Ce Qui Est Perdu by Vincent Delecroix

 

With Small Boat shortlisted for this year Booker´s, Vincent Delecroix is another French author entering the main literary attention. I will most probably read the book in the original French version later, but for now I´ve started with another book by him, that received a good reception in the Francophone realm: Ce qui est perdu - What is lost, in my own translation.

It is a short book, a non-story about a man, whose name we are told halfway through the book is Vincent living in Paris, who is trying to write a book about the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard. He may know a bit of Danish but his efforts to overcome the heartbreak are just efforts. His failed professional and personal life are just a distraction, with no finality. But, philosophically speaking, does philosophy has a practical aim?

This is what will finally happen in the end of the story. The thought of writing and the apparent intellectual familiarity with the philosopher do distance himself for the physical person of the lover. Her letter, that he kept unopened until the right moment, got lost and lost is the way towards each other.

The writing is so sharply chiseled that I just got lost myself into the words. Everything falls in its right place.

I will definitely read more by Vincent Delecroix, a philosopher with a writer´s clarity.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Random Things Tours: The Penthouse by Catherine Cooper

 

Catherine Cooper is an author I´ve featured before on my blog and I am always happy to discover her intelligent twists. A luxury travel writer, her books always have an unique approach to human psychology. The Penthouse, her latest, is following the same complex narrative. However, this time was even more intense, which makes this book one of my favorites so far.

Enola, a rich and famous singer, disappeared suddenly 15 years ago. Now, the members of her band are back to Las Vegas for some concerts, but unfortunate events do affect their schedule and everyday lives. Suddenly, they may think that it has to do at a certain extent with Enola, but they are not prepared to the truth to be revealed to them.

The mystery regarding the case is permanently maintained, as there is an unnamed character who will add a perspective to the story during the coming and going of points of view shared by the different characters. The characters themselves seem to be plagued by deep inimities and jealousy, something to expect in the world of showbiz, but the extent of this is hard to estimate.

I may confess that I´ve found the book pretty addictive, keeping me focused for a long amount of time, playing the crime detective and trying to understand what exactly is happening and if there will be any follow-up regarding Enola´s fate.

The Penthouse is a recommended read to anyong in love with good thrillers, with a hint of mystery and deep insights into human nature. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Le Bastion des Larmes by Abdellah Taïa

 

I had the chance to encounter the nostalgic storytelling of Abdellah Taïa, but until Le Bastion des Larmes - the name of a fortification in Salé, Morocco, erected to counter the cruisaders - I´ve mostly read his books in various translations. Moroccan-born Taïa, who lives in Paris since the 1990s, is a voice in the French-speaking literature from Morocco, many of his books using autobiographical details.

Youssef, currently a teacher in France, returns to his native Salé following the death of his mother. As expected, he is facing fragments of his youth, memories of his opressive and abusive personal experience as a gay man. His return is a juxtaposition of encounters with people and objects, projected into personal journeys, particulary his sisters´, but also fragments of memories of his love interest, turned into a corrupt drug dealer, who made his way through the relationship with an important colonel.

Bastion des Larmes has a concise and evocative prose expressing through both ideas and short encounters the power of words. Through those well chosen words we are empathically brought close to a world mostly in disguise, about destinies broken by the violence of everyday indifference and cruelty. I am sure that will come back soon to this author, probably only in the original French language.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Compulsive Readers Blogtours: The Marriage Vendetta by Caroline Madden

 
Eliza´s world almost got broken into small little pieces as she received an anonymous photo of her dear husband, a career-oriented gentleman, together with another woman. He is her love and life and she wants to save her marriage above everything. A competent marriage therapist may be the best way to fix everything, but instead, it opens up a very dark box of revenge that instead of bringing up the couple together again, may lead to even darker places.

The Marriage Vendetta, the debut novel by Caroline Madden, is successfully going beyond the narrative that one may expect in such a story dynamics: stay-at-home unhappy mom and wife, freak-control successful man, a marriage based on an illusion of love. Instead, the psychological twists do add a different dimension to the story and definitely avoid the risk of the stereotype. 

I particularly liked Eliza, once a successful concert piano player, a character with a special human sensitivity although partially blinded by love. The manipulative role of the psychologist and the games aimed apparently to punish Richard are very interesting to observe, but at least at the beginning hard to appreciate if they are necessary or not and especially if they will lead to anything better, at least from Eliza´s perspective.

The Marriage Vendetta is a very promising debut novel, on a topic that it´s always open to new interpretations and takes. The funniest of all is that there is actually an US-based infidelity expert psychologist with the same name as the author´s. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Lovers of Franz K. by Burhan Sönmez translated by Sami Hêzil

 

Lovers of Franz K., first novel written in Kurdish by the current PEN International director Burhan Sönmez, translated into English by Sami Hêzil, is a crime mystery with an entincing literary touch. I´ve recently talked about the book, featuring the unique book cover, inspired by the Andy Warhol´s vision on the famous Jewish author, but this time I had the chance to delve into its subject.

Set in the troubled years of the end 1960s, when anti-establishment protests took over the world, it uses the Cold War tensions as the setting to a mysterious crime that may lead the reader to a forgotten - for a good reason - last Kafka´s manuscript. 

I am passionate about this historical period, and I was pleased by the well-researched background, both political and emotional of those times.

There are so many books inspired by Kafka lately - as an individual, as a writer, as a creator of unique characters - and I can only wonder if the times we are living are really calling for it. In the case of Lovers of Franz K. the big question opening has to do with the ways in which the works of an author do belong to the public, even though they may not actually agree to disclose its content for various reasons. In an age of public disclosure and obsessive transparency, should one get involed in revoking decisions about one´s own work, no matter how famous and how relevant for the history of literature that person is?

So many questions and ideas that I am trying to understand right now, introduced to the reader under the disguise of a very well written political crime novel. A book that appeals very well both the crime readers and...well, the lovers of Franz K., obviously.

The book is published by Open Borders Press, an imprint of Orenda Books.  

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Rachel´s Random Resources: Meet Me Under the Clock by Jo Lovett

 

A failed blind date, an unexpected accident of sorts at the iconic Waterloo station in London. Nadia meets Tom and they decide to play the ´fake date´ for the sake of their parents and acquintances. After all, everyone expects you to settle down in your 30s. A lovely connection that grows up by the day, as beautiful as a flower can freely grow.

Meet Me Under the Clock by Jo Lovett, an author I´ve featured before, it´s irresistible. I´ve read it in few hours, as I couldn´t keep my mind busy to anything until I´ve reached the end of the book. It´s so much hope and good hearted people, building beautiful bridges between people. For a bit, you may just forget all the wrongs of the world.

Nadia is by far my favorite character of the book. Optimistic, with a big heart, accepting failures as part of her life, analysing what is happening around her, especially her feelings. She gives the tone of the story, leading towards a better moment. People like her do really make a difference, and I wish there are more real life persons in this world like her.

If you are looking for a soothing read, this is the right book that will convince you maybe that love can appear from the most unexpected places. Just keep being good and genuine.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own  

Kukolka by Lana Lux

Even since I´ve read Jägerin und Sammlerin by Lana Lux, I planned to read her debut novel as well, but I am always overwhelmed by my TBR. Kukolka - in Ukainian, Little Doll, a term of endearment for beautiful women - waited around three years to awake my interest again. But once I started the book, I just couldn´t focus on anything else.

It is a book that will boil inside you for a very long time. While reading it was feeling the full blow of my own feelings towards the main character and her horrible circumstances. 

Samira is an orphan in the post-communist city of Dnepropetrovsk - we are randomly mentioned the city more than half into the story, while the country we can only doubt, as it is once mentioned the national currency, hryvnia. As her best friednd got adopted in Germany, she is dreaming to join her and one fateful night, she is literally running out of the orphanage to join her. 

But on the way to the train station, she got into the claws of Rocky, a local gang leader that will use her, altogether with other young orphans, to reach his aims: street singing, purses ´cleaning´ and other illegal actions. She joined when she was 7, lured by a promise of getting enough money to travel to Germany. In few years, there is another milestone happening, as she meets Dima, a charming young man, who will actually take her to Germany, but with what a price for her. 

The story is told by Samira herself, with the innocent voice of a child who is caught into a horrible life, but the only she ever knew. There is an expectation of abuse to happen, but nothing prepared me to the extent of it. The story grows in intensity, with Samira sharing unbearable details about her everyday cruelty, when she is not even 15 yo, but the voice remains kind and focused on the moment, without assuming that this could be the rest of her life. Despite the terrible reality, there are kind people who may accompany her although, at least for the time spent begging near the local central station, I kept asking myself why no one really noticed the street children? It feels at times unbearable to accept living on the same planet with child abusers. Indeed, the book is stirring so many intense feelings.

As many other books in German I´ve recently read, Kukolka deserves as well to be translated into English.

Rating: 4.5 stars