Visit this page to pick up book recommendations from fellow St. Louisans (and our friends). The contributor may be sharing a currently read book, a favorite book from their youth, an all-time favorite or even one that the individual considers life changing! This page will be regularly updated to include additional book recommendations so please visit it again and again.
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Rick Simoncelli
Rick has been president of the St. Louis Public Library Foundation since April 2003 and has worked in the area of non-profit administration since 1976. He is an avid reader of fiction. His literary goal is to write book reviews for the Post-Dispatch.
A Fine Balance (1995)
by Rohintin Mistry
This story is based in 1975 in an unnamed Indian city, teeming with poverty and beggars. The backdrop of the novel is the Emergency period and the insensitivity of Indira Gandhi's government, which included forced sterilization campaigns and the imprisonment of parliamentary opposition as well as thousands of students, teachers, trade unionists and journalists. Mistry, Indian-born and now a Canadian resident, places his four central characters in this decaying city. Through dramatic and often shocking turns their lives take, we get an overwhelming view of their personal worlds as well as that of India itself.
This book was short listed for the 1996 Booker Prize. It is one of the most staggering and heartfelt books I have ever read.