ottawareviewofbooks

It’s back to school for the Ottawa Review of Books’ team. This month, our reviewers present their insights on book that tickle their fancy. From engaging family memoir fact and fiction to stories replete with observation and self-reflection, a woman’s empowerment in an Islamic society, a journey through art and culture and finally to top-notch science fiction, there is something...

Reviewed by Wayne Ng “When people ask about my childhood, the airport is what comes to mind.” It is one of the most revealing lines in Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho’s The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street, a memoir about migration, family, and the emotional costs of living between countries. The airport becomes a powerful metaphor for the childhood Ho describes: a life shaped by departur...

Reviewed by Timothy Niedermann Whether it’s an over-excited dog, a man heading for parts unknown, or a woman looking at herself in the mirror, Pauline Holdstock holds your attention. Many of her stories start out almost mundanely: in “Dear Geoffrey,” a long-lost friend from England writes to say he is coming to visit; in “Perfect Beauty,” a woman admires herself in the mirror, p...

Reviewed by Sonia Saikaley Aamir Hussain’s Under the Full and Crescent Moon takes readers into a Muslim society where women, from the Imam to the Circle of Mothers, hold most of the power. Set in the hilltop city of Medina’tul-Agham, the novel brings together an intriguing cast of characters who demonstrate what faith, family and politics mean to them. At the centre of this stor...

Reviewed by Deborah-Anne Tunney Reading the novel Almost English, a homage by Barbara Sibbald to her great-grandparents, I came to feel an endearing closeness and sympathy for its central characters. Although set in another country with other cultural references, the story highlights the similarities between their ambition for a fulfilling life and how it is the same as our ambi...