Category: Adult Fiction 18+, 396 pages
Genre: Contemporary Multicultural Fiction
Publisher: Sojounrer Books
Release date: November 2, 2020
Content Rating: PG13 & M:There’s a suicide, reference to a past genocide, and reference to sex about to happen but no description of the sexual act.
Gold Medal, Contemporary Fiction, 2021 Global Book Awards (formerly New York City Book Awards)
Finalist, Multicultural Fiction, 2021 International Book Awards
After two heartbreaking losses, Luna wants adventure. Something and somewhere very different from the affluent, sheltered home in California and Hawaii where she grew up. An adventure in which she can also make some difference.
Lucien, a worldly, well-traveled young architect, finds a stranger’s journal at a café. Though he has qualms and pangs of guilt about reading it, they don’t stop him. His decision changes his life forever.
Months later, they meet at a bookstore. Fascinated by his stories and adventurous spirit, Luna goes on a Peace Corps stint to a rural rice-growing village in Cambodia. There, she finds a world steeped in ancient culture and the lasting ravages of a deadly history. Will she leave this world unscathed?
An epistolary tale of courage, resilience, and the bonds that bring diverse people together.
MY THOUGHTS ON THIS BOOK
First of all, I love the cover of this book. It’s bright vibrant colors would make me pick this book before other. The Shade Under the Mango Tree is a different read than other books I have read, but it was intriguing and interesting. The story was about Luna and Lucien and we get to know them and their life and feelings through the Moleskine journal. I enjoyed getting to know these two characters and the others we meet throughout the story. The author does a fantastic job describing the details in such a way they seem so real. I love the vivid descriptions of the different cultures.
My favorite was Hawaii and Luna visiting her grandmother in the house she grew up in. I love grandma and her sweet personality and wise wisdom. There is so much going on in this book. A lots of twists and turns keeling the story entertaining. I was intrigued to see how the author would weave everything in this story together and come up with an ending that wasn’t really expected. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy multi cultural stories, stories featuring journal entries, this is one you will enjoy. This one is four stars for me.
A special thanks to the author/publisher for a copy of this book. I am not required to write a positive review, the opinions here are mine alone. I am disclosing this with my review in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
And now an interesting interview with author Evy Journey
You didn’t start out as a writer. Do you see it as a job as opposed to a hobby?
I didn’t start out as a fiction writer. I did write stories or the beginnings of a few ages ago. Some were published in the high school paper. Others were stashed away, lost in the many moves I’ve made. But writing has never been just a hobby, but an essential part of my professional jobs. They required a great deal of writing—research and program proposals, research reports and reviews, and rehashing studies for the consumption of “lay people.”
Do I consider fiction writing a job? It’s certainly different. But fictional or factual, writing is work. Work I get totally absorbed in.
Do you have all the stories and characters planned out from the beginning and then just write them, or do they come to you as you finish one book and start the next?
My characters are worked out well in my mind when I start writing. The plot, not so much. My first draft is usually pretty fluid.
Characterization can dictate or at least help shape scenes that move plot along. Scenes advance the story and can present new facets of a character that can compel me to make changes in my original conception of the character.
Who are your greatest writing influences? Favorite books?
I can’t tell who influences my writing but I can tell you who I admire and whose capabilities I’d aspire to. First, I like Jane Austen’s novel of manners approach since I find human quirks fascinating. But she has a gift for subtlety that would be hard to emulate. Also, writers with a gift for prose that sings, but is clear and concise. To me, Anthony Doerr, Gilbert K. Chesterton, Evelyn Waugh, and Chitra Divakaruni fill that bill.
I love the classics but my favorite is Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See. Great story, engaging characters, lyrical prose. Chitra Divakaruni’s Palace of Illusions based on the Indian epic Mahabharata, has a smart, intelligent heroine married to four (5?) brothers. And, of course, Ms. Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
What’s the best thing about being a writer?
I made good money in my earlier jobs that required writing skills though no one called me a “writer”.
Now that I write fiction, I seem to have finally earned that label. Do I feel more fulfilled now writing fiction?
Psychologically, yes. Financially? Frankly no. But it doesn’t matter. Fiction is different from the kind of writing I used to do which was grounded on facts, analysis, drawing of conclusions and recommendations. It followed a more rigid structure and its own special lingo. Fiction requires much more imagination, gives you much more leeway. In some ways, it’s scarier because there are no must-follow rules. But it’s freeing. That’s the best thing about it for me. When you create characters and a fictional story, you have a lot more control, as opposed to facts and method having control of you.
In writing fiction, you have to be open to circumstance, to have the courage or imagination to veer away from your original story because of how characters or scenes develop. That’s what makes fiction writing more of an adventure. You take chances and don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. You wonder if it will resonate with your target audience. So, it can be surprising and exciting. And quite challenging. I love that aspect of it.
Can you name three writing tips to pass on to aspiring authors?
- This one from Francine Prose’s book Reading Like A Writer is among the best. Read a lot of good fiction and pay attention to how great writers do it.
- Good writing hinges on the apt word choice—the word that expresses what you want to say better than any other. It translates into clear and concise prose.
- Self-edit a lot before your work even goes to an editor. And use beta readers drawn from your target audience.
Meet the Author:
issues of contemporary life. She believes in love and its many faces. Though she has traveled to many places, she has one ungranted wish: To live in Paris where art is everywhere and people have honed aimless roaming to an art form. She visits and stays a few months.
Connect with the Author: website ~ facebook ~ pinterest ~ twitter
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Enter the Giveaway:
THE SHADE UNDER THE MANGO TREE Book Tour Giveaway
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