Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel

Once I fell for an author, I´m unable to resist reading in a row all their works. The Ensemble by Aja Gabel was one of my highlights of the extremely tormented year of 2020. Six years after, I grabbed her latest, Lightbreakers from a library´s shelf, hungry for a new literary encounter. With a cover like this, no matter the author and the title, I would have anyway stop more than a couple of seconds to think about a book.

Maya is an artist and Noah a quantum physicist. As he accepted a mysterious offer from an excentric investor to test a time travel machine in Marfa, Texas, their relationship is being shattered by the persistence of memories of his deceased daughter and the life he had before they met. As he slowly realized he is part of a wider experiment, Noah acknowledgingly accepts the escape from a past - alongside with his ex-wife, also a scientist by vocation, Eileen - and leaves the secret lab to continue his life in the present where Maya exists.

There are few genres that do leave me completely cold, and one of them is time travel-related. I do travel, I love history - or historical facts to be more precise - but I have no feelings for this type of escapism facilitated by science. And Lightbreakers is mostly built around the time travel story, as Noah is repeatedly returning to his life before, when his daughter was alive, saving scraps of memory, more or less processed by his present self. 

From the scientific point of view, this time travel solution - chemically induced - doesn´t sound very strong and spectacular either. But forgive the high expectations of an apprentice of time travel adventures.

But besides those parts - which slowed my reading pace, because just felt stuck, unable to utter any credible judgement of value - the writing is beautiful, immersive and deeply empathic. It´s like in some parts, the author herself is bearing with us, the non-professional readers, offering some slice of beauty despite the aversity to the main pretext of the story. 

I will hurry up anyway to read anything Gabel writes, but maybe will check twice if some SF/dystopic-related topics are addressed, just to lower the expectations.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Berlinoise by Wilfried N'Sondé

Book set in Berlin must definitely have a story of two with before and after - the Wall, end of WWII, both. It is a literary stereotype that does not necessarily reflects nowadays what people, especially young people see their own histories and present life. In the end, it depends on the ratio of the books set in Berlin you may read. Maybe my ratio is too high, hence the ennui...

Berlinoise by Wilfriend N'Sondé - alongside another book that will hopefully review soon - was chosen for the language, not the topic. I am longing for more French-ness in my literary life - and not only - therefore the irresistible desire to read more in this language - especially after spending most of my summer vacation time improving my Italian. 

This is a short yet passionate novel, a kind of Education sentimentale of a young French musician, landing to Berlin in the last day of 1989, getting to know Maya, a tormented East-Germany born artist, with whom he will passionately live the moment until her decision two years after to leave for the county of her father, Cuba - as in real life, literary characters are allowed to make bad decisions as well. 

The passionate story is set on the background of the own political passions shaking the newly reunited Germany, such as the outburst of racial violence and the omnious overpresence of skinheads and Neo-Nazi groups and the frequent deadly attacks against migrants.

I did not know what exactly to expect from this book but besides the literary stereotypes I´ve mentioned before, I enjoyed the reading and the concision of the style, and the story wasn´t that bad after all. I am looking forward to my next book by this author, who returned to France after spending a long time in Berlin working in the field of social assistance.

Rating: 3 stars

Land Where I Flee by Prajwal Parajuly

Four grown-up grandchildren are gathering from London and US on the occasion of chaurasi - the celebration of the 84th birthday - of their strong-willed grandmother Chitralekha in a region in India with a stong Nepalese minority. A hilarious dysfunctional family  with whom we are invited to spend about a week together.

Land Where I Flee by Nepalese-Indian author Prajwal Parajuly has a cast of very unique characters that are into a lot of unexpected, morally doubtful situations - created by them or just casting - while rich in cultural and historical details about this part of India. 

It may be just another book about a dysfunctional family, due to the conflict between ´Westernization´ and local traditions - the grandchildren mostly speak English to each other. Who will buy a read a book about ´normal´ people, anyway? But I´ve personally read about some of the interactions between characters laughing out loud and took note about many of the cultural and traditional remarks I clearly was not familiar about.

I can easily see this book serialized, as it keeps a soap opera glamour and state of permanent crisis. The choice of reading was completely random, but felt like I was right with my choice as now I have some new cultural topics to think about it.

Landd Where I Flee is a recommended read for any curious reader looking to discover some special ideas and traditions of Nepalese in India.

Rating: 3 stars

Random Things Tours: Wasteland Girls by Anna Bailey

 

I love short stories, particularly those powerful enough to evocate world in just few pages. The precision and attention to detail, while building characters and elaborating sometimes complex story structures are particular writing skills in itself. 

Those thoughts were generated by my latest reading of a short story collection, Wasteland Girls by Anna Bailey. Ten stories about relationships, human connection set against the very specific North American context. 

It connects both lives and worlds, particular landscapes and timelines, through the expression of deep, sometimes violent, human feelings. I was particularly drawn by the ambiance of the specific places where the action is taking part, but also about the ways in which it sometimes resonates with the personality and emotional status of the characters.

Each story is a well chiselled world in itself, keeping the reader constantly connected, including through unexpected twists that do surprise, shock or just put you back on the reading track.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: The Lover by Mary Watson

A bit over a year of reading The Cleaner, South-African bestseller author Mary Watson is back with a mind-wrecking story about dangerous love.

Hallie and Rafe, the main characters in her latest, The Lover, were two people in love, an illicit love though, that they may rekindle. Rafe is Hallie´s boss as well, a charming and intelligent man who gives you reason to dream of happiness. But one day, Hallie wakes up with her murdered lover on the other side of the bed. She is the one to have seen her alive, hence she may be the main suspect? But what dark episodes was he hiding?

I´ve read this book with few breaks in between, unable to get my mind out of this book. It follows the rules of a classical whodunnit, but it builds more suspense and action, and the mystery surrounding the case is hard to decipher. 

There is a high tension that increases towards the end of the story, as more personal details are revealed, displaying, as usually happens, a less perfect lifeframe as expected, especially in the case of Rafe. The details are carefully built building relevance and adding twists that are magnifying the circumstances. 

For me, it was a passionate read that I always appreciate, especially when I have plenty of time to delve into the thriller, betting my horses on different ends - which, in this case, were all wrong. I usually love when a book challenge me to ask question after question, and this was fortunately the case with The Lover. 

Rating: 5 stars

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

The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

I can count on one hand the amount of books set in Asia under the Japanese occupation. For various traumatic reasons, such topics are rarely approached both in Japan and the countries who were the direct victims of it. 

The Storm We Made, the debut novel by Malaysian author Vanessa Chan, reflects the terrible events of the Japanese occupation through the experiences of an average family. The mother, Cecily, turns into an accidental spy, driven by her own ambitions to be considered an equal partner and equal of a man she fells obsessively in love with. Part of her temptation to spy, providing the Japanese with documents stolen from her husband, a middle employee at a local company, was also the escape from a boring life. 

The children of Alcantara family, whose voices are adding individual layers to the story, are dramatically affected by the duress of times, but also through their small individual decision may determine the fate of the others and of the society as well.

The writing is entincing, making you to want to know what happened with the characters, particularly Abel, although for some of the children characters, like Jasmin, her voice was way too strong for her young age of 8. 

The Storm We Made is a well-researched work of historical fiction that hopefully will be followed by more similar novels. As the traumatic moments are becoming more distant, so is the clarity brought by the separation, leaving more space for finding inspiration for bold stories.

Rating: 4 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: The Novel Detective by Teresa Dovalpage

Teresa, the main character is The Novel Detective by Cuban-American writer Teresa Dovalpage is having a successful active life in the States, when she is requested by a former high-school colleague to return back to Cuba in order to investigate the suspicious death of a former professor.  

As a mystery author, she may have also a professional interest into the story, but feels also intrigued by Estrella´s involvement into the case. She may accept the challenge, which open up some interesting plot directions. Her return may bring her back to her early teenage years and her curious interests. 

The Novel Detective smartly combines the passion for classical mysteries with the Latin- and Central American magical realism. It is a rare encounters, but such a welcomed diversion from the usual literary canon. The references to the two Cubas - in the 1980s and now, inspired by the author´s own experiences - create a very complex frame for a story that cannot be separated from the geographical and political context that generated it.

The diversity of perspectives shared in the story as well as the rich timelines created an interesting story that will clearly think about for a long time. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

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