RaveThe Wall Street JournalAlso taking place in the wake of World War I is Sujata Massey’s The Widows of Malabar Hill. This intriguing novel features Perveen Mistry, 'the only woman solicitor in Bombay.' The 23-year-old, Oxford-educated Perveen works (out of court) on behalf of her father’s clients, sometimes assuming the duties of an unofficial detective ... Ms. Massey, through adroit flashbacks, interweaves into the current mystery the saga of Perveen’s grim marital misadventure. The Widows of Malabar Hill, with its deft prose and well-wrought characters, is a splendid first installment in what promises to be a memorable series.
Nathaniel Rich
RaveThe Wall Street JournalNew Orleans in 1918 is the messy and exciting setting of Nathaniel Rich’s King Zeno. In Mr. Rich’s Crescent City, Creole cornet player Isadore Zeno labors at backbreaking day jobs in order to support his pregnant wife, while also trying to serve his artistic muse ... Mr. Rich tells a complicated story with great skill and style, sketching the mental lives of a dozen major characters and bringing a vanished era to colorful and realistic life. Despite the social inequity, dreadful hygiene and lack of penicillin, it’s refreshing to spend time in a milieu where jazz (or 'jass') music can provide a path to moral triumph.
