The Persian by David McCloskey

There is a new generation of ex-CIA analysts who turned into (very talented) spy (what else?) novels writers and them leaving the Agency enriched the choice of topics and settings of spy thrillers. Particularly when the topics they are writing about are burning the first pages of the media nowadays. When politics and politicians themselves are unable to make any sense of literally anything, maybe the ex-analyst can bring the much awaited clarity in a fictional key.

I haven´t read anything by David McCloskey before, but I´ve read some great recommendations about his work. The topic of his latest book - the intelligence war between Iran and Israel - is politically actual and interests me, therefore, I was grateful to have been offered the ARC of The Persian. 

Set between Iran and Israel, it is built around the Iranian Jew Kamran Esfahani´s final confession while in Evin Prison, waiting for his death sentence. Accepting to spy for Mossad for financial reasons, as he was in a professional dead end as a dental practitioner in Sweden, Kam is sharing the details of his recruitment and training, and his contribution to spectacular Mossad operations within Iran. (The meme-famous general Esmail Qaani is also part of the cast).

Although the story has a high percentage of spectacular moves and unexpected twists, the most important parts are actually concerning the human costs of espionage, particularly how simple life of family members can be for ever affected or at high risk. 

The writing is a pleasure for the soul, and it focuses so carefully to the smallest details, from the sound of the street to the colours of the crayons used to write the confession. 

But there is a part that didn´t work for me at all: the ending is way too syrupy for my spy taste. It just left me speechless but for all the wrong reasons.

Nevertheless, The Persian was a tensed, intelligent and knowledgeable read.  

Rating: 4 stars

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

99p. PROMO BLOG BLITZ: The Time of My Life by Samantha Tonge

If you are looking for a good summer read, that is happening in a summery destination, The Time of My Life by Samantha Tonge may be your right choice.  

Currently available for the ridiculous 99p. is about the meeting between two very different women and a couple of secrets. Carrie - 26, she is about to start a completely new life in Greece, leaving behind her old life and selling all her belongings, plus a cat. Eliza, about to celebrate her 75th birthday, is interested in buying everything from Carrie. And this is just the beginning of a story of friendship and many secrets.

It sounds like a tempting book to keep you busy when not busy to enjoy your summer time of your life.

Here is the purchase link: https://mybook.to/TheTimeofMyLife

Many thanks to Rachel from Rachel´s Random Resources for having me for this PROMO BLOG BLITZ.

Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri translated into English by Jhumpa Lahiri and Todd Portnowitz

There are authors that emotionally connect me with my carefree times, when reading and discovering myself through various languages were taking the most of my intellectual concerns - I am still doing it glutonously, but while I am taking much more personal and professional responsibility in other fields. One of them is Jhumpa Lahiri whose works I was reading in the morning only to be ready to discuss with my intellectual friends in the evenings. 

Long after, I followed her testimonies about learning a new language of writing, Italian, that she is using since regularly for writing her new books. My latest read by her doesn´t have anything to do with language, at least not directly, but was written in Italian: Roman Stories, a collection of nine very different stories, that she translated into English, together with Todd Portnowitz. 

I am having my very intense Italian moment right now, but I couldn´t find the book in the Italian version, therefore, I delighted into the English version. Also, I haven´t read short stories in a while, therefore this collection suited my relatively short attention span those days.

Rome - this is where ´Roman´ in the title comes from - is the very discrete background the stories are taking place. Sometimes, we may assume but the specificities of the city are in most cases not relevant for the story - although some residential details, the elegance of women and the summer parties may be. Therefore, there is nothing aimed at increasing your interest towards Rome. Rather, its focus is on human emotions that connect us beyond languages, social status and city of residence. All those are accidental, but the empathy or lack of, are what really define us.

One of my favorite stories in the collection is The Steps where several life-stanzas of individuals living at the top of a densely staired street are brought together, and finely intertwined. The individual stories however aren´t connected. What connects them - nameless characters - is the deep human context and the beautifully chiselled prose.  

Some part of the stories are emotionally demanding, dealing with loss and grief, racism and loneliness, but those feelings are so seamlessly tied to the plot that there is nothing out of place or forcing you to believe.

Roman Stories was a very insightful encounter with a world that shaped and encouraged me to keep doing what I always love: read and connect to beautifully written stories.

Rating: 4.5

Gaslight by Femi Kayode

While requested to investigate the disappearance of the wife of a powerful priest based in Lagos, accused of killing his wife, detective psychologist Philip Taiwo may get caught into the nets of corruption of the highst holy level. 

Gaslight by Nigerian writer Femi Kayode is the second in the series featuring detective Philip Taiwo and my first read by this author. Mixing investigation techniques with psychological observation and deep knowledge of the well oiled machine of local corruption, Gaslight is a paced murder mystery taking place in challenging circumstances.

The story - told by Taiwo himself - operates perfectly in the local environment, seamlessly adapting to it. Hence, the very authentic ambiance and the specific twists of the story that cannot make sense anywhere else. As a side thought, it shows how distorted the realities shaped by corruption of all kinds could be.

The suspense is built through the intermezzo of the fragments attributed to the victim preparing the unexpected dramatic ending.

Through Taiwo´s family story, especially her daughter challenges to adapt to the new school and social environment in general, there are also some no-crime related thoughts about beauty standards and self-acceptance worth considering.

I´ve enjoyed personally reading this book, also because I had the chance to discover a new Nigerian author, and new murder series that hopefully will continue soon.

Rating: 4 stars

Random Things Tours: Diagnosis or Death by Jake Lynch&Annabel McGoldrick

One may expect from books set in Oxford a bookish highly intellectual ambiance, maybe at the limit some exquisite noble mystery. But - surprise, suprise - in Oxford live very normal people as well, with everything that includes this category, including very mundane crimes.

As her colleague is unexpectedly killed, Janna Rose feels compelled to contribute to solving the investigation. A psychoterapist specialising in the very special Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy and a former journalist, she is ingeniously looking for hints and explanations, although she may need to cope with extremely complex challenges built by the malevolent use of AI.

Diagnonsis or Death by the Oxford-based BBC-trained journalists duo Jake Lynch and Annabel McGoldrick was a very interesting encounter both in terms of the writing as well as the subject. The second in the series featuring Janna - a blend of the authors´ names - but my first - it has a dense prose while bringing in the forefront topics like local corruption in the social housing and benefit fraud. The story in itself is engaging, but in subtext tries to explore the genesis of human motivation under different circumstances.

For me, it was a very intense read, while bringing up interesting topics in the very challenging context of new technologies. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

Lucky Girl by Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu

 ´I wanted to live a big life too´.

Some books may ignite mixed reactions in the reader, but the challenge may just encourage the precious critical thinking. 

Soila, the character of Lucky Girl, the debut novel of Kenyan-American writer Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu left for the US in order to break the control of her over-protective and over-achieving mother. As she is growing up as a person, writing her own life story and breaking with tradition, she is caught in the boiling cauldron of choices. She followed a career for the sake of her mother´s expectations, and she will keep practising it long after she regained her own independence until a personal turn of events will convince her to follow her passion for photography.

Although I enjoyed the story milestones and the main character, as well as the change of perspective between African Amerians and Africans on issues like race and priviledge and the insightful take on dementia, I had some issues regarding either the plot or the characters´ development.

For instance, Soila lacks consistency, and so do her relationships: we are told about she having boyfriends, but there is no story. 

But despite those shortcomings and my mixed reactions, I´ve learned some interesting intellectual nuances from Lucky Girl that will keep in mind when thinking about race and priviledge.

Rating: 3 stars

Lost in Mecca by Bothayna Al-Essa translated by Nada Faris

´Was there a hidden meaning behind this hell?´

Literary journeys are even most open minding as the simple discovery travel. They open up the eyes towards worlds we accepted to ignore, deeply diving into our own self-sufficient bubble. I am a passionate reader of elaborated crime novels but unfortunately, for many reasons - translation being one of them, my limited literary proficiency, another - I am mostly stuck into the European-North American realm. But I know there are so many brilliant ´noir´ authors outside this realm and Lost in Mecca by bestseller Kuwaiti author Bothayna El-Assa translated into English by Nada Faris encouraged me to be more determined in discovering different literary voices.

Last year I´ve read several reviews of the book and was on my TBR for a long time, but nothing prepared me for the deeply trauma valiantly told. 

Lost in Mecca is a story of a kidnapping. A little 7-year old boy of Kuwaiti origin is getting lost and subsequently kidnapped while being separated from his parents during the circumambulating the Kaaba in Mecca. The happy normality of a rich normal family trying to fulfill their duties is shaken by the realities of a world where survival is beyond any other human consideration. 

Told from different perspectives, including the shivering testimony of the kidnapped child´s, during less than three weeks chronologically, but within the framework of a fluid time, this is also a story of how life cannot go as usual after the encounter of tragedy. Belief is shaken, relationships are shaken, trust is eroded. 

The realities surrounding the circumstances are far from what we usually associate with when talking about rich countries like Saudi Arabia. A region where illegal immigration and human trafficking reaches peaks we aren´t aware of (as a side note though, some ´facts´ regarding organ trafficking/harvesting in the region may miss some double checking and rather follow some ideological patterns). As we are also rarely aware of the randomness of life in some parts of the world. In the book, one (bad) character asks the other (very bad) character: ´Is it really possible to live a life - normal life - away from the world we currently inhabit?´. It is a rhetorical question, but the answer may be that we rarely can. The - terrible - fate of the little boy - is an example. Moral compass may lead to hunger. 

I have another book by Bothayna Al-Essa on my TBR and definitely will read it in the next weeks, but as for now, I am deep in the thoughts ignited by Lost in Mecca. That´s how good books are shaking our mental comfort.

Rating: 4 stars