Passport to the Page: Seven Continents, Seven Stories

Stories can take us anywhere in the world. In this list of books from the Blind Low Vision NZ Library, we highlight seven books, each linked to a different continent. From the icy landscapes of Antarctica to the bustling cities of Sri Lanka, these books offer a taste of life, culture, and adventure from across the globe. Let your imagination travel as you explore this unique collection. 

Africa

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Tambu grew up on her family’s farm within a traditional society. Her determination to receive an education, however, brings her into contact with British colonialism in the form of mission schools. As an African woman, Tambu comes to understand that oppression has many forms, literally and figuratively. She tells of her cousin Nyasha, raised in England and brought back to Zimbabwe who, unable to live in either culture, self-destructively turns her struggle inward. Tambu talks of how she herself has changed. Despite the pain and oppression that she has witnessed, Tambu loves her country. Book number 091553. 

Antarctica

Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica by Rebecca Priestley

In an account of a deeply personal tour of Antarctica in 2011 – a trip that coincided with the centenary of Robert Falcon Scott’s fateful trek to the South Pole – the author reflects on what Antarctica can tell us about earth’s future and asks whether people even belong in this fragile, otherworldly place. She also reflects on her anxiety for the future of the world as we know it and for the humanity in view of the current political and climatic conditions. Book number 133372. 

Asia

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler, and closet queen, has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. At a time when scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts who cluster around him can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. Book number 141584. 

Europe

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris. When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighbourhood so she can memorise it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, they flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast. In Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, becomes a master at building and fixing radios; a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth and into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. Book number 087195. 

North America

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one, Calvin Evans, who falls in love with her mind. True chemistry results. Like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but also the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking proves revolutionary, but as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because, as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo. Book number 141623. 

South America

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez 

The rise and fall, birth and death, of the mythical town of Macondo, somewhere in Latin America, through characterizations of the Buendia family. The variety of life and the search for peace and truth are universal themes that dominate the novel. Book number 142607. 

Oceania

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood is on the move. A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass in the South Island of New Zealand, cutting off the town of Thorndike, leaving a sizable farm abandoned. This land offers an opportunity to Birnam Wood, a guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. But they hadn’t figured on the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine, who also has an interest in the place… Book number 141581. 

Do you like the books we’ve recommended? Let us know what you think by emailing communications@blindlowvision.org.nz or calling 0800 24 33 33. Did you know you too can review, recommend, and request books from the Blind Low Vision NZ Library? To get involved, visit our Getting it Done Online Library page on our website or call 0800 24 33 33. If you’re new to the Blind Low Vision NZ Library you can access these titles and many more, for free, by signing up. Call 0800 24 33 33 or email library@blindlowvision.org.nz to get started.