An Ignoble Experiment: BookBrowse Highlights: Salvaged Morsels from Vauhini Vara

BookBrowse Highlights

Hi Indiana,

This week, our First Impressions readers review This Is Salvaged, a unique collection of short stories about people searching for meaning and connection from Pulitzer finalist Vauhini Vara.

You can also join or follow our discussion of Fair Rosaline, Natasha Solomons' retelling of Romeo and Juliet narrated from the perspective of Juliet's cousin Rosaline. Scroll down to see other great current and upcoming discussions in our fall schedule!

And in Editor's Choice, we bring you the long-awaited latest from Zadie Smith, her historical novel The Fraud, which explores the social tapestry of Victorian-era London. Plus, we've included an excerpt below, so you can start reading it right now.

With best wishes,

Davina Morgan-Witts

BookBrowse Publisher

First Impressions

Each month, we share books with BookBrowse members to read and review. Here are their opinions on one recently released title.

This Is Salvaged

by Vauhini Vara

"This Is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara is a collection of ten short stories about the individual search for meaning and connection with other people. ... This would be an excellent book club choice." —Judith M. (Granville, OH)

"Full disclosure, I was already a fan of Vauhini Vara after reading the 2023 Pulitzer finalist epic The Immortal King Rao. So, I opened This Is Salvaged completely prepared to like it. I was not disappointed. This unique collection brought to mind an image of excellent bits of amuse-bouche to savor, but absent the need to move on to a main course!" —Gloria M. (San Jose, CA)

"I am not usually a fan of short stories... I had a totally different experience with This Is Salvaged. First, there was the common theme of 'salvaged' in each of the stories. Then the characters, who were so well developed!" —Lorraine K. (Stamford, CT)

BookBrowse Book Club

Discussions are open to all to view and participate, so if you've read a book, click on "discuss."

If you have not, we suggest you go to "about the book" to avoid spoilers.

Fair Rosaline

by Natasha Solomons

From the Jacket

The most exciting historical retelling of 2023: a subversive, powerful untelling of Romeo and Juliet by New York Times bestselling author Natasha Solomons.

Was the greatest ever love story a lie?

From the Discussion

"It really made me reconsider all of the notions I had about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet." —sweeney

"This creative story held my interest and motivated me to re-read parts of Romeo and Juliet for comparison. Reminded me of the same reaction I had when reading Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell." —julib

"I found it an interesting twist to a well-known story, and appreciated the author's willingness to challenge long-held assumptions — like that Romeo was a young teenager like Juliet/Rosaline and simply a young man deeply in love." —laurap

Discuss

About the Book

Editor's Choice

The Fraud

by Zadie Smith

The Fraud is anchored by the bizarre "Tichbourne Case" that gripped London in the 1870s, in which Arthur Orton, a butcher from Wapping, was put on trial for claiming to be Sir Roger Tichbourne, the long-presumed-dead heir of a vast fortune. But the trial is only a small aspect of the story. The plot spirals out far beyond the courtroom, grappling with class, gender, and racial politics from slave plantations in Jamaica to the salons of London's literary elite. With caustic wit, Smith deftly unravels the interplay between these various social forces, creating a vision of Victorian Britain that is as rich and multifarious as the era it's set in.

The first half of the book centers around the household of William Ainsworth, an aging historical fiction writer. Ainsworth was a real person, who in his younger days scaled the heights of literary success (his novel Jack Sheppard outsold Oliver Twist on release, a fact that the fictional Ainsworth clings to with an air of desperate pride). However, it's not Ainsworth who Smith focuses the narrative on, but his acid-tonged cousin, Eliza Touchet. A foil to Ainsworth's naivete, Eliza is shrewd, thoughtful, and analytical. ...continued

Beyond the Book:

Women's Influence in the British Abolition Movement

In The Fraud, Eliza's lover Frances is a passionate abolitionist whose commitment to the cause infects Eliza with a similar sense of urgency. Britain's Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833, freeing at least 800,000 people from bondage in the Caribbean, South America, and Canada. The act followed decades of campaigns from abolitionist groups, who had been fighting to end the practice since the 1780s. An often-overlooked group who were influential in the fight to end slavery were women – figures such as Hannah More, Mary Prince, and Elizabeth Heyrick (whose house Eliza and Frances visit in The Fraud) were pivotal to the abolitionist cause. ... continued

Excerpt

Along with a review, "beyond the book" article and other information, BookBrowse offers excerpts for most featured titles, so you can sample a book before deciding if it's right for you.

Below is an excerpt from The Fraud.

A Very Large Hole

A filthy boy stood on the doorstep. He might be scrubbed of all that dirt, eventually - but not of so many orange freckles. No more than fourteen, with skinny, unstable legs like a marionette, he kept pitching forward, shifting soot into the hall. Still, the woman who'd opened the door - easily amused, susceptible to beauty - found she couldn't despise him.

'You're from Tobin's?'

'Yes, missus. Here about the ceiling. Fell in, didn't it?'

'But two men were requested!'

'All up in London, missus. Tiling. Fearsome amount of tiling needs doing in London, madam . . .'

He saw of course that she was an old woman, but she didn't move or speak like one. A high bosom, handsome, her face had few wrinkles and her hair was black. Above her chin, a half-moon line, turned upside down. Such ambiguities were more than the boy could unravel. He deferred to the paper in his hand, reading slowly:

'Number One, St James-es Villas, St James-es Road, Tunbridge Wells. The name's Touch-it, ain't it?'

From inside the house came a full-throated Ha! The woman didn't flinch. She struck the boy as both canny and hard, like most Scots. ...continued

Read Full Excerpt

Discussions

Discussions are open to all, so please join us! If you would like to receive a message when a particular discussion opens, you can sign up for a one-time notification.