In this first of the new theme-based episodes, Assia and I explore reading books from countries we know little about!

• Discovering connections across the world.
• “A book is not holier than a tweet.” © 2019 Assia
• Reading what we know is more comfortable.

Find out more about Assia in her guest profile here.

Books mentioned

Amina’s picks

• Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
• Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed
• Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov

To read: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Assia’s picks

• Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa
• When We Were Arabs by Massoud Hayoun
• Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

To read: The Weight of our Sky by Hanna Alkaf

Other books mentioned

The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov
Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
At the Cafe (Eng. trans. of Au Café) by Mohammed Dib
Une Si Longue Lettre (Eng. trans.: So Long a Letter) by Mariama Bâ
Anumpa Warrior by Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer