Splinters

Three interesting books were sent to me recently by American independent publisher Overlook Press - they'll all be published in the next couple of months. Here's the blurbs for each of them.

I'm particularly looking forward to reading Rachel DeWoskin's Repeat After Me, as her memoir of becoming an unwitting soap opera star while living in China, Foreign Babes In Beijing, is one of my favourite travel books of the last few years.

Where Underpants Come From - Joe Bennett

One man's intrepid journey into Asia to discover why his underpants are so cheap.

When Joe Bennett bought a six-pack of underwear in his local supermarket for five dollars, he wondered who on earth could be making any money, let alone profit, from the exchange. How many processes and middlemen are involved? Where and how is the underwear made? And who decides on the absorbent qualities of the gusset? Joe embarks on an odyssey to the new factory of the world, China, to trace his underwear back to their source. Along the way he discovers the extraordinarily balanced and intricate web of contacts and exchanges that makes global trade possible-and is rapidly elevating China to the status of world economic superpower. He also grapples with chopsticks, challenges his own prejudices, and marvels at the contrasts in one of the world's oldest but fastest changing societies. Funny, wise, and insightful, Where Underpants Come From is a wonderful and timely picture of the developed world's dependence on China to make all the bits and pieces of our lives-everything from toothbrushes to overhead projectors and artificial kidneys.

Strange Telescopes: Following the Apocalypse from Moscow to Siberia - Daniel Kalder

A mind-bending voyage into the underground realms of Russia and beyond by the author of Lost Cosmonaut.

When Daniel Kalder descended into the sewers of Moscow in pursuit of the mythical lost city of tramps, he didn't realize that he was embarking on a bizarre, year-long odyssey that would lead him thousands of miles across Russia to the Arctic Circle via the heart of Asia. After exploring the depths of Moscow's "Underground Planet," Kalder journeyed to the Ukraine to chase down demons and exorcists in the dubious afterglow of the Orange Revolution, before meeting a man called Vissarion Christ-a one-time traffic cop, he is now messiah to thousands of followers in Siberia. Salvation and damnation collide as Daniel Kalder expertly guides us through this unique account of a modern day quest that reveals the astonishing lengths people will go to when they view the world through a "strange telescope."

Repeat After Me - Rachel DeWoskin

Rachel DeWoskin is a writer who has been lauded for her "razor-sharp descriptions" (The Wall Street Journal), her "considerable cultural and linguistic resources" (The New Yorker), and her rare ability to offer a "real insider's look at life in modern China" (The Economist). Now DeWoskin, author of the laughout-loud funny and poignant Foreign Babes in Beijing, returns with a new novel about modern China and one American girl's struggle to find herself there.

Aysha is a twenty-two-year-old New Yorker putting the pieces of her life back in place after her parents' divorce and her own nervous breakdown when a young Chinese student named Da Ge flips her world upside-down. In a love story that spans decades and continents, from the Tiananmen Square incident to 9/11, New York City's Upper West Side to the terraced mountains of South China, Repeat After Me gives readers an alternately funny and painful glimpse of life and loss in between languages.