The discussion thread has arrived.
I would've liked to read any of the nominations (seems a running theme) but I was particularly drawn to The Tango Singer and Frankenstein in Baghdad this time round.
For The Tango Singer I, like the book protagonist, was an English-speaking foreigner living and working in Buenos Aires for a short time at the same time as the book takes place including before the inflation crisis and during the pots and pans protests/riots. I also visited tango cafes, listened to tango singers and learned to dance the authentic tango. And though I only talked about it with a few people there, I heard accounts of the dirty war and the disappearances. So the book description had a strange amount of similarities to my own experience (and I feel like I'm talking a bit too much about my real life here recently, but there it is, heh).
For Frankenstein in Baghdad, I read the original Frankenstein back in my schooldays. We even had to do a creative writing assignment about it, reimagining the book in another medium. However, I don't remember hardly anything about the novel itself apart from the major plot points. I also am not sure if Frankenstein in Baghdad is supposed to be a sort of peripheral reimagining of the original or not. Regardless, I thought it would be interesting to read this and see what sort of comparisons we may make to the original Shelley work.