Currently Reading : Maus, The Chinese Cinderella and The Lowland

I have not written a post like this in a while....I read a lot during the last year and also reading a lot, since I have ample amount of time now. These 3 books mentioned above are the books that I finished just a week ago or so. Lets have a small synopsis on them.

Maus by Art Spiegelman : The book Maus, divided in 2 parts, is a graphic novel,based on the life of a Polish Jew during WWII. It describes beautifully, and intricately his life before the war started and how he survived his days in Auschwitz. In the book, the writer had portrayed the life of his father and how the Auschwitz had altered his nature. He had portrayed the Jews as rats, Germans as Cats and Americans as Dogs. Although its a comic, their is very little opportunity for you to escape from its harsh reality. Their tension, horror, uncetainity of being alive and the continious routine of loosing friends, relatives and being harassed by German soldiers, are all well portrayed with the help of graphic and words. If you have read "The Diary Of a Yong Girl", I definitely recommend this book to you. If Anne Frank has given you the life before Auswitz, Maus will give you a behind the door experience.

The Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah: Its an autobiography, where the the author is an unwanted child, as her mother died while giving birth to her. This novel deals with the treatment that she got from her siblings, father as well as her step-mother. She was particularly more attached to her aunt called "aunt baba" and grand father "ye ye". Its a very sad and yet fulfilling story, as you see her climb to the ladder of success, despite much sorrow and after being banished and abondoned by her family in a boarding school. The book ends with her, leaving for England for further studies with the aim of being a doctor.

The Lowland  By Jhumpa Lahiri : Jhumpa Lahiri came back with a bang with her novel "The Lowland". The novel starts with the strong bond between two brothers and with time they fall apart with their differentiating views in politics. The yonger one, Udayan, joins Naxalite Movement in Kolkata and the other one, Subhas, leaves India behind for completing his ph.d. Their smooth life becomes topsy turvy when Udayan dies in Police encounter and Subhas marries his widowed wife. He brings her to UK and after the birth of Bela, Udayan and Gauri's daughter, things only get more complicated. Read this novel, only to discover another masterpiece from Jhumpa Lahiri. Her beautiful description of daily lives and actions makes the reading all the more heart warming. It gives a nice full image of the scene that she describes, without using heavy words or complex sentences.

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