children’s novels and seeing what heppens, in this case the Eleventh Doctor and Clara dropping into the world of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, where they are joined by River Song and the Paternoster Gang. There’s some admirable unpacking of the slave economy behind the Caribbean trade of the eighteenth century, and we get Jim show more gender-flipped to Janey, and escaped slaves setting up a free community on the island, but the story is a bit lacking in actual plot (and poor Clara is sidelined for much of it). The Paternoster Gang get some good lines though. show less

Acquired via BookCrossing 02 Jan 2010 - bookring

Wow. This was *heartrending* but, of course, being by Rai, utterly brilliant and unputdownable. We meet the Crew again but life is very different now, with Jas bonding with his scary cousins, Ellie being bullied and Della and Billy not really around to protect her. When the police start arresting drug dealers, the Crew and the wonderful rasta Nanny start to realise there's a whispering campaign against them. Meanwhile, Jas is hearing a whisper show more of his own and it's starting to ruin his life too.

This is uncompromising and quite upsetting. I certainly wouldn't look into messing around with drugs if I was an impressionable reader in the age group it's meant for. Having read the first book, I was already quite emotionally involved with the characters. There is some light relief in the friendships between the characters, but it is darker than the previous book and with some shocks. I had to read something else between finishing this and going to bed... show less

I can't remember why I added (Un)Arranged Marriage to my wishlist but I'm glad I did. The book is written in the style of the Adrian Mole or George Nicholson books except that Manjit (aka Manny), the protagonist, actually does something to improve his life beyond writing about how awful things are.

This short book (270 pages) covers in flashback Manny's upcoming arranged marriage, his abusive family, his conflicted feelings over being British and Punjabi and his desire for a better life. At show more first Manny seems no different than the typical British teen in one of these diary style books. His family is dysfunctional and he hates sharing his room but it's not until the middle of the book that the tone darkens and Manny's need to escape from his family takes on a new-found urgency.

Half of the book takes place in England and the other half takes place in India. While the English bits are glossed over a bit in their descriptions to focus more on the plot and character interactions, the India section comes alive with a wonderful attention to detail. show less