Welcome to Coconut Juice, the podcast you never knew you needed and the bookclub you’ve always wanted to join but never had the time to. We think that BAME authors are marginalised and very much underrepresented, so come and join us as we add some diversity to the existing literary landscape.
Episode 19: When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy and Domestic Violence
“When I hit you, Lenin cries”, is what our author’s revolutionary husband tells her after every unnerving beating over the course of their short four month love marriage. Seduced by poetry and politics our young narrator falls for a university professor and accepts his hand in marriage, she moves for him to a new home where she doesn’t speak the language. It starts slowly of course, answering phone calls on her behalf, asking for her Facebook password but escalates into extreme physical and sexual abuse.
This is not an easy book, our protagonist experiences and survives extreme violence and social isolation at her husband’s hands. There are moments where the brutalities are too much so prepare yourself. That being said, this is many women’s reality and ignoring it doesn’t make it go away, #domesticviolence takes the life of millions of people, world wide. In fact, two women are killed in the UK every week by a former or current partner.
17 Dec 2019
Episode 18: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019, a portrait of modern Britain through the eyes and interconnected stories of 12 different British people - mostly women and mostly black, all moving through the world in different times and decades. Each character has a chapter; within the chapters their lives overlap, but their experiences, backgrounds and choices could not be more different. There’s Amma, a lesbian socialist playwright, and non-binary Morgan, who uses the internet to navigate their gender identity – but also Shirley, a teacher who feels alien in Amma’s community, and Winsome, a bride who has arrived from Barbados to an unhappy marriage. Many of the characters are close – friends, relatives or lovers – while others simply visit the same theatre on the same night, or argue with each other on Twitter.
26 Nov 2019
Episode 17: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Sugar Tax and Prince Andrew
Imagine if there was a network of secret passages, a rail transport system with safe houses, conductors and secret routes through out America that could help slaves escape bondage. A way for them to get into the free states and Canada while avoiding captivity. This is called alternative history.
Set during the 19th century, Colson Whitehead takes us to the plantations of the southeastern United States, expertly re-creating the unique terrors felt by black Americans pre-civil war. Our protagonist is Cora, a determined teenage slave who makes a bid for freedom with the help of Caesar, a new arrival from Virginia. There are abolitionists, there are loyalists, slave catchers and sympathisers a plenty. In this ingenious conception, we make our harrowing journey through USA via Cora, encountering a different world with its own horrors in each state.
In reality, The Underground Railroad was not literally a railroad but rather a secretly organised means of movement.
27 Oct 2019
Episode 16: The Gift of Rain by Tan Twang Eng and British Opium [SPOILER ALERT]
Philip Hutton is a loner. It's 1937 in Malaysia and being the mixed race son of an English father and Chinese mother comes with certain hardships. Never quite fitting in and feeling like an outsider, Philip's life takes a turn when he meets an older Japanese diplomat, Hayato Endo, an aikido master who takes Philip under his tutelage.
As war looms and the Japanese invade British territory, both Endo and Philip find themselves torn between their loyalty to each other, versus loyalty to their country and family. Philip decides to assist the Japanese and Endo in administering the country in an attempt to keep his family safe, but how far is he willing to betray his countrymen for his sensei?
Set in Penang, this is a story of betrayal, barbaric cruelty, steadfast courage and enduring love.
(You guys know we avoid spoilers like the plague but trust us when we say, it's too hard for this book! So if you're still reading or thinking about reading, just listen out for the spoiler alerts! )
27 Sept 2019
Episode 15: The Mothers by Britt Bennett, Interview with the Author and Drake
New York Times best selling author Brit Bennett, answers Zainab, Rav and Steven's burning questions about her debut novel, T (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/themothers/)he Mothers.
We’re going across the pond for this one – all the way to the sunburnt shores of Southern California. Set within a contemporary black military community, The Mothers is described as an emotionally perceptive take on community and ambition. Refreshingly, all the characters in the book are African American unless described otherwise.
Our story orbits around three central characters, beautiful Nadia Turner, an ambitious 17 year old who is recovering from her mother’s suicide, meek and God-fearing Aubrey Evans, the ‘perfect’ church girl with scars that run deep and finally the local pastors son, Luke Sheppard, a former football star who's lost his future to an injury.
6 Sept 2019
Episode 14: Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji, BP and Unilever
Sorry we've been away for so long! But like Chance the Rapper, we're better than we were the last time.
In this poignant, eye-opening and emotionally vivid novel, Mahbod Seraji lays bare the beauty and brutality of the centuries-old Persian culture, while reaffirming the human experiences we all share.
In a middle-class neighbourhood of Iran's sprawling capital city, Tehran, 17-year-old Pasha spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend Ahmed, joking around one minute and asking burning questions about life the next. He also hides a secret love for his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been betrothed since birth to another man. But the bliss of Pasha and Zari's stolen time together is shattered when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah's secret police.
12 Jul 2019
Episode 13: In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne, London and Slang
LONDON CALLING - #InOurMadandFuriousCity (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/inourmadandfuriouscity/) takes place over 48 hours in a North London estate. Described by Waterstones as an authentic account of a less visible but fully lived #London (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/london/).
Our story follows a group of young men and their parents, with “elsewhere in their blood” who live in and around the council estate in Neasden. There's Yusuf, who is doing his best to avoid the attention of local Muslim extremists. Ardan, the aspiring rapper with a troublesome home life and Selvon, an obsessively disciplined athlete desperate to escape the neighbourhood. We have Caroline, one of the older protagonists, who fled Northern Ireland during the Troubles and Selvon, a mute and wheelchair bound man part of the Windrush generation.
Written by British #SriLankanauthor (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/srilankanauthor/) Guy Gunaratne, we could not pick this book being Londoners ourselves.
20 Jun 2019
Episode 12: There There by Tommy Orange, Native Americans and America
What do you know about Native Americans? Growing up in Britain, our knowledge of Native American culture is very minimal, essentially existing of what Hollywood wishes to portray. That was our biggest motivation for picking this book, we are keen to learn and for our listeners to learn.
Described as fierce, funny and heartbreaking, T (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/therethere/)ommy Orange's There There offers up a shattering portrait of America through the eyes of 12 different characters.
28 May 2019
Episode 11: White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht, Haenyeo and Comfort Women
Korea, 1943. Hana has lived her entire life under Japanese occupation. As a haenyeo, a female diver of the sea, she enjoys an independence that few other Koreans can still claim. Until the day Hana saves her younger sister from a Japanese soldier and is herself captured and transported to Manchuria. There she is forced to become a “comfort woman” in a Japanese military brothel. But haenyeo are women of power and strength. She will find her way home.
South Korea, 2011. Emi has spent more than sixty years trying to forget the sacrifice her sister made, but she must confront the past to discover peace. Seeing the healing of her children and her country, can Emi move beyond the legacy of war to find forgiveness?
20 May 2019
Episode 10: Brother by David Chariandy, Goodreads and Chutney Music
This is the story of brotherhood, of two young boys growing up in Scarborough, a not so nice part of Toronto. These boys, Francis and Michael, like David Chariandy are or Trinidadian descent; with an overworked black mother who works double, sometimes triple shifts and an absent Indian father.
Brother explores questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 1991. it’s dangerous and it’s ugly and the author doesn’t try to find beauty in it – it doesn’t exist. Yet Chariandy still manages to capture the readers imagination, his writing and story telling speak volumes.
15 Apr 2019
Episode 9: Small Island by Andrea Levy, Jamaicans and Racism
It’s 1948, haughty Hortense Joseph arrives in London from British colonised Jamaica, with her perfect white gloves and full trunk, she is ready for the ‘motherland’. Brought up with the consciousness that her "golden skin" makes her a superior creature in a country of darker skins, she soon discovers that her qualifications have no meaning in Britain and her status is precisely the same as that of any other black migrant. Similarly, her husband, Gilbert, an RAF man, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero in the ‘motherland’, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class.
The novel's other two main characters are their English landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, and Bernard, Queenie's mumbling husband, who arrives back from wartime service to find "coons" renting rooms in his house. Unlike her deeply racist spouse, Queenie serves as refreshing break from bigoted English society.
25 Mar 2019
Episode 8: A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza, Islamaphobia and 3JHUS
A Place for Us unfolds the lives of an Indian-American Muslim family, gathered together in their Californian hometown to celebrate the eldest daughter, Hadia's, wedding - a match of love rather than tradition. It is here, on this momentous day, that Amar, the youngest of the siblings, reunites with his family for the first time in three years. Rafiq and Layla must now contend with the choices and betrayals that lead to their son's estrangement - the reckoning of parents who strove to pass on their cultures and traditions to their children; and of children who in turn struggle to balance authenticity in themselves with loyalty to the home they came from.
In a narrative that spans decades and sees family life through the eyes of each member, A Place For Us charts the crucial moments in the family's past, from the bonds that bring them together to the differences that pull them apart. And as siblings Hadia, Huda, and Amar attempt to carve out a life for themselves, they must reconcile their present culture with their parent's faith, to tread a path between the old world and the new, and learn how the smallest decisions can lead to the deepest of betrayals.
A deeply affecting and resonant story, A Place for Us is truly a book for our times: a moving portrait of what it means to be an American family today, a novel of love, identity and belonging that eloquently examines what it means to be both American and Muslim — and announces Fatima Farheen Mirza as a major new literary talent.
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8 Mar 2019
Episode 7: The Leavers by Lisa Ko, Belonging and Adoption
Deming Guo hates waking up for school, he likes watching TV and hanging out with his best friend, Michael. Born and bred in Manhattan, the 11 year old's life takes a tumultuous turn when his mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, doesn't come back from work one day. Abandoned and alone, he is adopted by a middle-class white American couple and Deming Guo becomes Daniel Wilkinson, the all american boy.
Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother’s disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind in this heart wrenching story by Chinese American author, Lisa Ko.
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14 Feb 2019
Episode 6: An Untamed State by Roxane Gay, Valentine's Day and Fetishisation
Mireille Duval’s
life reads like a fairy tale — the daughter of Haiti’s richest sons leads a
very prosperous life in USA, with her all American husband and child. Upon a
trip to the motherland, Mireille’s reality is transformed when she is kidnapped
and held hostage by a gang of heavily armed men for 13 excruciating days.
American author Roxane Gay’s portrayal of sexual violence and mental torture is unyielding,
the reader finds themselves wondering, how much can a woman’s body endure? What
do the rich owe to the poor? Mireille’s story is distressing to say the least,
but it also about survival and redemption.
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8 Feb 2019
Episode 5: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Motherhood and Privilege
Welcome to Shaker Heights, a planned and privileged community in Ohio, where each blade of grass is as well-maintained as the carefully polished Porsches in the residents’ driveways. How real is this excruciating perfection? And at what cost?
Join Rav, Steven and Zainab, as they navigate Chinese American author, Celeste Ng’s masterfully crafted story, exploring themes of motherhood, race and privilege in the suburbs.
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8 Feb 2019
Episode 4: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Refugees and Magical Realism
A lively discussion between the CJ bookclub trio, Rav, Steven and Zainab, fuelled by Pakistani author, Mohsin Hamid's Man Booker nominated novel, Exit West.
This book is all about refugees and migration so that's what we talk and learn about — did you know that 85% of the world's displaced people are in developing countries? Surprised? Same! The way the media portrays it, you would think that a substantial amount are in Europe, but that is very much not the case.
Mohsin Hamid's writing is poetic and beautiful and his take on the refugee crisis will surprise you. With doors that transport you from one city to another, crossing borders is a thing of the past. We meet Nadia and Saeed, who meet against the backdrop of war, this is their story.
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8 Feb 2019
Episode 3: Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò
Coconut Juice goes to Nigeria via Ayòbámi Adébáyò's debut novel, Stay With Me — A story set in limbo between love and loss.
Usually our feelings towards a book tend to be quite uniform but this one was a bit controversial, listen to find out why!
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8 Feb 2019
Episode 2: Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Described as a contemporary re-imagining of Sophocles's Antigone, British Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie's novel Home Fire deals with major clashes, between society, family and religious faith in modern day Britain. No wonder it took the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018.
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5 Feb 2019
Episode 1: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Hailed
as a masterpiece of empathy, integrity and family loyalty, Korean American author Min Jin Lee’s
Pachinko is a captivating account of the relentless suffering experienced by
Koreans. A multi-generational diaspora saga, spanning nearly 100 years — an
epic almost, follows a family and their eventual migration to Japan. Join
Rav. Steven and Zai for their very first episode, exploring this rich tapestry,
full of resilience.
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