“The Red Haired Woman” by Orhan Pamuk

 When reading this book, I mostly thought it was a decently written but uninspiring story with the clear voice of a Turkish intellectual. But the final section, which shifted to the point of view of the red haired woman, makes this book a work of art. Its themes are fathers and sons murdering each other, Oedipus etc etc. And of course, the role of women.

“The Headmaster’s Wager” by Vincent Lam

 At the beginning I thought this book was excruciatingly slow. But I ended up liking it very much and indeed would even call it amazing. The complex life story of a Chinese English Headmaster/owner of an English school in Vietnam during Japanese occupation and then the Vietnam war felt so very real. Of course, my familial relationship to Vietnam added to my interest in the book.