Tania James Boeken

Exploring themes of yearning and dislocation, this collection of short stories traverses diverse settings including London, Sierra Leone, and the American Midwest. Characters grapple with personal struggles, such as a middle-aged dance instructor confronting vanity, a young man seeking closure through his father's handwriting after a tragic loss, and a woman in Ohio navigating an unconventional family dynamic with an orphaned child and chimpanzee. Tania James masterfully portrays the complexities of human connection amid the challenges of race, pride, and grief.

Hilarious, moving and wholly absorbing, this first novel about the immigrant experience and the search for home introduces a stunning new talent.

When a young elephant is brutally orphaned by poachers and then captured, it is only a matter of time before he breaks his chains and begins terrorising the countryside, earning his malevolent name from the humans he kills and then tenderly buries with leaves. Manu, the studious son of a rice farmer, loses his cousin to the Gravedigger and is drawn, with his wayward brother Jayan, into the alluring world of ivory hunting, while his family relationships grow ever more complicated. Emma is working on a documentary set in a Kerala wildlife park with her best friend. Her work leads her to witness the porous boundary between conservation and corruption and she finds herself caught up in her own betrayal. As the novel hurtles toward its tragic climax, these three storylines fuse into a wrenching meditation on love and revenge, fact and myth, duty and sacrifice. In a feat of audacious imagination and arrestingly beautiful prose, The Tusk That Did the Damage tells an original and heartbreaking story about how we treat nature, and each other.

Set against the backdrop of colonialism, the story follows Abbas, a young toy maker taken to Tipu Sultan's palace to create a musical tiger. His apprenticeship with the eccentric clockmaker Monsieur Du Leze leads to unexpected friendships, including with the ambitious Jehanne. However, when British soldiers loot Mysore, Abbas's life is upended as he embarks on a quest to reclaim his stolen creation and carve out his identity. Blending artistry, adventure, and romance, this novel explores themes of history, empire, and belonging.

Abbas is just seventeen years old when he leaves his family to serve in the court of Tipu Sultan, a volatile and unpredictable ruler. An inspired woodcarver, Abbas is apprenticed to a master toy maker in order to build a massive tiger automaton, a gift to celebrate the return of the Sultan's sons from British captivity. Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Monsieur du Leze, Abbas hones his craft and learns to read French and then meets Jehane, the daughter of one of du Leze's fellow expatriats. When du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Paris, he begs Abbas to accompany him. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, the palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton disappears. To prove himself and make a livelihood in Paris-with the lovely Jehane at his side-Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered Moorish and Oriental Art.

Zwei Schwestern, zwei Kulturen, ein gemeinsamer Traum Zwei Schwestern, die sich verlieren und erst aus der Distanz der Kulturen erkennen, was sie füreinander bedeuten: Tania James, US-Autorin mit indischen Vorfahren, erkundet die Geschichte zweier Frauen zwischen Indien und Amerika. Am Anfang der Geschichte steht ein Traum und eine Lüge: die 17-jährige Anju hofft auf ein Stipendium in Amerika. Um es zu erhalten, verrät sie ihre Schwester. Linnu wird ihr dies nie verzeihen. Doch für Anju ist Amerika anders als erträumt. Es hält Schmerz und Enttäuschung bereit. Erst die Distanz der Kulturen und die Erfahrung der Fremde öffnen ihr die Augen für den wahren Wert der fernen Schwester.