Season 4 of The Novel Tea: Beyond Borders

Our book list, interesting links, and upcoming episodes

Last week, we officially announced our book list for Season 4 of the podcast, and we are so excited to read these titles along with you! In this newsletter we’re sharing our book list, as well as some interesting links on the topic of borders in literature.

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Our Season 4 Book List

For season 4, we will be reading books that deal with the theme of borders, both physical and metaphorical. Here’s our list:

• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nyugen

• The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

• The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

• The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño

• Daughters of the Deer by Danielle Daniel

• Another Country by James Baldwin

• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

• The Parisian by Isabelle Hamad

Listen to the full episode to hear more about these books, and what we’re excited for this season.

Borders in Literature

In our introduction episode, we talked a bit about our theme for the season, Beyond Borders. Shruti started reading Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said, and was intrigued by his ideas. For those interested in the idea of geographical boundaries, imperialism, and borders in literature, we hope you enjoy these links:

A Novel Life: On the Literary and Political Legacy of Edward Said [Lithub]

“Every Border is a Story.” On Dividing Lines Both Real and Imagined [Lithub]
James Crawford Considers the Continuing Relevance of Literature’s Borders

7 Lyrical Books About the Language of the Border [Electric Lit]
Poetry about living in the divide

On Borders Concrete and Intangible: A Reading List of the Inbetween [Lithub]
Fatin Abbas Recommends J.M. Coetzee, Fatima Mernissi, and More

Next Up

Next up, we are starting out the season with a discussion on The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nyugen, which will be out 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.