Dai Sijie, Abi Dare, Daniel Defoe and Kiran Desai
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie
1971: Mao's cultural Revolution is at its peak. Two sons of doctors, sent to 're-education' camps, forced to carry buckets of excrement up and down mountain paths, have only their sense of humour to keep them going. Although the attractive daughter of the local tailor also helps to distract them from the task at hand. The boys' true re-education starts, however, when they discover a hidden suitcase packed with the great Western novels of the nineteenth century.
The Girl With the Louding Voice - Abi Dare
Adunni is a 14-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. As the only daughter of a broke father, she is a valuable commodity. Removed from school and sold as a 3rd wife to an old man, Adunni's life amounts to this: 4 goats, 2 bags of rice, some chickens and a new TV.
When unspeakable tragedy swiftly strikes in her new home, she is secretly sold as a domestic servant to a household in the wealthy enclaves of Lagos, where no one will talk about the strange disappearance of her predecessor, Rebecca.
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
After surviving a terrible shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe discovers he is the only human on an island far from any shipping routes or rescue. At first he is devastated, but slowly, with patience and imagination, he transforms his dismal island into a tropical paradise. For 24 years he lives with no human companionship - until one fateful day, when he discovers he is not alone.
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai
At the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas lives an embittered old judge who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. With the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, and his cook's son hopscotching from one New York restaurant to another, trying to stay ahead of the US immigration services, this is far from easy.