Ocean State Libraries

Hassan is a culinary ingenue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, his family settles in a quaint village in the south of France. They plan to open an Indian restaurant, that is, until Madame Mallory, the owner of a classical French restaurant, gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant so near her own escalate to all out war; until Hassan's cooking talent and love for Mme. Mallory's...

A hijacked jumbo jet blows apart high above the English Channel. Two figures, Gibreel and Saladin, are washed up on an English beach. Soon curious changes occur -Gibreel seems to have acquired a halo, while Saladin grows hooves and bumps at his temples.

Recently widowed Pival Sengupta books a trip Kolkota to New York and then on a cross-country journey to California, where she hopes to uncover the truth about her beloved son, Rahi. A year ago Rahi told his parents he was gay. As far as her husband Ram was concerned, Rahi died that day. But the tour guide, Satya, has never left the five boroughs. And the two will be accompanied by Rebecca Elliot, a young actress, is along for the ride as a chaperone....

First published serially in 1868, Wilkie Collins's "The Moonstone" is generally considered the first full length detective novel in the English language. The Moonstone, a large and valuable, yellow diamond, plundered from an Indian temple by Colonel Herncastle during the Siege of Seringapatam, is rumored to bring bad luck to its owner. The Colonel bequeathes the diamond to his niece Rachel Verinder on her eighteenth birthday. At her birthday party,...

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Europe and South Asia.
Winner of the 2008 PEN Beyond Margins Award.
Identity, friendship, and a long-hidden crime lie at the heart of Naeem Murr’s captivating novel about five friends growing up in a small 1950s Missouri river town. A contender for the Man Booker Prize, this exhilarating story beautifully evokes the extreme joys, as well as the dark and shameful desires, of childhood.
Young...

"The extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria's remarkable rule. When Abdul Karim, a young clerk, travels from India to participate in the Queen's Golden Jubilee, he is surprised to find favor with the Queen herself. As the Queen questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle all...

Late afternoon in a passport and visa office in California, nine people are in the office when an earthquake rips through the building trapping these nine together struggling to survive.

"One night, Elango has a dream that consumes him, driving him to give it shape. The potter is determined to create a terracotta horse whose beauty will be reason enough for its existence. Yet he cannot pin down from where it has galloped into his mind. The Mahabharata? The Trojan horse legend? His anonymous potter-ancestors? Once it{u2019}s finished, he does not know where his creation will belong. In a temple compound? Gracing a hotel lobby? Or should...

A woman is drawn back to her family and to a former lover in a time of crisis. Caught between two cultures and between her white fiance and her Asian first love, she must decide where her loyalty and her heart really belong.

Leaving a life marked by crippling setbacks and his father's doubt, in 1967 Singh arrived in America from India with only five dollars and the desire to claim his American dream. Faced with an entirely new culture, racism, and the lasting effects of disabling childhood injuries, through hard work and perseverance he overcame all odds. Here Singh reflects on his most memorable patients and his personal life. --