Ellah Allfrey
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Tash Aw's Five Star Billionaire, set in Shanghai, explores the dynamic tumult of that city. Reviewer Ellah Allfrey says that Aw, with gentle compassion and keen understanding, shows his characters succumb to the lure of a city where everything seems possible.
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Iain Banks' last novel, The Quarry, follows awkward teen Kit, his dying father Guy, and a group of Guy's former friends as they search for a possibly incriminating videotape. Reviewer Ellah Allfrey says The Quarry isn't Banks' best work, but "it doesn't disappoint."
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For readers in search of tales that step outside familiar viewpoints, these authors unravel conflict, religion, race and love — from new and different angles. In these novels, a child from the slums, an executed zealot, a reluctant immigrant, a guilty survivor and a suffering mother take center stage.
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In We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo tells the story of Darling and her friends, desperate children who live in a shantytown called Paradise. Although the early chapters are told in a child's voice, there is no whimsy in this novel of a turbulent Zimbabwe.
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It can be a frightening feeling, being out of place. Entering someone else's world and having to learn the ropes is a daunting task. Granta editor Ellah Allfrey recommends three books about encountering other cultures, from the extraterrestrial to the multicultural.