Ten books...
that could be called Commonwealth Gold
As the Games get into their stride, here are some of the finest novels from the Commonwealth, which have led their field.
Disgrace by J M Coetzee
There's nothing but misery in the South African Nobel Laureate's brilliant novel, in which the disgrace is that of an academic dismissed because of an affair with a student. The irony is, as a specialist on Byron, he has come to grief, he reflects, for an incident which his literary hero would have considered "tame".Retreating to live with his daughter on her farm in the eastern Cape, he finds life getting even more painful as violence erupts against him and, worse, his daughter.
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
This sparkling novel won the Booker prize for Australia's most feted modern novelist. The story of an Anglican priest and Australian heiress who meet on the ship to Australia in the late 19th century, it follows what happens when they discover a shared love of gambling.
Mansfield by C K Stead
One of New Zealand's most acclaimed modern writers on the country's most famous short story writer and novelist. Stead takes three wartime years in Mansfield's life- 1915-1918 - to show her personality, her complicated love life, and her genius.
A Bend in the River, by V S Naipaul
Probably the Nobel Prizewinner's masterpiece, it is told by Salim, an Indian Muslim shopkeeper who moves to the heart of Africa, and encounters the malign effects of colonialisation. Although the town's motto encourages "the mingling of the peoples", Salim finds the reality very different.
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
There have been better Canadian novels, but few as spine-chilling as Atwood's dystopian depiction of a populace kept under state control, where even a woman's fertility is dictated by her keepers.
The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
This Booker Prize-winning debut novel made headlines before it was even published for the size of the advance Roy received. A complex and disturbing family story, set largely in Kerala, India, at its heart is the account of a twin brother and sister, separated from childhood who are finally reunited in their thirties.
The Man-eater of Malgudi by R K Narayan
The hero of this brilliantly funny story is a printer in the town of Malgudi (where much of Narayan's work is set). Thrown into the company of an objectinable taxidermist, Nataraj is obliged to stand up for himself. Narayan was one of Graham Greene's favourite writers.
The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
A disturbing portrait of a white South African businessman who tries to find some meaning in his dissatisfied life by buying a farm, this deeply evocative salvo against apartheid won Gordimer the 1974 Booker Prize.
The Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
A blistering satire of African kleptocracy, this fantastical novel shows the Kenyan author's biting wit and critical eye of his home continent. One of Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's claims to fame is writing the first modern novel in Gikuyu on toilet paper while imprisoned in a maxium security prison for his outspoken work.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
This Nigerian classic it takes its title from W B Yeats's poem The Second Coming, and tells the story of an Ibo yam farmer who experiences the colonization of his country in the late 19th century. Achebe's first novel, it was published without a single word being altered.
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