A Different Kind of Father-Daughter Memoir

Actress, author and scenarist Andrea Sawatzki is sharing in her short yet pertinent memoir Brunnenstrasse her early childhood story as one of the main caregivers of his ailing father, journalist Günther Sawatzki. Once an important pen in the post-WWII German media landscape, at the time when Andrea and her mother, a nurse, joined him, he was already in decline, both financially and professionally. Much older than her mother, that he met while he was already married, 

Her memoir Brunnenstrasse is an important read for several reasons, one being for exposing the heavy weight of living with someone suffering from Alzheimer´s. The testimony is even more dramatic as shared through a children´s eyes. A child who instead of playing with his peers, was expected to take care of the erratic neads of a demented father. 

The book also shares family dynamics and especially children-parents relationships at the end of the 1970s in Germany, as well as the post-war mentality realm.

First and foremost though, Brunnenstrasse is a story of a girl that was taken out the chance of keep playing with her dolls. The dolls remained part of her life, but only as confidantes and witnesses of her hardships. The memoir is written in the voice of the little girl that once Andrea Sawatzki was and it succeeded very well in reproducing it.

I personally also loved not only the tone, but also the style of the writing, the precision and the choice of words, few but still able to evoke and share strong emotions.

Rating: 4.5 stars

 

Random Things Tours: Viper´s Dream by Jake Lamar

Viper´s Dream by American expatriate in Paris Jake Lamar is a complex story of self-betrayal and making all the right - and wrong - choices, set in Harlem in 1936 and 1961. Clyde ´The Viper´ Morton wanted once to make it big as a famous musician. But when he fails in the musical domain, the underword is ready to welcome him. But is this choice really worth ? How much should someone betray oneself in order to survive the failure of his or her own dreams?

Reading the book made me a bit nostalgic, as thinking about my years when I was breathing and drinking jazz, more than three times the day. Especially Thelonious Monk, a master of improvisation, who is having an appearance in the book, together with his ´belle extraordinaire´ Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter. 

There are many details about jazz history that may intimidate even the most dedicated jazz lover. For instance that Viper´s Dream - viper was the slang used to designate marijuana smokers - was written by Fletcher Allen and recorded by Django Reinhardt. 

But the musical part which offers a background to the story, as unexpected and spontaneous as the dialogue of instruments during a jam session, is only a part of the book. At the same time, a more deep piece is played, about making choices and assuming the consequences. 

Alert, poetic and with a direct take on life challenges, Viper´s Dream is beautifully written and request your full concentration to follow the story and the complex challenges of the characters. It also invites to add more jazz into our lives, and music in general. Definitely, we need more and more books inspired by a jazz theme.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Queens of the Underworld by Caitlin Davies

Women can be everything, right? Princesses, doctors, painters and...of course, crooks too...They can run drug cartels and order strategic killings and even kill themselves some persistent enemy.

Prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction books, Caitlin Davies investigated stories of women who dared to be successful in just another men´s domain: the unterworld. From the 17th century until today, based on well researched stories and finely selected examples, she is writing a unique history as never did before. Without judging, just exposing the facts, with the curiosity and desire to share the truth that journalists do usually have, as following stories and collecting information.

Based on archives, social history researches and direct interviews with family members of some of the women featured in the book, Queens of the Underworld offers not only a different take on women but also a completely new perspective on the history of the city of London. Some of the episodes automatically made me think of the dark yet historically relatable human moments in the history of the city. At the same time, it also offers a dramatic twists to the ways in which women histories were read and interpreted. Each of the women featured do have a history larger than life to share that take a different angle on the ways in which women´s role were shaped in the society, including the less desirable episodes of the history. Social history, including London´s, cannot be read without women, any kind of women, more or less representative for the Victorian standards.

The book is also available in audiobook format.

Recommended to anyone interested in untold women stories, no matter what they are revealing. It is also an example of topics that definitely need a more frontal approach, both in the fiction and non-fiction realm. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Blog Tour: The Bone House by Caroline Mitchell

A series of terrifying natural events are revealing an even scarrier secret. As birds are suddenly falling down from the sky and the local ecosystem around Slayton lake seems to go through a dramatic turmoil, the receding waters reveal a horrible crime: the remains of a baby in a pram.

Cora, a new mother, seems to know more about this and seems to finally be unable to hide a terrible secret any more. But how and why really all happened?

The Bone House by Caroline Mitchell, a Slayton Thriller, is a psychological thriller hard to put down. A former police detective, Mitchell included so many smart lines about forensic investigations and investigative proceedings in general that the book feels sometimes like a real crime story. And this is definitely not a critique. As usual in the case of the crime thrillers, we may always discover more about human psychology and facilitating such revelations in a relatively normal framework usually makes a story relatable.

The ´black magic´, out of this world references - like the birds falling out of the sky, a beginning worth a successful Hitchcock movie - takes the reader out from the world of forensics to the unchained strength of nature, where human rules do not apply. 

I also liked how the story unfolds through various narratives shared by the various protagonists of the story, a choice that definitely creates more suspense to the story.

The Bone House shares a horrible yet very human story that is troubling even the laws of nature. Fore sure, I will return to this author sooner than later.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Short Stories Book Review: Dahlia Season. Stories and a Novella by Myriam Gurba

 

I don´t remember any other year of my bookish life to have read so many (good and very good) collections of short stories. From one title to another I keep learning about the different arts of being able to convene so much in just a few pages. I love novels and long stories in general, but for someone with an slight to medium attention deficit like me, short stories may be more rewarding than (very) long novels.

Dahlia Season - stories & a novella - by Myrian Gurba is a fine collection of queer stories of coming of age, daring to be different and seeing the world as it is, sometimes cruel, sometimes hilarious. My favorite story is the one opening the collection, Cruising, which gives you exactly the sensation you may have when doing a cruise around, in this case the LA beyond the shining boulevards. From one place and person to another, you are moving slowly, creating a panorama in the making. 

Some of the stories are there for the plot, some for the characters which are strong and memorable, although not necessarily in the right context. Either one or another of the cases, there is hard to leave the stories without memorable fragments of characters or of stories. 

As I am about to read another collection of stories by Gurba - forthcoming -, as well as her true crime Mean, I can´t wait to discover and share more about this author.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Book Review: 1994 by Adlène Meddi

Set on the bloody background of the Algerian civil war, 1994 by Algerian author and journalist Adlène Meddi is both a political and crime novel. A group of young boys got together to (literally) fight the extremist ´Brothers´ as part of the clandestine organisation. Able to escape the vigilent eyes of the military intelligence, they are more than adventurous kids looking for an adventure; their splitted identities, dramatically exposed, as the proof of their generational trauma.

The book paints a detailed portrait of the generation coming of age in the mid-1990s and although a subplot follows the clandestine stories and their fight against the system, the descriptive-historically driven part is in my opinion the most successful part of the book. The writing is journalistically right, avoiding additional flourishing and focused on the phenomenon instead. 

Indeed, there may be a temptation of the political journalist to rather expose the facts than create suspenseful actions. Nevertheless the book is an important literary testimony told in a literary form. Algerian literature has so much to say both in terms of topics and diversity of authors. It is a richness that deserves much more attention.  

Rating: 3 stars

Corylus Books Blog Tour: Skin Deep by Antonia Lassa translated by Jacky Collins

 

Crime fiction does not speak too often Spanish. Corylus Books is breaking again the silence promoting crime stories from countries that rarely make it into the big predominantly English-speaking market. 

This time, they published an intriguing crime novella Skin Deep (Llevar en la piel) by Antonia Lassa - the pen name of Luisa Etxenike, translated from Spanish by Jacky Collins. A gem of a novel that made me feel guilty though for not searching too seriously other crime fiction writers outside the English realm.

Although written in Spanish - the author herself lives in Paris -, the action of the story takes place in France, in Biarritz and Paris. Following the murder of a wealthy lady, a criminal is apparently found and is about to spend time in prison. But is he really the one who committed the crime? Intrepid Inspector Canonne dares to differ and is challenging the institutional truth to find out the true killer, a dangerous journey taking him to the darkest corners of the French underworld.

Very precise and building up suspense with the highest care, Skin Deep plays both on the society and human dimensions, revealing and playing with both weaknesses and sense of responsibility. The author has an acute sense of observation, using human behaviors and social contexts to nurture a contemporary story. 

I am definitely interested to read more by Lassa, and until a new translation will be available, I am decided to upgrade my Spanish as much as it is needed to be able to enjoy another delightful crime fiction experience.

Noteworthy to mention the outstanding black-and-white book cover, which perfectly resonates with the story.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Thirty Days in Paris by Veronica Henry

There is not an irrealistic stereotype to assume that travel both changes and challenges someone. As someone who used to travel the world fast and passionately, I confirm that there is not a better feeling than when you discover a new place. And when this place is called Paris, I can´t resist it, either to visit or to read books set them, trying to get my inspiration for my next trip. Yeah, I know that not everything about Paris means romance, however, I cannot be romantic in Paris.

Juliet, the main character of Thirty Days in Paris by bestseller author Veronica Henry is back in the city where thirty years ago left a piece of her heart. Divorced and with grown up children, she takes the first train from London and heads to her rented room near Notre Dame. Curious, with a positive attitude and ready to find out the piece of herself that identifies with the city, she is getting back to herself, her plans and dreams.

The novel is fully escapist but in a gentle pleasant way, which does not ignore the struggles and sensitivities of a broken heart. What pleased me the most was the detailed descriptions of Paris, that one can feel it while reading, as you are there with the book characters.

For lovers of Paris and romance, Thirty Days in Paris looks like a perfect escape, just in time after the strikes are taking a break and summer holidays are coming. Because Paris is always a good idea...

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

A intergenerational dense story, set between Australia and Sri Lanka, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Australian author and social activist Shankari Chandran, challenges the myth of Australian diversity and cultural consensus. 

Cinnamon Gardens is a nursering home, the project of a couple exiled to Australia escaping the Sri Lankan civil war. But as a status of cpt. Cook is toppled from the ground of the nursing home, the cultural cohesion endeavoured by the founders is broken into tiny shreds, which are further breaking into small poisonous pieces the projections of equality, diversity and tolerance.

The topic is inquisitive but the tone is lyrical, far from being too ideological or shockingly provocative. From the flow of the story, a massive account following a dense timeline, the readers are given the chance to judge by themselves the episodes and draw their own conclusions. 

The plot is very complex and sometimes hard to keep the pace with, delving into important topics for the everyday Australian society balance, such as race inequality and discrimination or trauma. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

Book Review: Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux translated by Alyson L. Strayer

 

The re-written diary of a year of passion with a Soviet diplomat in Paris in the last years of the Soviet Union, Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux, translated from French by Alyson L. Strayer, and published by Fitzcarraldo Editions sounded for me a bit different compared to other works by Ernaux I´ve read until now. 

It lacks the global perception of political events that I appreciated so dearly in The Years and has a more fragmentary character, mostly diary entries, unfiltered passions put on paper, shortly oder later after the encounters with S. It also has the mark of time, a stamp of desperation for getting older and out of the reach of passion. Thus, the passions are dissected in a more existential way, as signs of her own´s entrance into the old age, out of passion, out of desire. 

´To lose a man´s to age several years in a fell swoop, grow older by all the time that did not pass when he was there, and the imagined years to come´. There is a desperate emptiness of time being out of love, a sadness of the flesh and lack of focus of the mind. There is a certain confusion of feelings, caught between passion and the post-making love mixed feelings. ´After all, he came here to my home, he sometimes said ´I love you´, he desired me, a lot...´

The part that for me was by far the most interesting in this book concerns the extensive mention of her dreams.

Ernaux, almost fifty, divorced with two grown up sons, met S. on a trip to Soviet Union in 1988, organised for French writers. Their relationship, probably not exclusive, continued for one year almost, with she waiting for him to be called from a public phone to be announced his couple of hours short visits. Sometimes, they met at events at the Soviet embassy. She found out that he left the country after calling herself the embassy. However, she sent him a post card to the embassy from Abu Dhabi. He was married and she met his wife once or two.

I had recently the chance to hear some recordings collected on Antologie Sonore du Socialisme, a selection of French-speaking oral archives about the socialism - and communism as well. At the society level in France, there is an obvious sympathy or even belief in the ideas that were freely distributed later - in a more or less distorted way - by the Soviet Union. The representative of French intelligentsia, among which Ernaux, were definitely on this side of history, although the diary, and no other book I´ve read by her for now, do not obviously pledge a political cause. She has some doubts once in a while that her lover may have some KGB-esque involvement. Indeed, love may make you blind and why should I expect a real engagement of ideas when passion is always stronger. 

It is only passion featured in this book and it may be so the way things are sometimes. My mind is too political sometimes and I expect some hard political conversation after the act of love is consumed. There is none and although I may continue to be a big fan of Ernaux, I may have some ideological doubts on the left way of thinking and passionately living. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Random Things Tours: The Acapulco by Simone Buchholz translated by Rachel Ward

A serial killer targetting the dancers in a club in the red district is on the loose in Hamburg and it seems that until he is found, there is no safe place for women. Chastity Riley though is decided to find him, by trying to get into the criminal´s mind. A terrific yet possible challenge.

The Acapulco by German crime writer Simone Buchholz is part of the series featuring the ingenious and stubborn woman detective. The book was initially published earlier in German as Revolverherz and was especially re-written for being published by Orenda Books, in the inspired translation by Rachel Ward. The book is somehow in the middle of the series but one can understand what it is all about and personality details of Chastity from this first encounter only, without necessarily getting back to the whole series. However, after this first encounter a real lover of crime novels will not miss any single volume from the series, because the writing is addictive and the action is both eventful and prepared with a smart pinch of good humour.

Germany crime writing is very well represented those days, but very often it does not go outside the German speaking realm. Buchholz is definitely one of the most articulated among the women writers for her sense of humour as well as the sharp minds of the women characters.

Riley is stubborn and with a sharp mind, and her journey of finding the criminal is challenging from the point of view of the solution(s) endeavoured. I also loved that a woman was assigned a main role in the crime finding riddle. There are never enough women whose super powers are enough recognized. Literature is important in changing the mindsets and usual stereotypes about women.

A special note to the cover which is just in complete sync with the content of the book. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Dark Mode by Ashley Kalagian Blunt

Inspired by the famous Black Dahlia true crime, Dark Mode by Ashley Kalagian Blunt is a thrilling psychological novel. Exploring topics related to social and online media exposure, it re-enacts fears and obsessions in a way that doesn´t let the reader breath until the end of the story.

When a terrible crime was discovered in Sydney, Reagan Carsen, a normal person with an outside the radar daily life is terrified. There is one and only detail that makes her fear for her life: the victim looks like her. But whom is she afraid of? And why? Nothing seems to be the same any more...

I personally love this book from the beginning until the end. The author is building and re-building normal details, projected into a reality of fear(s). Reagan´s life was changed but what is hiding behind her relatively normal everyday life?

I could not stop asking questions after questions while reading this book. Not all of them were answered, but every question is in fact a pathway to a new revelation and therefore a new level of fear. Fears are part of our human genome, but modern life amplified them as it magnifies the risks.

Dark Mode is the book to keep reading when you are looking for a ride into modern life and dark web, crime and fears. It may be a little rough sometimes, but definitely a ride worth taking it, as long as it enfolds in the realm of literature. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb

A novel about drama and passion in the blurry world of Hollywood, Strangers in the Night by historical fiction writer Heather Webb is not only very well documented, but equally empathic. Being famous comes with a course, of not being able to enjoy privacy of any kind, a curse affecting your loved ones as well. 

Built around the passionate in- and off- relationship between Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, the story rebuilts empathically in the literary realm known episodes of the love story, while keeping enough space for the imagined moments. Thus, the perfect fine balance between fiction and historical facts. For a work of historical fiction, this balance is very important, as the reader may expect not a full historical records of facts - that can be found anyway in a history book - 

Gardner and Sinatra were married for around 6 years. It was Gardner´s third and last marriage, out of her many loves. For Sinatra, she was his second, out of four marriages. Personally, I was not familiar their love story and with many episodes of it as well, but the book made me curious to find out more. What was really important for me was to read a creative novel about their love and from this point of view, definitely, it answered my literary curiosity. Most importantly, it helped me to have a different perspective of love and relationships under the limelights of Hollywood.

A recommended read to anyone keen to have a look over the American showbiz through the equally captivating story of Sinatra and Gartner.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Childhood by Nathalie Sarraute

 

I hope I am not exaggerating when saying that French women writers like Annie Ernaux or Nathalie Sarraute revolutionized the ways in which memoirs are written, how memory is reproduced into the later literary, worded transposition of ideas.

Childhood/Enfance by Nathalie Sarraute is written as a dialogue between the author and her questioning self, as she is mostly randomly bringing back to life fragments of life as a child split between two cultures and languages - Russian and French. The memorialistic aspect of her writing, the so-called ´memoir´ is more than a transcription of facts for resisting the passing of time; it is in fact a re-enacting of thoughts she had about her past, a memory of the memories she preserved at different levels of subjective perception, from the early childhood until her literary age at the time of the writing.

However, through questioning, she is breaking the train of homogenous, over-subjective writing. Questioning helps her to challenge her own narrative, that may be further subject to change, as the ideas and the memory of the memory changes itself. 

Childhood is a rich book both in terms of method and content, a literary example and a unique story of a child caught in-between languages, parents and historical occurrences. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Book Review: Stone Dreams by Akram Aylisli

´If a single candle were lighted for every murdered Armenian, the light from these candles would be brighter than that of the moon´.

The literature from the post-Soviet realm is largely underrated, not only for linguistic reasons. The political priorities in the post-Cold War may be way too random to offer enough space and interest to the variety of subjects, many of very local, specific nature. 

One of the more underrepresented from the underrepresented post-Soviet literature is, by far, the Azeri one. To be honest, before hearing about Stone Dreams - Steinträume, in the translation to German from Russian by Annelore Nitschke - I have no idea about any single author from this country. 

Akram Aylisli is however an author that by writing this book created a huge controversy that put him on the black political list. After writing this book, which frontally touch upon extremely sensitive topics for the post-Soviet political life in Azerbaijan, Aylisli switched from being a ´People´s Writer´ to being a paria, attacked physically and verbally by the establishment. His fault: talking about the fate of Armenians in his country, especially the pogroms after the dismatlement of the Soviet Union.

The actor Saday Sadykhly dies following injuries he suffered for being took for an Armenian. We are in the year 1989 to 1990 and Sadykhly took upon himself more than once the task of defending the Armenians under attack following the Nakorno-Karabach conflict. 

The small realm of the conflict is the village of Aylis - the author´s pen name is inspired by it, as he was born there as Akram Najaf oglu Naibov. Hurting and killing Armenians turns to the inhabitans as a curse. What if this would be really happening in real life! Maybe crimes against fellow humans will stop by fear of losing one´s mind!

Stone Dreams is an important contribution to political literature that although touches upon extremely sensitive topics, maintains its literary value for the strength of the wording. It also made me very curious about exploring more literature from this country, and from the post-Soviet realm in general. 

Rating: 4 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: The Assistant by Amanda Reynolds

A catchy psychological thriller from the very first lines, The Assistant by bestseller author Amanda Reynolds takes us to a ride in the world of influencers and fast money. I am fascinated by the social media stardom and how it affects everyday life encounters, therefore for me the book was more than a thriller reading.

Set in the posh environment of Belgravia, in London, it follows Larissa (Ris) Fox, a former waitress that married into big money, living in a multi-million house with a dream of a life, and Gail Frost, her assistant who was entrusted to manage her schedule and contacts, insidiously taking over her life and secrets.

The novel is built based on a double thread, the story evolving in a malefic crescendo until the final revelation(s). Although it is hard to find any ´good guys´ in this story, the characters are very much realistic and easy to represent in real life. I liked the way it explores the strong influence of envy into the decisions of the main characters. 

The story, built on an exchange of emails, first person confessions and diary fragments, is obsessive and tensed, hard to put down and suspenseful. I didn´t know what to expect from this book, and was maybe sure there will be some gossipy hints and some mystery for the entertainment, but ended up really appreciating the style and the smart way in which a relatively mundate topic was turned into an unforgettable piece of a thriller. Particularly the last quarter of the book challenged any possible assumptions about where the story may lead to. Although I´ve found sometimes the pace a bit too slow for a thriller, it was nevertheless worth waiting for the ending.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

´La Plus Secrète Mémoire des Hommes'

 

Dedicated to the memory of the Malian author Yambo Ouloguem and inspired by his life, La Plus Secrète Mémoire des Hommes, 2021 Prix Goncourt laureate, by Senegalais author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr is a constant questioning about where literature and life meet and what are their limits and limitations. 

Obsessively tracing a mysterious author with a successful first novel, later accused of plagiat, a young author born in Senegal and living in France is caught into a labyrinth of lies and deceival and secret lives of real people and their imaginary characters. The writing is dense with fragments of lives interceding from one story to another and a self-ironic tone which balances the seriousness of the ideas.

The writing is very concise, able to evoke thousands of history of literature and colonialism in just few lines. The characters do have a strong and curious and sensual nature. 

I always love stories about mysterious writers and long lost books and the literary mysteries surrounding their recovery. This book has also a strong historical (especially of colonial nature) background therefore double interesting both as topic and as literary interpretation. 

The questioning of how life and writing world meet, if ever, is an eternal literary question with an inerent tension known to anyone familiar with the world of words. Mohamed Mbougar Sarr turned the question into a parable of literary mastery and strength, with some mystery touches and a good ressemblances to South-American reveries. 

A book I will long after reading keep thinking about.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Random Things Tours: Stay, Daughter by Yasmin Azad

All over the world in all cultures and religions, with no exception, women should fight for their rights to be seen. And much more than that: the right to be allowed to same jobs and on same positions as men, for being allowed to be educated and freely chose their spouse.

Yasmin Azad is an unique voice of Muslim women in Sri Lanka. Among the first of being allowed to go to university, after graduation she soon went to the US where worked for 20 years as mental health counsellor. Her ´Memoir of a Muslim Girlhood´ Stay, Daughter is not only a detailed story of coming of age, but also an important testimony about the social structures and interaction within the muslim community of Sri Lanka, particularly in Galle Fort. 

Faced with the everyday challenges of modernity, each community may counter-react. The male-dominant culture may persist even after a conservative society accepted to open up to the world. Changes though cannot be kept under control, they follow their own rules. In some patriarchal contexts, men may not give up easily their priviledges and although already open up to change, they cannot accept having lost their predominance. The testimonies in this respect shared in this memoir are therefore relevant also from the sociological point of view.

I especially loved the tone of the memoir, in addition to the careful and well researched details. In the case of a memoir rotted in the everyday reality, recording the author´s evolution in the midst of social change, such details are very important.

I haven´t heard too many voices from Sri Lanka, therefore I was interested in more than one reason in the Yasmin Azad´s memoir. The reading only made me more curious to explore more of this country, especially in cultural terms.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Short Stories Book Review: Out of Time by Samira Azzam

A collection of human portraits, the short stories of Samira Azzam translated by Ranya Abdelrahman in Out of Time, published at the end of the last year by are precious fragments of a small universe. 

No longer than maximum three pages, each story are humanly insightful, revealing a traditional social fabric through very unique characters. While reading those stories, I felt like staying on a chair in the front of a home while watching different people moving back and forth, carrying on their more or less heavy stories on their shoulders. The tone is often set as a personal account, a first person testimony of loss, betrayal, sadness but also of solidarity.

´How miserable the dreams of the penniless!´

Social messages are strong and the display of the Palestinian social disparities and dislocation is a recurrent topic in the stories. The social fabric is revealed through those small microcosme, worlds within worlds within worlds. 

Most characters are women, under the power of tradition or chosing to fight for their love instead. They have secrets and do built their own net of trust against or despite the society´s dismayal for them. 

One of my favorite pleasure of reading Samira Azzam stories was to follow the steps building up the story. The tension builds up in the most unexpected way, although the method is always the same and at a certain extent predictable. The ways in which the story fills in brings on the surprise and in the end, the reading pleasure of each of her stories. 

The translation of the short stories by Samira Azzam, a translator, radio host and short stories writer whose life was cut too short by a heart attack before she could finish her first novel, is an important milestone featuring Palestinian authors. 

Rating: 4 stars

Book Review: Y/N by Esther Yi

 

For a short time during my final high-school years, I´ve met a girl who was obsessed with Axl Rose. It was before the time of the Facebook and Instagram and Internet in general, therefore all her information she got was from BRAVO. Her obsession was sickening, ending up being sure that she was talking with him and he was waiting for her and he was meant to be her one and only. I have no idea what happened with this girl, but I am more than convinced that at the time, if she would have the option to take a transatlantic flight to meet him and wait to propose, she would have done it without second thoughts.  

The unnamed 29 yo woman protagonist of Esther Yi´s novel Y/N fell in love overnight with a K-pop star named Moon - in a band where the members do wear names of the planets from the solar system - and following his mysterious decision of disappearing from public eyes´ she takes a flight to Seoul to find him.

After reading some stories about the over emotional realm surrounding K-pop bands, particularly the male protagonists, and being familiar with at least one case of star addiction, However, questioning every single line the sanity of this whole world comes as ´normal´. People may do many things out of boredom, and falling in love with a K-pop star is one of the less dangerous enterprises. No more ´screen emptiness´, but a bit of human - ´normal´ - excitement, as falling in love. 

Questioning emotions and their limits - ´Was love for Moon an universal human emotion?´ - although may sound very basic is the counter of a world without emotions, lost in the technical being and the fake realm of emotions. We are emotionally displaced those days and sometimes it is a wonder that we still can call ourselves humans. Social media - the Instagram lives, for instance - dissipate the distance between us and stars, makes us feel part of their world in a comfortable way. Why not think about falling in love with someone whose messages you like or comment on social media?

In addition to the very beautiful writing, the novel - which I had access to in audiobook format, read by actress Greta Jung of Modern Family and Chicago Med - also has an extraordinary black-and-white cover. Born and educated in the US, Esther Yi currently lives in Berlin.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Book Review: Sweetest Fruits by Monique Truong translated into German by Claudia Wenner

It´s a fascinating question to ask about the fate of authors and their books. What occurrence brought some into the limelights one day, to be almost completely forgotten for hundreds of years to come? Lefcadio Hearn used to be a famous travel writer, a companion of the likes of Poe, Mark Twain and RL Stevenson. Nowadays though he is heardly known, outside of Japan - who always celebrates the gaijins enamorated in their culture and in the state of Louisiana, where he lived.

Vietnam-born, US-educated Monique Truong brought his memory back to life as told by women that crossed paths with him. I´ve read the book in the German translation from English by Claudia Wenner, 

Three women are sharing their stories, they are becoming stories of his story. Spread on three continents, they are the silent voices from Hearn´s life and love story. Never been famous, nevertheless they were the reasons why he took the pathways in his personal and professional life. 

Women are forgotten when we are sharing a big story of a big person. The wives are accidentally mentioned, as per the Wikipedia format, for instance, but they may be important if they supported their men financially. Sometimes but not necessarily the reason why they are once in a while present into the story. 

The three women featured in Truong´s book do give voice to the voiceless, and I am grateful for this new literary line in women literature. The amplitude and details of the three monologues do bring the story onto a different path, seeking light and clarity, while putting together the pieces of a life puzzle that cannot be completed and fully understood without them. A literary point that wish is more often used in case of many more nonfiction takes. 

Rating: 4 stars

Random Things Tours: The Lazarus Solution by Kjell Ola Dahl translated by Don Barlett

 

When I´ve read for the first time a book authored by Kjell Ola Dahl, I promised myself to continue keeping up with this Norwegian author, whose style and topics made me very curious further exploring. I was given the chance again for his latest translation into English, also done by Don Barlett, The Lazarus Solution, published by Orenda Books. 

I did not know exactly what to expect, but as usually in such cases, I was pleasantly surprised. A combination of historical fiction and genuine Nordic Noir, the book is built around an incident set in the 1943: following the killing of a courier for Sweden´s Press and Military Office, the Norwegian Government appointed a writer to find the missing documents. An unusual task for an unusual person, maybe the last properly qualified for such a sensitive military task. But special situations require exceptional character and the writer, the main storyteller, seems to have fit fast into the important role.

Historical fiction with a touch of thriller is sometimes hard to create, due to the constraints of the historical layer that may stop the expansion of the thriller story too far away from the reality realm. But in this case, it seems like Kjell Ola Dahl is literary dancing with the historical facts, skillfully using them in moderate portions to serve the general aim of creating a thriller story touching upon very sensitive political and geopolitical topics - such as, for instance, the Swedish-Norwegian animosities, ignited during the hardship of the WWII. 

A recommended read to anyone interested to have a good taste of historical fiction read in a thriller key. Just another example of extraordinary Nordic Noir creativity.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Rachel´s Random Resources: Thanks for Sharing by Eleanore Tucker

Recently, the mother of my son´s friend showed me a colourful modern looking bike her son proudly drove. Curious, I asked her shyly how much did it cost, aware that for such gadgets, one should be prepare to pay a relatively high price. To my surprise, she answered that using this bike costs around 17 Euro per month, for the rental. Confused but pleasantly surprised - as in why I never thought about it before I couldn´t imagined that someone was smart enough to create such a convenient method to use objects without necessarily owning them. When you have a child in full growing process, paying humongous amount of money for things that should be shortly replaced as no more fitting is a waste of money. Paying the rent for a bike that after 8 months should be changed is a smart investment without necessarily owning anything.

In Thanks for Sharing, Eleonore Tucker provides many more examples in this respect, aimed at creating an affordable, sustainable and practical way of life. Beyond the financial advantages of using such an approach, there is a hidden philosophy question that everyone will try to answer after reading this book, which is: Is it really worth to own things?

The modern life is no more suited for the accumulation of things, but for experiencing life in its diversity. The adepts of the noman lifestyle need few things to move from one place to another, in their plans of trying to own the world. Giving up owning for the easier and most convenient options of borrowing - mostly for free - or renting are smart moves against the overcrowded spaces with different kinds of objects. Some may be emotionally important for us, but what about all the junk that we refuse to give up on?

Thanks for Sharing is the handbook preparation for a new lifestyle and also a new type of person that rather focus on life than on what frames life. Having enough money to rent different kind of objects that do have a clear practical role announces a different mentality switch and therefore a different fo set of values guiding his or her life.

A very recommended read to anyone up to making a dramatic life-change into a more sustainable direction. 

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Murder Under the Tuscan Sun by Rachel Rhys

 

One may usually associate a castle in Tuscany with love and romance - I will rather suspect some dark secrets in a German castle - but in Murder Under the Tuscan Sun by Rachel Rhys - the pen name of Tamar Cohen - expect the unexpected. 

A local intrigue and a family feud, displaying an extremely diverse and sometimes awkward cast of characters with an English widow who was looking for forgetting the tragic death of both her husband and her daughter, the story exposes a game of lies and smoking mirrors. Expect Gothic suspense and mysterious threats through the walls, everything set against the background of a picturesque scenery.

The book has the pace and the touch of a classical mystery, although the book looks mostly as out of time. I was partly disappointed by the slow pace, but the construction of the mystery and the thread leading to the solution compensated largely this shortcoming according to my fast forward taste.

Historical mysteries are rare those days, but Murder Under the Tuscan Sun succeeds to balance the two sides of the story without forcing the reader to delve too much into the historical part and forcing too much the mystery. The two directions of the story are coming up naturally, completing each other. 

Definitely, I am curious about reading more books by Rhys, besides being more than keen to visit Tuscany, any time soon. I will definitely be paying some high attention in case I am tempted to spend some time in a castle, as it may lead to the exact opposite of a fairy tale.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Another Collection of Short Stories: The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín has a direct way of going directly through the most painful and deep feelings a human can experience: lost, loneliness, regrets. He is not suggesting them, but is building the tension of the novel - or, in the case of my latest read The Empty Family, the short stories - around that feeling which is reproduced and on the other side of the book, experienced by the reader itself.

Even if there is a limited amount of feelings that are exemplified in the stories - lost, return, loneliness, lost occasions, coming at terms with regrets - the stories do have diverse characters and ways to express and experience them. The pace is slow but calculated, in a way that serves the aim to be revealed later, mostly at the end of the story. 

I loved Brooklyn because in general immigrations stories do teach us a lot about our own immigrant story too, but the micro-universe of those stories from The Empty Family are a different level of realistic writing. Those stories will stay with me for a long time, both as emotions and chain of events.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Why We Need More Translations

 

There are insidious ways of how and particularly why translations are made. Definitely, publishing a translation, especially of a book without a direct ´public appeal´, talking about a world that does not represent too much for the world outside the book, may be a risk in financial terms. But the world of letters may go a bit beyond some calculations, no matter how important they are. It has to do at a certain extent with the mission of the intellectual, which means to live in and for the world of ideas - spreading them, analysing them, creating them. What about translators who are doing their job of bringing to the public books whose only fault is that they were not approaching popular or easy topics, or maybe no topics at all, but nevertheless are extremely precious from the literary point of view. 

Russian translations are not easy and the topics may be geographically contained, but the beauty of the Russian literature is stronger than this. If you had the chance to read Daniil Charms or Andrej Belyj, you know what I am talking about. What a blessing it is to have translators who brought to the non-Russian literary realm such jewels. 

But translators comes in different shades and...obviously, languages. With the chairs of ´Slavic´ languages closing shortly at the end of the Cold War in America, there is a gap digged up in terms of linguisting language. There are always native speakers from the former Soviet Union still around, but still, soon there may not be enough.

Hopefully, there are Russian translators in Europe, who acquired their knowledge in different -sometimes Cold War - context, mostly Germany and France, but also in the former Eastern European communist countries like Hungary and less, in Romania. Knowing an extra one or two languages besides English may always help. I am not grateful enough for the chance of learning German in the last ten years - and counting - particularly for the access to a pool of translated works from very diverse languages, from Russian (again) to Azeri or Armenian and Georgian. 

This is how I was able to read recently the massive debut - and only actually it was another novel published posthumously and there is a collection of short stories in Hebrew not yet translated anyway -  novel by Alexander Goldstein Denk am Famagusta/Remember Famagusta translated into German by film and movie director and Moscow-educated translator Regine Kühn. 

Instilled with personal encounters as a Soviet-born Jew from Tallinn to Baku and then to Tel Aviv this book epitomizes the multi-faceted destinies of the Soviet citizen, told in a story which mixes well Gogol with the humour of Bulgakov. But this is the first layer of understanding the inter-textuality and dense story of the novel. Finding more about it require intensive thinking and most probably first-hand knowledge of the context and histories the story is placed. This familiarity of the writer with his material may be impenetrable for the readers though, and so are the references of intimate cultural nature the characters, from a sufi wise man, to an underground Christian Orthodox, to an Armenian gladiator. The cast of characters is as dense as the story told wich all its confusing pathways and understanding keys spread all over the story. 

If one needs - and should in fact - read this novel at least twice, it also for the references that are so much needed and the senses that definitely are lost for ever in translation. But as my Russian skills are more than basic, I have to check for other translations - if any - hoping that one day someone will have the biggest chutzpe to do a translation into English, no matter the ´financial´ risk of such an entreprise.