Voting for the 2013 One Read book is now closed. We appreciate all of you who cast your vote for either “The Call” by Yannick Murphy or “The Ruins of Us” by Keija Parssinen.
On May 20 we will announce the winning book here at oneread.org.
In the meantime, read more about our finalists!
Photo credit: Avard Woolaver via photopin cc
The One Read reading panel narrowed the list of more than 140 book suggestions for the 2013 program to two top contenders. Between now and April 26, cast your vote for either “The Call” by Yannick Murphy or “The Ruins of Us” by Keija Parssinen.
Two of the nominated books for One Read 2013 look at the emotional impact of war from very different angles. “Yellow Birds” by Kevin Powers is told from the point of view of a young soldier unmoored by his experiences in Iraq. Private John Bartle recounts in flashback his friendship with Murph, the younger soldier he promised to protect, and their attempts to cope with the horrors of the battlefield. Haunting and lyrical, this is an extremely intimate look at the consequences of war for those on the front lines. The reader suggesting this book said, “I think a community discussion of the Iraq War and effects on returning veterans is very important.”
Stephen Dau’s “Book of Jonas” follows the 15-year-old survivor of an attack on his Middle Eastern village after he is sent to America to live with a foster family. Jonas struggles to adapt and to suppress memories of his village’s destruction and the details of his own survival. He finally reveals the heroics of a missing soldier who saved his life, a story that reveals a shocking secret to the soldier’s grieving mother. Our nominator writes that this novel addresses “the timely topics of war, terrorists and immigrants. [The writing is] well-crafted, including an unusual structure.”
See other readers’ nominations for One Read 2013.
“This is the best book I have ever read.”
These are the words of the reader nominating “In the Shadow of the Banyan” by Vaddey Ratner to be the 2013 One Read selection. Our nominator continues: “The language of this book is exquisite. Radner explores her childhood in this autobiographical novel set in Cambodia during the regime of the Khmer Rouge. History personalized touches readers in a way that dry facts cannot. Older readers remember this time, and younger people may be introduced to an era with which they are unfamiliar.”
Told from the tender perspective of a young girl who comes of age amid the Cambodian killing fields, this novel is based on the author’s personal story. For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family’s world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus. Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labor, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood, the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. (From the publisher’s description.)
Want to know what books others in your community have read and loved? See other readers’ nominations for One Read 2013.
