"Sure, half the girls in Ireland are called Mary," said
the woman.
"No, they aren't," said Mary. "I'm the only one on our
road."
"Well, they were all called Mary in my day," said the
woman. "Off you go, so. I'll see you the next time."
The next time? Mary should have been worried, even
frightened. She was worried, and a bit frightened. But
not nearly as much as she thought she should have been.
This woman had come out of nowhere. She knew Mary's
name and all about her granny - Mary should have been
terrified. But she wasn't. Something about the woman, the
way she spoke, her face, her smile - she seemed familiar.
Mary didn't know her - but she did.
She wasn't terrified. But, still, she ran to the front
door and rang the bell instead of getting her key from her
schoolbag. As she rang the bell, she turned. But the woman
had gone.
Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today's globalized world.
The story of an American family, middle class in middle America, ordinary in every way but one. But that exception is the beating heart of this extraordinary novel.
First time novelist Vaddey Ratner captured my heart and senses in this novel based on her childhood in Cambodia. Her story transcends any news story...
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From the first page, I was drawn in by the lyrical writing of the author and mesmerized as the narrator, eight year old Raami, remembered the years...
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Trite but true, all good things must come to an end. I so wanted to keep reading the wonderful prose, the settings that let one think they are part...
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Kenn Nesbitt is new Children's Poet Laureate(Jun 12 2013) Kenn Nesbitt has been named the new Children's Poet Laureate: Consultant in Children's Poetry to the Poetry Foundation, which noted that the two-year position...
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