4 Books That Will Make You Think About Borders
A deeper dive into our season 4 theme for The Novel Tea
A few weeks ago we announced our theme for Season 4 of The Novel Tea… Beyond Borders! Though the concept of “borders” in terms of physical borders between countries is a theme we will discuss this season, we will also be covering more ambiguous interpretations of the word. A border can also refer to differences between people regarding beliefs, religion, sexuality, or upbringing. In this newsletter, I’m sharing four books that include these themes.
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Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
The book shifts perspective between William, a young man who has lived his life without knowing love and is struggling to fit in and figure out who he is, and four sisters from the Padavano family, who have known nothing but familial dependency, care, and chaos.
When William meets Julia, the eldest sister of the family, his world opens up to the contrast of their different upbringing. It’s not as easy as opening his eyes to a better world, but more about him trying to navigate through this new world in ways he never has before. Can William move past the emotional barriers of his old life, and can the Padavano sisters open their arms to someone they cannot relate to?
This book touches on the mental borders one may have from conflicting childhoods beautifully and unusually. Forgiveness, abandonment, and love are themes that are explored in ways that you would not expect.
The Membranes by Ta-Wei-Chi
Imagine a world where humans live on the bottom of the ocean protected by a membrane to separate them from the dying land above. Reality has been taken over by technology and cyborg labor to the point where even dogs you can adopt are just robots built for human companionship. Momo lives in the dome as a famous dermal care technician where she applies a protective membrane on her clients that gives her the ability to track their every movement. During the peak of her success, her estranged mother reaches out to her to reconnect and Momo agrees and slowly discovers things about her past that change her perspective forever.
This story takes “borders” to a whole other level. Physical membranes, the careful line between reality and artificial intelligence, parenting, and dream states. Listen to our episode The Novelties, where we discuss superlatives for books we’ve read in the year so far to hear more about this book!
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Genly Ai is a representative of an inter-planetary alliance called Ekuman. He travels to a planet called Gethen (meaning winter) to invite the people in power to join this alliance. During his time there, he struggles to understand and connect with the people due to their anatomical and cultural differences.
This book emphasizes the geographical border, government policies, and religions between the two major countries Karhide and Orgoreyn. Beyond that, it subtly explores the concepts of gender, sexuality, patriarchal roles, spirituality and relationships. Shruti and I did a whole episode about this book for Season 3: Other Worlds (you can listen to it here).
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Gifty is studying neuroscience and researching reward-seeking behavior in mice to understand the science of depression and addiction after dealing with the traumatic death of her brother and grieving mother. She navigates her way through life as a Ghanaian immigrant and explores themes of science, love and religion.
As much as we love hearing the term “breaking boundaries”, I think it is just as important to think about building them too. This book takes on a unique role of understanding what changes you can make in your life that benefit you even if they are hard choices. If you loved Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, this was very different than her first novel, but just as profound.
—Neha
Next Up
Next up, we are starting out the season with a discussion on The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nyugen, which will be out tomorrow on September 4th. This Pulitzer prize-winning novel starts with the fall of Saigon and follows an unnamed biracial narrator as he becomes a communist spy. The book moves back and forth between Vietnam, the United States, and the Philippines, as we slowly learn what happened to the narrator.
