Library Notes
Betty Moore
Novels from other countries

Kabul. Kathmandu. Dubai. Shanghai. We may envision these locales as exotic places and wonder what life is like there for ordinary people. Fiction can be a good way to climb into the skin of someone in another culture. The authors of each of the following novels portray their settings almost as another character.

“Years of Red Dust: Stories of Shanghai” is the latest book from Qiu Xiaolong. He offers 22 brief stories, set in Shanghai’s Red Dust Lane from 1949 to 2005. Like calligraphy, the author’s deft brushstrokes illuminate the effects that radical political and cultural changes have had on people in one small neighborhood in this historic city. Even the story titles – such as “Return of POW I,” “When Nixon First Visited China,” “Cricket Fighting,” and “A Confidence Cap” — evoke this unique place and time.

Qiu is also the author of four mysteries featuring Inspector Chen Cao, head of the Shanghai Police Bureau’s Special Case Squad. While his hero investigates murders, the author weaves in social commentary about the changes going on in modern China.

Dan Fesperman shows the clash of new and old in his portrait of boom town Dubai, a global city that is part of the United Arab Emirates. In his latest thriller, “Layover in Dubai,” American businessman Sam Keller extends his layover to keep an eye on, then search for a missing co-worker. The search leads him on a suspense-filled ride through Dubai’s glittering malls and foreign worker labor camps, and into conflicts between Western culture and local religious traditions. According to a “Booklist” review, “ ‘Layover in Dubai’ has plenty of action, but it's Fesperman's portrait of a truly bizarre place that will captivate readers.”

Photographer Maria and journalist Imo face vast differences of language, culture, and religion in Kabul, Afghanistan, as they research a story about Afghani girls who have attempted suicide rather than enter arranged marriages with older men. In her novel “The End of Manners,” author Francesca Marciano evokes the landscape and environment of the region in addition to showing the moral complexities confronting both the local people and their visitors.

“The Godfather of Kathmandu” is John Burdett’s fourth thriller to feature Buddhist Sonchi Jitpleecheep, a Royal Thai Police detective. Sonchai seeks personal solace from his guru, an exiled Tibetan lama, to deal with a personal tragedy, at the same time he investigates the most shocking crime scene of his career. Along the way, readers are treated to a vivid portrait of today’s Thailand.

We may never visit these places ourselves, but fiction can provide us glimpses into life in these fascinating faraway cultures.