November paperback releases offer reading groups good choices

REVIEWS BY JULIE HALE

In the best-selling sequel to her 1999 novel Daughter of Fortune, Allende returns to 19th century Chile and California, and to the story of Eliza Somers, introducing her granddaughter Aurora del Valle. Raised in San Francisco, Aurora, a photographer, struggles to put together the pieces of her past. Her mother died in childbirth, and her father's identity is a mystery. Brought up by her wealthy, imperious grandmother, Paulina, Aurora wants for nothing—except answers about her family. This expansive novel spans five decades, years packed with mystery, betrayal, romance and tragedy for the del Valle clan. As usual, Allende delivers historical fiction of the highest order. A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.randomhouse.com.


Raised by her father in Scotland during the early 1900s, Eva McEwen grows up in the company of her secret "friends"—the ghosts of a woman and a young girl who wander in and out of her life unexpectedly. Visible only to her as she enters adulthood and becomes a nurse in a Glasgow infirmary, the two spirits save Eva's life, foil her chances at romance and cause all manner of uproar in her otherwise mundane daily existence. Weighted by her terrible secret, Eva unburdens herself to a friendly surgeon, but her admission leads to disaster. As she portrays Eva's lonely adolescence, Livesey weaves an entrancing tale, providing a plausible explanation for the ghosts' appearance and exploring the mysteries of life and death. A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.picadorusa.com.


The first novel in six years from this Nobel laureate is set in England and Africa during the 1950s. The novel follows Willie Chandran, the son of a former brahmin and a woman of low caste, from India to London, where, among the bohemians and expatriates, he hopes to escape the burden of his heritage. As a writer of short stories, Willie tries to forge a new identity for himself, only to fail repeatedly. Escape comes when he marries a woman from Africa and accompanies her to her home on the continent. Yet the past inevitably continues to haunt him. Naipaul writes with sensitivity and expert detail of a man trying to come to terms with his ancestry. A rich exploration of the nature of colonization, cultural exile and the search for the self, this is Naipaul at his best. A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.vintagebooks.com/read.


Looks can be deceiving: Between the covers of this tiny book lies a very large story, indeed. As the Cultural Revolution sweeps across China, two young men join forces when they're exiled to the countryside for re-education. Intellectual members of the upper class, the narrator and his friend Luo entertain their comrades—and win over their supervisor—by reenacting the movies they've seen. When the pair discover a supply of banned books from the West, their duties (which include hauling buckets of excrement to the local farmers) and lives are transformed by the magical power of literature. But their discovery has painful consequences. Mixing history and politics with romance, Sijie has written a remarkable meditation on the power of books, as well as a moving story of how two young men maintain hope in the face of oppression. A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.anchorbooks.com.


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