Literary Mystique

"Life is one revelation after another. Things don’t always go to plan, no matter what your circumstances. But the flip side is all the unexpected, wonderful things that you could never have imagined happening. Ultimately it’s all for the best that many things don’t turn out the way we hoped.." Synopsis :  What are you looking for? This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves—but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they’re looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it. Each visitor comes to her library from a different juncture in their careers and dreams, from the restless sales attendant who feels stuck at her job to the struggling working mother who longs to be a magazine editor. The con...

To use the past to justify the present is bad enough—but it's just as bad to use the present to justify the past. Introduction  :   Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Glass Palace’ is a monumental work of historical fiction that spans over a century, traversing the complex and tumultuous landscapes of Burma, India, and Malaysia. Published in 2000, the novel is not merely a historical chronicle but a profound exploration of the human condition under the pressures of colonialism, war, and displacement. Ghosh, known for his richly textured narratives and deep historical insights, creates in ‘The Glass Palace’ a tapestry where personal lives and historical events are inextricably intertwined. This review critically examines the novel’s exploration of colonialism, identity, and displacement, while also analyzing Ghosh’s narrative techniques and his ability to blend fact with fiction.  ‘The Glass Palace’ is not only a reflection on the past but also a commentary on the present, inviting read...

"But I also can't tell him I've spent my entire life looking at myself through fog, pretending to be alive and hoping that one day I'd actually start to feel like I was, and now I'm terrified there's no hope left." Synopsis : Infatuation. Reincarnation. Damnation. Gem Echols is a nonbinary Seminole teen living in the tiny town of Gracie, Georgia. Known for being their peers’ queer awakening, Gem leans hard on charm to disguise the anxious mess they are beneath. The only person privy to their authentic self is another trans kid, Enzo, who’s a thousand long, painful miles away in Brooklyn. But even Enzo doesn’t know about Gem’s dreams, haunting visions of magic and violence that have always felt too real. So how does Willa Mae Hardy? The strange new girl in town acts like she and Gem are old companions, and seems to know things about them they’ve never told anyone else. When Gem is attacked by a stranger claiming to be the Goddess of Death, Willa Mae saves t...

"Everywhere I looked I saw people hurting, disappointed, weighed down with longings they couldn’t name.." Synopsis :  A freak car crash in 1960s rural North Carolina puts in motion moments of grace that bring redemption to two generations of women and the lives they touch. For forty years Aurilla Cutter has tended a clutch of secrets that have turned her mean. A fatal accident becomes the catalyst for the release of the passions, needs, and hurts in everyone affected by her hidden past. Darlene, a seventeen-year-old widow, struggles to reconnect with her dead husband while proving herself still alive. Soon loss and death work their magic, drawing Darlene into an unlikely affair that threatens to upend Aurilla’s family, and sets loose Aurilla’s own memories of longing and infidelity. As Aurilla’s forbidden and heartbreaking story of love, death, and repeated loss alternates with Darlene’s, the divide of generations and time narrows and collapses, building to the unlikely col...

"There were some things that were a part of you, no matter how badly they hurt.." Synopsis :  A rural island community steeped in the mystical superstitions of its founders and haunted by an unsolved murder is upended by the return of the suspected killer in this deeply atmospheric novel. Emery Blackwood’s life was forever changed on the eve of her high school graduation, when the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her best friend, Lily.  Now, she is doing what her teenage self swore she never would: living a quiet existence among the community that fractured her world in two. She’d once longed to run away with August, eager to escape the misty, remote shores of Saiorse Island and chase new dreams; now, she maintains her late mother’s tea shop and cares for her ailing father.  But just as the island, rooted in folklore and tradition, begins to show signs of strange happenings, August returns for the first time in fourteen years and unearths the past t...

"The heavenly-painted leaves won’t remain long. Might we enjoy them so much if they did?" Synopsis :  A young girl disappears. Can secrets inside a three centuries-old journal save her life in time? Advertising agency owner, Bethany Miller, inherits an ancestral home from the biological mother she never knew. Inside a grandfather clock named The Timekeeper, she discovers a treasured family journal. Generations of first daughters each wrote one entry, sharing family secrets, chronicling courageous acts, the freeing power of forgiveness and more.  Reading the women’s stories and timeless wisdom, Bethany begins to reassess her busy life and contemplates taking a chance on romance, but she can’t forget an alarming encounter with a girl’s soul-piercing eyes.  They shot her a dire warning … right before she disappeared. Those eyes cause Bethany’s past, present and future to collide. Is history right on time to save a girl’s life? Review :  As Time Unfolds had a promising p...