Coconut Juice Book Club

Episode 19: When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy and Domestic Violence

Ravi, Steven, Zainab

“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.

Episode 18: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Ravi, Steven, Zainab

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.

Episode 17: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Sugar Tax and Prince Andrew

Ravi, Steven, Zainab

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.

Episode 16: The Gift of Rain by Tan Twang Eng and British Opium [SPOILER ALERT]

Ravi, Steven, Zainab

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! )

Episode 15: The Mothers by Britt Bennett, Interview with the Author and Drake

Ravi, Steven, Zainab

New York Times best selling author Brit Bennett, answers Zainab, Rav and Steven's burning questions about her debut novel, The 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.