Authors: Winter 2023

Monarch Book Recommendations

Imani Perry
South to America

With meticulous research and a personal narrative, Dr. Imani Perry retraces the landscape of the American South and demonstrates how Southern history is inextricably linked to America’s present and therefore must be deeply understood in order to understand America. This nonfiction history book is an essential guide to the complex Southern history and culture and weaves together countless stories while offering hope for a more humane future than seen in our Southern past.

Dk Nnuro
What Napolean Could Not Do

DK Nnuro’s intelligent and wrenching debut novel, What Napoleon Could Not Do, centers on two siblings, Jacob and Belinda Nti, who grew up in Ghana fantasizing about moving to America. While Belinda succeeds, moving to the United States for college before obtaining a law degree, Jacob remains in his home country, still living with his father as his visa requests are repeatedly denied by the American government. Belinda has accomplished “what Napoleon could not do,” according to their father. Over the course of the book, the love and shared ambitions that brought these two siblings together are tested under the pressure of dashed dreams and hopes set aside. 

Akshaya Raman
The Ivory Key

The Ivory Key is a rich world filled with interesting magic and characters. A young adult fantasy book filled with dangerous quests, secrets, and magic, it is a must read for fans of the genre. Vira, Ronak, Kaleb, and Riya are siblings who cannot get along. Separated by the different paths their lives have taken, they are forced to come together to search for the Ivory Key, said to be a new source of magic, something their kingdom desperately needs. In fact, magic is the only thing standing between Ashoka and war with the neighboring kingdoms.

Prince Harry
Spare

Debut memoirist Harry Windsor wants you to know that he’s more than just the husband to famed actress and podcaster Meghan Markle. He’s also a member—and recent defector—of England’s most prominent family. Spare debuts as Harry Windsor’s memoir, sharing the quest of one man to tell his own story despite his family’s protests. You might not know the Windsors yet, but the publication of this highly anticipated debut is sure to put Harry and his drama-filled lineage on the map.

Bachtyar Ali
The Last Pomegranate Tree

This novel from one of Iraq’s most celebrated authors, Bachtyar Ali, is a surreal father–son quest set in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s rule. The Last Pomegranate Tree tells the story of Muzafar-i Subhdam, a peshmerga fighter who goes looking for his son after spending 21 years in prison. Muzafar has not seen his child since his birth, and his journey to track down the boy, now a man, turns into a phantasmagorical allegory about the lengths a father must go to in order to rebuild his family in the aftermath of a massive trauma.