Supermarket by Satoshi Azuchi, Paul Warham

The idea of supermarkets had just begun in Japan during the Japanese post-WWII recovery and industrialisation. In 1969, Ishikari was the managing director, and his elder brother was the president of Ishiei Stores. Kojima is Ishikari's cousin, and both strongly bonded after the two families shared the Ishikari family home…

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children. Elwood Curtis was raised by his strict grandmother during the 1960s in Florida. He passionately follows Dr Martin Luther King's words and has a strong interest in the…

Master of My Fate by Sienna Brown

William was born into slavery in the early 1800s on a plantation in Jamaica. William's mother, Stella, was a house slave to the Mowatt family. Stella was often abused by her master Cargill Mowatt or whom they called Massa. William has a younger brother Sammy who claimed as Massa's biological…

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The first book sets in a small fishing village located in Yeongdo, Busan, from 1910 to 1933. It begins with the story of a fisherman and his wife that has three sons, but only the eldest and weakest survived. Hoonie was born with a cleft palate and a twisted foot…

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

Set in the '70s at Odessa Texas, the story begins with Gloria Ramirez, who is just fourteen years old, observing closely of a young cowboy who is sleeping in his truck. She is waiting for the right time to run away before he sobers up. As the sun rises, offering…

Ordinary Grace, William Kent Krueger

Frank recalls the memories of the summer in 1961 when he was a thirteen-year-old boy in a small town of New Bremen, Minnesota. The story is narrated by Frank forty years after, looking back at that particular summer which visited by frequent deaths in various forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.…