Open yourself to different cultures and experience the world through the lens of those whose lives may be different from your own. These novels are beautiful, haunting stories of love, heartbreak, ancestry, resilience and redemption, spanning continents and time periods. All will open your heart and expand your understanding of the ways our cultural inheritance can impact who we are and the choices we make. (To learn about the Acadian French culture, check out Song of Belonging, a debut novel by Michelle St. Romain.)
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
Set in Minnesota, The Seed Keeper tells the story of Rosalie Iron Wing, a Dakhota woman who returns to the place where she was taken as a child to finally face what happened to her family decades earlier. Grieving the death of her husband, she watched for years as his farm was threatened by drought and corporate greed. As she remembers her own past, she must also face a future that continues to threaten not only the way of life of her ancestors but also the land itself. Her return home means that she must make a choice that will affect not only her life but the lives of those to come. Told in poetic prose that draws the reader in and brings Rosalie’s history to life, the story represents not only her story but that of countless others who have been protectors and caretakers of the Earth for generations.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
A young scientist, Dr. Marina Singh, heads into the Amazon to find her mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has lost contact with the outside world. What she finds in the jungle is a community made up of people native to the area, scientists who have been searching for answers to medical questions and an array of deadly snakes, plants and animals that live deep beneath the canopy. Both women are searching for answers. Both must face their own fears and decide which path they will take in the face of unthinkable challenges and a setting that strips them of everything they know. An unforgettable story about questions of ethics and morality in one of the few places left in this world where nature overpowers humans at every turn.
The Pōhaku by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes
A Hawaiian grandmother sits beside her granddaughter’s hospital bed and begins to tell a story. Her granddaughter is comatose from an accident that happened under mysterious circumstances and cannot respond as the tale of their family is woven through this mesmerizing oral history. Captain James Cook and many others are revealed as important figures, with the pōhaku, an ancient stone their family must protect, at the center of the story. The family’s history through many generations comes together at the bedside of this young Hawaiian woman as her grandmother unveils the necessity to keep the story of the pōhaku alive if the family is to continue to survive.
The First Rule of Swimming by Courtney Angela Brkic
Sisters Jadranka and Magdalena live on an island of Croatia where they decide to take very different paths in creating their lives. Jadranka leaves the island and lands in New York City where she begins a journey that leads her to unexpected places, being drawn by secrets about her family’s history. Magdalena follows her to New York to find her, and both must face not only their family’s history but their own choices. The story draws the reader into Croatian island life where things rarely change and everyone knows everyone else, juxtaposing it with the wild world of New York City, where a person can get lost and never be found – unless family and fate intervene.
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Set in 2007 just before and after the financial collapse of Lehman Brothers and its impact on the global economy, Behold the Dreamers tells the tale of a young couple, Jende and Neni Jonge, who have immigrated to the U.S. from Cameroon with their young son. They find themselves at the heart of power of Lehman Brothers when Jende is given a job as chauffeur for a senior executive. As secrets are unraveled and devastating changes become inevitable, everyone must make choices without any certainty of what the future will bring. In the end, the Jonges must remember why they immigrated, draw from the strength of their ancestral culture, and decide what life they will choose for themselves and their son.
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
One story at a time, the lives of Japanese women living in the U.S. in the early 1900s are revealed in this tightly woven tale. All brought to San Francisco to marry Okinawan men working as laborers, they must face a culture they know little about, marry men they have never met and find a way to create a life in a country far from anything they have ever known. Based on the history of “picture brides” brought from Japan to help Okinawan men living in the U.S. start families, the book draws the reader into the heart-breaking lives of these women who were foundational in creating the vibrant Japanese culture that is now an integral part of the San Francisco Bay Area.
