Explore Books’ recommendations only have “I”s for you

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Explore Books in Aspen recommends three books of Indian, Iranian and Indigenous origin.

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From the publisher: When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated, yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that only served to drive Sonia and Sunny apart.

Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India, fearing she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world.

From Susan Barbour, bookseller: “The Lonliness of Sonia and Sunny” is a beautiful novel filled with lush detail and emotion. It poignantly captures the uncertainty that comes from being of two places but at home in neither. With a broad, almost diffuse plot, the novel feels like a true epic that spans years, continents, and the breadth of human emotion.

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From the publisher: In this rich, fascinating history, John Ghazvinian traces the complex story of the relations between these two nations back to the Persian Empire of the 18th century — the subject of great admiration by Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams — and an America seen by Iranians as an ideal to emulate for their own government.

Drawing on years of archival research both in the United States and Iran — including access to Iranian government archives rarely available to Western scholars — the Iranian-born, Oxford-educated historian leads us through the four seasons of U.S.–Iran relations: the spring of mutual fascination; the summer of early interactions; the autumn of close strategic ties; and the long, dark winter of mutual hatred. Ghazvinian makes clear where, how, and when it all went wrong. “America and Iran” shows why two countries that once had such heartfelt admiration for each other became such committed enemies—and why it didn’t have to turn out this way.

From Clare Pearson, book buyer and events coordinator: Feeling ill-equipped to understand the current events in the region, I turned to John Ghazvinian’s 600+ page history of U.S. and Iranian relations. Beginning with the Persian empire in the 1700s and drawing on historical archives not previously available to an English-speaking audience, Ghazvinian adds dimension to this vast story while illuminating where, when, and how things “went wrong” between the two countries.

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From the publisher: A young Native American, Abel has come home from war to find himself caught between two worlds. The first is the world of his grandfather, wedding him to the rhythm of the seasons, the harsh beauty of the land, and the ancient rites and traditions of his people. But the other world — modern, industrial America — pulls at Abel, demanding his loyalty, trying to claim his soul, and goading him into a destructive, compulsive cycle of depravity and despair.

An American classic, “House Made of Dawn” is at once a tragic tale about the disabling effects of war and cultural separation, and a hopeful story of a stranger in his native land, finding his way back to all that is familiar and sacred.

From Clare Pearson, book buyer and events coordinator: I loved this book. It is difficult to put my appreciation into words, in part because the novel itself uses language so originally and inventively. The Southwest landscape is rendered beautifully. As is the heartbreaking story of the protagonist’s displacement from the land and his community’s traditional ways of life. A seminal Native American novel, this book won the Pulitzer Prize and paved the way for the recognition of other great Indigenous voices. 

Type of Story: Review

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