PositiveWashington Independent Review of BooksBy weaving together the past and present, Shafak provides incisive reflection on the trauma, displacement, migration, and loss that ensued during the civil war—experiences shared by both the fig tree (brought from Cyprus to England by Defne and Kostas) and its owners. Loss suffuses the lives of all ... At many points, the writing is both rich and tender. I especially enjoyed the scenes of some of the peripheral characters ... But I found the overall pacing slow at times, and the interceding observations by the fig tree felt disruptive and self-conscious as the novel progressed. Nonetheless, the research Shafak presents about trees, especially early on, dazzled me ... The reveal at the end was not entirely surprising, but I enjoyed it. Shafak bridges the disconnect so many of us feel in these times between our technology-glutted, hamster-wheel lives and the grounding comfort of the natural world by imbuing the fig tree with a humanity and grace we actual humans achieve only sporadically.
Sunjeev Sahota
PositiveThe Washington Independent Review of BooksThe interplay between the two primary characters is, at first, challenging. Mehar’s story is so captivating that I felt briefly irritated at having to move into the secondary story of the addict. But I soon lost myself in Sahota’s compelling universe. He has particular compassion for his female characters, and I delighted in both Mehar and the modern-day character Radhika, a young doctor who befriends the addict and who insists on living on her own terms ... The final pages of China Room feel like a slow punch in the chest.
Lily King
RaveWashington Independent Review of BooksWith wit and what reads like deep insider wisdom, King captures the chronic low-level panic of taking a leap into the artsy unknown and finding yourself adrift, without land in sight ... King pays Casey\'s exhausting daily labors as a server at that pricey Harvard Square restaurant the respect of particularity ... Writers & Lovers is a funny and compassionate novel about the cost of sticking with the same dream for what may be too long. It doesn\'t have the historical reach of King\'s last novel, the acclaimed Euphoria, about the life of the young Margaret Mead. But it shares with that novel a fascination with female ambition and with how especially difficult it is for a woman to define the worth of her life when the familiar markers of adult achievement are slow to materialize.
