Book Review: Palast der Miserablen by Abbas Khider

 

I can´t stand books or authors or simple decision makers or simple readers who are just assuming - or trying to convince the others for very simplistic advertising reasons - how fantastic and blessed we are for reading and producing books. The books of the kind ´Reading Lolita in...´, particularly countries or cities where people may have an above the average level of literacy is misleading. Reducing the Middle East to ethnic conflicts and religious fanatics is a cartoonish take on a very active intellectual environment. The surprising thing may be that people there may risk their freedom and even their life for the sake of the written word, freedom and independent publishing.

Abbas Khider was born in Iraq, joined various anti-Saddam movements and went several times to prison before arriving to Germany where he studied, lives and writes. I had access to his 2020 book, Palast der Miserablen in audiobook format, narrated in the original German language, with emphasis and talent, by the actor Torsten Flassig. 

The book has two parts, both accounted by the first-person storyteller Sham Hussein. At the beginning, Shams Hussein is a child moving from the South of Iraq to a suburb of Baghdad ´Saddam city´. His parents decided to move due of the war - Iraq-Iran war - and looking for better opportunities but it does not happen. They end up living near a garbage pile and Sham starts working from an early age. The new world is more hostile, impersonal and imbued with the personality cult of Saddam and his Baathist institutional repression. The children voice is very well represented. 

Next, Sham discovers the fascination of books and reunites toghether with other literature lovers. But books do open minds and pushes the spirit to strive for freedom. A mind opened by the books cannot stand idle to the repression. And there are so many books that are read in Baghdad, among others Jacques Lacan and the structuralism. There is a long street in Baghdad, Mutanabbi (named after the 10th century Iraqi poet al-Mutanabbi), filled with bookstores. People love their books in the Middle East. Sham´s companions may recite better from Kafka and Pushkin than from the imams.

The background is always changing, but for the worse. There is the invasion of Kuwait, and after that Operation Desert Storm and people are moving or waiting to move, to Beirut or Jordan or anywhere where is less blood. 

Palast der Miserablen is a novel of coming of age in the Iraq and Baghdad of the 1980s-1990s, with an omnipresent Saddam and tea houses and forbidden books. The ending is rough and dramatic and ends with a broken conscience. 

I always experience a particular intellectual joy when I discover a new author as it opens a door towards a new world - geographically and intellectually. I do have another book by Khider, also in German, that I hope to read and review soon. 

As for now, that´s how I am able to meet my Middle East, through words and books and imaginary worlds.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources Tours: The Whisker Twitchers by Kathy Tallentire

 

How beautiful is the world of children books! Although I am reading books no matter the age they are designed for, the innocence and purity of the children books is where I feel at home the best. Writing a children book, as an adult, requires such a dramatic immersion into the world of the little ones just at the very beginning of their journey of discovery. Therefore, I think that writing an inspiring children book is one of the hardest assignments even for the most experienced writers. 

I´ve read The Whisker Twitchers, a beautiful bunny story by Kathy Tallentire, illustrated by Becky Stout, several times. Twice to my 6 yo son, and at least twice for myself. We can´t get enough of it, as the match between the story and the illustrations is so perfect that you feel it as a very real encouter. (Except that I am not ready to run through the snow, not yet). 

The impact of reading it is such great that I could easily figure out a short movie featuring the loveable bunnies. All of them, not only the main characters of the book.

Bella is a curious little bunny spending a lot of time with his grandfather. She is small and wants to learn everything, but sometimes the adults are not so good at explaining things. One needs to follow and watch them or just learn by him- or herself. This is what Bella will do in the end, but his beloved grandpa will help up a little bit to read the secret language of whisker twitchers. A language whose knowledge will open her the door towards the world of nature, with changing seasons and landscapes.

The only part of the book that was a bit too rough for me, was the abrupt beginning of the story, as it comes out of nowhere with no preparation or previous introduction for the rest of events to unfold, but it is a good trick after all, as it keeps the reader - particularly the one lacking the patience of the literate adult - interested until the end. Which unfortunately comes too fast, but makes sense in the economy of the story as such.  

The lovely illustrations and simple story written using an easy yet useful vocabulary are very resourceful, especially for a preschool-first grade children. In addition to the pure literary experience, it may also make children curious to learn the behavior of animals, particularly how do they figure out the weather changes and the non-verbal communication in general.

Both parents, kindergartens and schools can consider The Whisker Twitchers as a good addition to their library. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

German Book Review: Daheim by Judith Hermann

 

Daheim means largely home, but it involves in fact the feeling of belonging. Phenomenologically, it may be translated as ´the feeling of being at home´, of being part of a place. Of sharing something of more than a comfortable nature with a place. It is more than a construction which you can call home, a geographical address. It refers to a specific configuration of the soul. 

The woman character of Daheim by Judith Hermann is voicing a lack of belonging. Although she is decomposing and recomposing her emotional and physical environment she is experiencing on a daily basis. The people, and the pieces of furniture and the memories. 

Hermann, who read the audiobook I had access to, wrote short stories before and the talent to focus on the small stories of micro-events is visible. The book is made of small stories added to other small stories and encounters and everyday observations. It is one of those books where the voice of the storyteller matters more than the storytelling act in itself. There is a succession of banalities, small encounters from an average life. A woman who left everything behind and moved in the North of Germany, with a grown up daughter who moved away, writing letters to her ex-husband. Connected with other humans on a very random basis. 

I may be against this type of loneliness. I was talking with someone very dear to me the other day about how people in Western Europe or America are rather happy to set up walls and borders and ´me time´ and miss that deep feeling of friendship and connection that, indeed, may take away some of your personal time and space, but why are you living for? A life of loneliness and ´me time´? What´s the meaning of all this...

But I understood the type of loneliness featured in Daheim. It is rather an alienation, an unempathic daily life. All goes on, every day more or less the same, we go through life making simple observations, accounting for our small gesture, and one day all is gone, and we are gone and that´s no ´butterfly effect´ of our presence. 

There is nothing wrong with this book, and I appreciated to listen to it read by the author. But other people´s loneliness hurts too.

Rating: 3 stars

Random Things Tours: Journey to the Moon and Other Stories by Ed Goodwin

 

As an early very avid literate reader, I liked less the fairy tales than the stories with real children set in real contemporary times. I would not refuse myself the pleasure of a djinn or dwarf or some lillyfee after all, but what I really adored were to discover character that eventually I can emulate or be inspired by.

Ed Goodwin´s Journey to the Moon and Other Stories has a bit of both. The very young - first, second year of school - reader will discover a mother, a father and their two daughters Suzie and Connie with a relatively normal life. However, there is at least one creative cloud flying over their homes, pouring rainy drops of imagination into their lives. 

´That evening the girls asked about going to the moon again´...

Still, they approach the adventurous episodes in their lives with the highest seriosity and pragmatism. For instance, when they are planning a trip to the moon. There are so many things to take into consideration, and the planning takes time, but still, the dream of the journey goes on.

The same, when Horsey, the unicorn disappears, the girls, together with their parents, should find a way to bring her back. It´s not like she can disappear like that, without a trace.

The style is so fresh and simple, with a lot of creative takes, but still very much settled on the ground. My kind of stories, if you ask me. I liked how the characters are maintained and developed through the stories: two curious girls looking for some adventures, accompanied by their equally courageous parents. A great read for intrepid children ready to start their adventure in life - and school too.

Goodwin, a retired IT project manager living in Coventry, was inspired to write Journey to the Moon and Other Stories by his five young grandchildren during the lockdown. I am looking forward to more beautiful children books from him. Both children and their parents need more such adventurous stories. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Family Instructions Upon Release by Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod

 

The grief of dealing with the suicide trauma cannot easily put into words easily. The proper use of the words is lacking because we are rarely prepare for it. We cannot document, research, evaluate and compare the words. We need to mourn and figure out how to explain the void of the person who just left us. We may feel guilty as well, for not being fast enough or informed enough or empathic enough to save him or her. 

But what are words needed for in such a case? Other than for our own internal emotional use...Words are nothing actually. They are just the living proof of our failure.

Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod lost her father to suicide in 2012. 

´He was found after he took a fistful of pills,

deciding Death would take away pain´.

I can think about Family Instructions Upon Release as being read on a sober, deep, slow paced voice. Using fragments of both Twelve Angry Men and Fact Sheet 4 - Suicide and Self Harm it outlines a story. Of life and decision to die. His father´s.

The author´s choice is at the intersection of tropes and even the visual positioning of the letters and the words they are creating. The format and the content, both are unexpected, as there are the sources of inspiration. It seems like the words are flowing sometimes in the same direction with the memory, sometimes against it. Sometimes, they just spring up, out of the author´s control. This is how the map of life and death is set. The life and death of a man that decided to end up his life.

There is a limited dictionary and words are not all - in the everyday and literary life as well. But there is the lack of words who is leading to depression and hopelessness. The grief has its own language and Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod - my first ever writer from New Zealand - created a both visual and wording mix which corresponds to the moment. It defines and tries to explain the moment, in its both emotional and literary complexity.

Writers and artists do have their own ways in coping with trauma and unexpected traumatic events in general. They have the power to substract the essence of all it and share their experience with the rest of the world. While being a contribution to the world literary heritage through the experiences shared and formalised, it helps at the same time the rest of us, the readers, to see the world and life, even in its deepest saddest moment, through different eyes. 

The cover is an elegant rendition of the wordings.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Blackout by Simon Scarrow

 

Berlin, Germany, end of 1939. In the middle of the long, harsh and dark German winter, a hole of darkness is about to open. A winter that will last more than a season. There are blackouts taking place all over the city, regularly. And suddently, there are corpses. In the long night of humanity, dark holes are vacuuming away any chance of goodness.

Blackout, the latest book of the bestseller historical fiction writer Simon Scarrow, is a historical murder mystery set in Nazi Germany. ´Politicians would come and go, but there would always be criminals´. Criminal inspector Horst Schenke, not a member of the Party, is coordinating the searches for the culprit, and has to deal with a whole lot of Nazi officials of different ranks and colours. Not intimidated, he keeps going, no matter the pressures and the showing off. The murderer hunting women ´under the cover of the blackout´ should be found as fast as possible, before he is making more victims. It is a run against the clock, although overall the pace of the book remains too relaxed compared to the intentions of the characters.

The writing is methodical, well researched and creates an ambiance relying on historical facts and details. However, I had the feeling often that the authors is walking on historical tiptoes which it is in fact no shortcoming, given the heavy weight of the timeline. At the end of the volume, there is a short historical essays delineating the non-fiction context, and a map of Berlin marking the main locations where the story takes place creates a geographical familiarity, especially for the reader who does not have the chance to cross those places on a regular basis. 

As for the crime story, it advances slowly but firmly and it´s solved in the last part of the book. The narrative is neither spectacular or complex but relies on a specific context and historical moment. Therefore, it accumulates an inherent tension of a moment which has multiple meanings - based on the specific historical and political moment, the specific characters and their unique personalities, the common stories they are involved into.

Blackout is a good read for anyone passionate about both historical fiction and murder mysteries. For someone like me, living in Berlin and at a certain extent interested in WWII histories, it offers an interesting literary take within a terrible historical period of time and on a specific place. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: I Have Something to Tell You by Susan Lewis

 

´I have something to tell you...´ rarely ends up good. This simple saying means more than the opening for sharing a secret, it often hides betrayal, disappointment and treason. I suppose not too many couples survive such a moment of truth. Maybe they actually should not go beyond that very moment anyway. Would you trust someone who betrayed you?

Jessica Wells is a successful lawyer who suddenly is requested personally to assist architect and property developer Edward Blake, accused of killing his wife. But this is not Edward who has something to tell her, but her beloved husband, Tom, who betrayed already her trust once, not so long ago.

I Have Something to Tell You, the latest book by successful writer Susan Lewis is unexpected in the sense of the ways in which we are tempted to trust those very close to us. How else can we live with and near other humans otherwise? What sense does it make to live with the fear of distrusting anyone around us? However, there are even more questions the reading of this book prompted to: what push humans to hurt each other, not only physically, but also by betraying the one who trusted us their life. 

Jessica, by far the most complex character in the book, has to deal with all those questions and her decisions are guided not by anger or the thought of revenge, but by honour and self-respect. After all, when we put a price on our honour, no matter what other will do to us, we will always stay the same, as humans of honour and moral integrity.

From the literary point of view, the negative characters in the book as well are well built and do play very well their role within the construction of the story. All the characters are complex particularly from the point of view of their capacity to chose and look back to their past mischievous episodes.

I particularly liked how the twists are occuring when one expects less. Although the pace is not always too alert - the beginning, for instance, is relatively slow paced for my taste - the surprises took place at the right moments in the most unexpected circumstances and ways.

I Have Something to Tell You is a book where you have to watch out for every detail as in the end, all those small bits of information are coming back together. Although there are sad truths told and hearts are broken, it is a side of the human behavior and character which is revealed. Each and every one of us has the choice of doing good. Or the opposite of it.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

The Voiceless Anger of the Exile Longing

´Ca fait rien

C´est un Algérien

qui travaille beaucoup

et qui mange rien´.

Some countries are more exposed to the brain drain than the others. Some countries do really have an unhappy destiny. A destiny marked by grievances, trauma, wars, extremism, alienation of the elites, wars again, poverty, a lot of poverty, often as the result of the widespread corruption.

The Algerian-born Kateb Yacine is considered as one of the most important voices of the Algerian literature. Involved in various journalistic projects, mostly with an independence, socialist and anti-colonialist orientation, he died in France in 1989. Le Polygone Etoilé - translated into English as The Star-Shaped Polygone - which I had access in the original French language, is considered the founding book of the modern Algerian literature.

Although I am not so knowledgeable in the field of Algerian literature - there is only one other author from this country I am acquainted with, Yasmina Khadra - its timeline is revelatory for a time of tremendous political, social and economic challenges and complexities. It is a relatively short read, but very intense and counting a big number of characters, most of them only transitioning from a point from Algeria to France. This is what is mostly happening in this book, anyway: people desperate to go on the other side, with no hope to come back. 

This ´other side´ means searching for a job, less paid but at least a guarantee for a different life. Life ´on the other side´ is not good, it is frustrating and humiliating, but is less anger and misery compared to the place from where they are coming from. It is a permanent coming and going of bodies, feelings, sadness. No one is happy or want to be happy. Instead, each and every one of the characters wants to be out, out of the world that made them so sad, only to increase their sadness in a country where no one want them. Again, the same story, only that the second choice is empty of all emotions and familiarity. Once on the road, they left behind everything. Nothing expect them on the end destination of their boat.

Many among those who were forced for so many reasons to leave their countries of birth may recognize themselves in this book. It´s the book of the rootless and displaced, of those made voiceless by anger. Somewhere, mid-way, I am there too.

A very special feature of the book, from the literary point of view, is the repeated occurence of poetry and prose. I definitely love the poetic intermezzo more because it resonates so much with the heart of the wanderer.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Random Things Tours: In the Silence Long Forgotten, Almod Trees Blossom by David BP Mayne

 

How do you chose your next read? By me, if I do not have to rely on book reviews and other bookish recommendations, a great cover and an inspiring title can easy convince me to give up everything I do - and read - right now and embark on a new reading adventure. Sometimes I am wrong, sometimes the beautiful title and the graphic representation of the book match perfectly together with an unforgettable story. 

Now, think about the poetic world enclosed in the following title: In the Silence Long-Forgotten, Almond Trees Blossom. I am not aware if it is a quote from a poet, more or less known, or it´s just the choice of the author, David BP Mayne. It is such a fine choice of words that is a story in itself, this title. 

In addition to the title, there is the monocolour cover, which appeals to a Romantic representation of history and geography. With that title on that cover you can only dream of a book like no other you´ve ever read before.

And, indeed, it is a very different kind of read, including for someone like me who is reading almost everything, except vampire stories and...science fiction. In fact, in this case, the first impression was so powerful that I had to put on hold the second rule for the time being.

The action of the book starts in 1980s and continues late in the future, in the 2031 (only 10 years left until then, so it is not such a far away time destination, after all). Jack Meredith is a geologist working in Libya. He got into trouble and is saved from prison by a gorgeous lady of Greek-Libyan heritage, Bushra. She is wealthy and charming and a very strong woman, but not even their two children will keep them together. They part ways and so the children: Emma will follow his father to London while Stavros will stay in North Africa. Things are getting more and more interesting - at least for me, a very passionate humble reader of international political combinations - as we are entering a very interesting stage of the story: there is a new Cold War about to begin and it´s playground is this time the Mediterranean Sea. The old new player is, as usual, Russia who is about to take over the part of Libya featured in the book - Cyrenaica.

In the realm of the international trouble, there is time for a reunion between both the brother and sister, as well as between the old lovers. The game is again on the emotional ground, where love, betrayal and passion meet. Plus, Stavros is now involved in organising the resistance again the Russian occupation.

I did my best to not be so bitter and overcritical with the geopolitical part of the story, but somehow felt that there are nowadays so many realistic projections and reasons to worry that you don´t need a dystopian environment to set up your story. Russia always kept a strong feet in Libya, with the exotic - for us, in the West - bloody tyrant Muammar al-Gaddafi being considered one of the strongest ally of the Soviet Union. 

However, the story needed some extra-excitement and definitely those development are dramatic enough to magnify the personal relations and stories. And this human part was, for me, by far, the most interesting one. Most of the main characters do have a drop of self-destruction, strength and craziness that make both humans and fictional alive. Both Jack and Bushra are complex and standalone and very strong willed - therefore their mismatch. 

What I think it is also important to mention in the case of this beautifully titled book - In the Silence Long Forgotten, Almond Trees Blossom - is that it brings Libya, a North African country with such a rich historical heritage and so much political bad luck, into the English-speaking narrative. At least, it pushes the reader to do some additional searches about this country and particularly the region featured in the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Ghosts of the West by Alec Marsh

 

If you are following my blog posts regularly, you may know that I believe in good thrillers. Particularly if set in the current era, with the thrills and roller coasting involved by the new technologies - yes, a bit of hacking makes everything tastier those days. Thrillers set in a different century, even a couple of decades ago, I may be a bit skeptical about. But recommendations those days are so important and can easily change anyone tastes in a clickbait. 

The good recommendations received by Ghosts of the West by Alec Marsh encouraged me to give a serious try to this book. Set in the end of 1930s Britain, it starts with the investigation of a grave-robbery (the most despicable kind of robberies and I would rather not share too many details about it, for pure decency reasons). In charge with finding the culprits, there are two curious investigators, Drabble and Harris. As for me it was the first encounter with the series and Alec Marsh in general, I was not privy to the two, as I was not familiar with the usual topics the author approaches in his previous thrillers - Rule Britannia and Enemy of the Raj. In fact, not having read the two was not a big issue in understanding and following the story. However, if I would have read more by Marsh before I would not have been so surprised by the global take took by the search for the cuprits. 

In fact, the West from the title stands for Western, ´wild West´, that world of imagination populated by the exoticised ´Indians´. This is where the story will lead in the end, from one Empire about to die to a different kind of Empire who is about to get born. Different challenges, almost the same abitrary and unempathic attitude towards the ´natives´ of the lands took into possesion for different reasons. Although there are many differences who are standing against a complete comparisons between the two empires, Ghosts of the West succeeds to display a world in collision, a struggle for the global political and economic survival. 

All this started with a despicable grave robbery.

The story is relatively short, written with precision for both the characters development and the narrative creation. 

I loved the book more than I expected and, at least for once, allowed me to appreciate a thriller with a very smart historical and even geopolitical twist. It made me think a lot about empires and how humans can survive them, and how influential they are in shaping long term mentalities and thinking habits. 

A special note to the cover which can be read in key, giving some gentle hints about the symbols and threads to expect in the book.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Daughters of War by Dinah Jefferies

 

There are normal times and extraordinary times - when ´extraordinary´ does not always mean ´good´. People may stay the same, only their character features are put on trial or polished by the extraordinary circumstances. The way they are though is there, expecting the right or wrong circumstances to manifest.

Daughters of War, the latest book by the bestseller author Dinah Jefferies, is exactly about those kinds of circumstances and people who are influenced by it. Three sisters - Hélène, Florence and Elise - are living in Dordogne, France. It is 1944, and France is at often at the meeting point of war confrontations of all kinds. There is the Maquis, the Resistance movement, and the Brits as well as the Germans and the French Army itself who may interfer with the story during the timeline. The three sisters are under pressure to outlive their times, but not as passive actors, but as becoming - in their own particular ways - actors of history itself. 

The story enfolds slowly, giving time and space to the characters to develop. The darkness of war time is lightened by the transformations the characters - the women characters particularly - are undergoing. The dialogues are creating the proper ambiance which is completed by background storytelling exposing the hardships of the WWII and the Nazi-occupied France. The net of the story is knitted from one point of view to another, expanding the expectations and the possibilities.

Each of the three sisters are very well profiled and I loved the diversity of the points of view they reflected. The fact that they are forced to take decisions outlined their character features and their personalities. Besides their dialogues and interactions, the internal thoughts are outlining the full character features of the characters. Personally, I would have expected more bold action on their behalf and more stubborness in acting on behalf of the good, but as in real life, I should learn being tolerant and patient with the reasons why some people are just different from me. 

Writing about those times is very sensitive and I had often the feeling that the author remained evasive and more focused on the characters than on the events as such on purpose. However, the writing and storytelling are irresistible and the reading experience is up to the expectations. I´ve read previous books by Jefferies before and the genuine empathic and approachable writing style is entincing for any kind of book lover. It is a guarantee of a story well told, no matter how difficult the circumstances are.

Reading Daughters of War is a special literary journey I am glad I was offered the opportunity to be part of. This new encounter with the writings of Dinah Jefferies are a reminder that I may have on my Kindle some of her books that are worth reading rather sooner than later.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Book Review: The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem

 

None of my Muslim in Middle East, Europe or America are in an arranged marriage. Many of them are my age or older but also younger. Although there may be a certain pressure towards getting married, especially people my age will rather do what they want and when they want with their future and bodies. There may be matchmaker or relatives keen to help finding a match - and this is the case in my community as well - but turning marriage into the sole topic of concern of non-Western parents is largely cartoonish. Personally, I don´t believe it is such a terrific prospect, including among traditional families.

From this perspective, The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem is misrepresenting and exaggerating things. A young lady from an Indian Muslim family, a teacher by career, living in LA, is facing an ultimatum from his family. She is the only child, 26, successful and in love with her profession, with a fairly amount of friends and pretty. In order to make her parents happy, she gave herself three months - 3! - to find a convenient match to get marry. Honestly, not even my conservative relatives in Boro Park will consider three months as a realistic timeline to get a serious partner for marriage.

But Leila Abid is doing her best and is dating assiduously: online matches, doctors, suggestions from relatives, even speed dating (which is for me the most distasteful way of matchmaking, but well...) To be honest, at a certain point it sounded like the timeline was misleading as the amount of time dedicated to a match or another was not topping up the final count of the weeks. Anyway, it is not so clear what the content of the potential man she was looking for, but for sure the looks were important. For a 26yo living in LA she sounded very childish, way too childish, no matter how conservative her family was. She was not living in a ghetto, but was exposed enough to media and books to look for more than love at first sight.

After trip to India to attend a cousin´s wedding, another misplaced love interest later, Leila returns back home, with the 3-month deadline looming, and while celebrating the 30-year wedding anniversary of her parents, she announced publicly her decision to first find her worth and her own path in life instead of letting other people define her through the eventual match offered. Well said, Leila, I am so happy for you!

All being said, the book is not so terribly sad and bad, and the ending gives hope. Just the entaglements and the awkwardness of the dates is largely disappointing. I am glad that in the last decade there is so much diversity into romance books, but maybe it is about time to go one step further and present normal people - as the big majority of the people my generation - looking for love, friendship and family bonds without the expectations of the large public for arranged marriage, naive women and monomanic overdominating mothers. 

Rating: 2.5 stars

French Book Review: Le Parfum de l´Innocence by Parisa Reza

 

Initialy, I chosed Le Parfum de l´Innocence without too much previous information about the book. After reading The Gardens of Consolation I was interested in following more books by Parisa Reza whose storytelling superpowers charmed me. The book is though a continuation of The Gardens... although it can be read independently. But once you know the first episode, the sequel is the promise of even more stories well told.

There is a continuity, indeed, between the two books, and the episodes of the Iranian history are moving forward until the eve of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The new generation represented by Elham is more carefree than that of their parents - after all, her mother would disappear in mysterious circumstances in fact being killed as a communist believer - they spend their holidays in Europe where they can observe from direct interactions the everyday life in the Western part of the world but are looking forward to a future in their country. Young girls and boys are free to chose their partners, but the parents play the role of advisors but they rarely try to impose their choices to their children - at least in Tehran.

Elham is growing up with her father, Bahram, who allows her full independence. He is living in an intellectual world of ideas and although he is against the regime of the Shah he is rather careful in expressing openly his political opinions. She fells for Jamshid, a young man whose father is a faithful general of the Shah, who is preparing to be a military pilot. (Sidenote: I love everything about pilots, from books to real persons). 

Like in the first story, Reza´s storytelling is captivating. She builds out of details of historical and social order and character features narratives which are staying with the reader for a very long time. (Ok, I may be very biased for falling so easy for pilot characters anyway and there are not too many pilots featured in books unfortunately, so the choices are scarce). The narrative is complex and complicated and there is nothing simple about the ways in which the relationships are built on. The pressure and speed we, in the Western world, we are oversaturated with, are replaced by a spider net of emotions and touches which are building up very slowly. It requires a strong character and deep feelings to live such a life.

I was fascinated by the love story between Elham and Jamshid for its impossibility and inconclusiveness. It´s tragically beautiful and leaves the reader with so many expectations and second thoughts. What actually happened to their story? Did they survive the violent revolutionary waves and met again ? I wish Parisa Reza will write a new sequel of the story...

Rating: 4 stars

Random Things Tours: The Shanghai Wife by Emma Harcourt

 

I´ve read quite a few history books set in China during the first half of the last century, particularly the 1920s and the 1940s, but not too many novels. Given my wellknown reluctance to historical novels, it makes sense, but this year I decided to give more chances to literary creativity set in specific timeframes of the past. Thus, my decision to read and review The Shanghai Wife, the debut novel by Australia-based Emma Harcourt.  

The book was inspired by the author´s grandmother story that lived in Shanghai in the mid 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s, times for tremendous changes and turmoil in this part of the world too, as everywhere in the world. The imagined Shanghai of the book is reflecting the usual descriptions of the city in other non-fictional accounts as well: multicultural, booming with businesses, with a penchant for opium - which was a lucrative endeavour as well. 

The ambiance descriptions are so vivid and genuine that you feel transported in that specific time and moment and place without ever leaving your home. 

But the most important element of the book is, definitely the story. Annie Brand arrives from Australia in the international Shanghai with her husband, a ship captain. He leaves her alone to face the hardship of being abroad in a foreign world and even if the language is not an issue, the difficult political and social environment as well as the complexities of the expat life in Shanghai was taking its toll. 

The narrative builds up slowly, brick by brick, but one step further and we reached a different level of complexity and, sometimes, danger too. Annie is a strong and complex character with a big taste for adventure but the situations she is getting involved in are out of her control sometimes. Her everyday life seems to be in sync with the unfolding events on the streets of Shanghai and this double dynamism makes the story even more attractive.

The Shanghai Wife has all the good ingredients for a suspenseful and action-filled read: there is conspiracy, political mystery, forbidden love and dramatic romance. All put together in good wording which makes you curious to find out more about the history of Shanghai and especially of its people, locals or internationals that made its everyday history not so long ago. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Catch your Breath. The Secret Life of a Sleepless Anaesthesist by Ed Patrick

 

Catch Your Breath! And welcome to the waiting room of a hospital before being invited to sign all the papers you should to before your anaesthesia and your subsequent surgery. (In Germany they have at least the number of words requested for a novella. Hope the Brits are more practical). What is really happening there is unfathomable for the majority of - hopefully - accidental visitors of the surgery room. But if you really want to know more, anaesthesiologist and comedian Ed Patrick wrote a book about it. Now it´s all there revealed, in the book.

I was not so sure what to expect from Catch your Breath. The Secret Life of a Sleepless Anaesthesist. I am not foreign to medical interventions, hospitals, anaesthesia and other Greek/Latin words. I even count among my acquaintances a couple of anaesthesists. But how it is to write about it? Would it be boring, too technical, dark and creepy (some people may not even wake up from the deep sleep).

Patrick´s is hilarious, the British kind of hilarious, but nevertheless serious enough to introduce you to the big picture of what does it mean to practice this job, including the professional path leading to it. Told as a personal story it gives credibility to the experience. Authentic is also his account of the time spent in the hospital during the hardship of Corona times. The ´Sleepless´ part of the book title makes even more sense now, isn´t it?

In any case, if you are considering a medical career and dream about a smooth balance between work and personal life, you rather apply for a position in the medical services by the city hall. Because, in the real medical life, which involves hospital and night shifts and anaesthesia, there is nothing like that. And this is available for any normal city hospital in this big wide wild world.

As a memoir, Catch your Breath has an impressive number of dialogues which are so vivid and smart and hilarious that I´ve caught myself just laughing on my own more than once. But believe me, there are so many serious things this book deals with, it´s not a humour book. But what would life be if not a big joke that we need to learn how to make fun of. In full seriousness, of course.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Rachel´s Random Resources Tours: A Girl Called Ruthless by Melody Pendlebury

´The most amazing miracle I ever witnessed had to be that life carried on´.

I strongly believe that a name plays an important part on someone´s personality and at a great extent it suffuses the behavior of that person. And when you are called Ruthless, the stakes are very high. 

I don´t remember when a YA book charmed me so much that I´ve read it in one eventful sitting. A Girl Called Ruthless by Melody Pendlebury succeeded because it has the right pace of the story and a main character which is both lovable, adventurous and...ruthless. 

We don´t chose our life but sometimes we are able to identify those strengths and resources helping us to overcome life´s treacherous challenges. Ruthless is only 11 years old, living in Louisiana with her mother and has a busy to-do-list. Some of her courageous ideas may get her into trouble but who is not getting in trouble at this age? When her mother dies unexpectedly though, Ruthless will blame forself for it but nevertheless, she should need to carry on with her life. And she will live up to her name, that´s for sure.

Ruthless is a very visible strong character in the book. With the exception of her mother, all the other characters seem to be less clear and, in any case, not given a too stronger voice. Her character is displayed either through the actions she takes part or as a reflective child trying to figure out her feelings and observing her reactions. She is a lovable character, so realistic with her own personality. The kind of girl that would love to meet in real life too.

For the young audience the book is aimed at, A Girl Called Ruthless offers an extraordinary encouragement not only to dare but also to learn how to cope with parental loss and unexpected death. The tragical disappearance of Ruthless´ mother breaks your heart, but it is well placed. 11 is an age when one may try to understand not only that dear ones are disappearing suddenly, but also that death is as much part of life as playing. It´s a sad acknowledgment, but learning how to deal with this truth helps a smooth passage into adulthood.

A Girl Called Ruthless is a book I wish teachers accept to read and talk about in schools too. While using a contemporary background it generates topics relevant to young adults in the making. There are both everyday school and other social and political topics involved in the narrative, the best combination which is part of the everyday life of a young pupil. 

The author has a very dramatic way to create encounters that are insightful and lessons learning and overall, writes so well that can move even a stone-hearted adult. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

Facing Germany´s Recent History

 

The German-American illustrator Nora Krug is facing her own family history through personal accounts and searches in the archives. There is the expectation and the disappointment, the excuse and the harshness of the verdict. Sometimes, there is a sparkle of hope: maybe he - there is the men´s side of the family which represent the main subject of the political investigations of the past - was not so bad, who knows, maybe he saved a Jew...

´How do you know who you are when you don´t know where are you coming from?´But what exactly can you do with the information about where are you coming from? What to do when you find out that you have oncles and grandfathers who actually were involved in the killing machine of the Reich. That even benefited from looted Jewish properties?

Maybe if this dark episode of the past would have been discussed and analysed and exposed earlier after the war, many would have been nowadays more reluctant to utter racist and Nazi-friendly policies. Indeed, Krug said that ´even inherited memory hurts´ but silence is hurtful too. How one can feel when faced with a terrible hidden past? How one can use those information in order to prevent similar situations to repeat?

There are so many questions finally asked openly. It´s frustrating to know how easy fragments of that past were hidden and way too many former Nazi believers were smoothly re-integrated into the everyday life of the ´democratic´ republic(s). 

Nora Krug married a Jewish man whose family escaped Hitler´s Germany. She, she wrote this short memoir about her family and her search for the truth. It is a testimony that adds up to other similar stories. Such works are two generations late, after one generation of silence when all went ´business as usual´.

I had access to the book in audiobook format, performed by the author herself.

Rating: 3 stars

Random Things Tours: Three Words for Goodbye be Hazel Gaynor&Heather Webb

´Time you left America and saw more of the world´.

I am generally so careful with my choice of historical fiction, but in the last days and weeks I was so lucky to be offered the chance to review some very interesting books. My latest is Three Words for Goodbye by the writing-duo Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb. I don´t remember to have read a fiction book written by two authors so this book was my first time. It looks like the two of them did write more books together, many available in German language as well, so maybe will try more published work by them in the next months.

Violet is dying and before she is gone she wants to deliver a couple of letters to people that meant something for her. She sents on the mission her two estranged granddaughters Clara and Madeleine. With Queen Mary, they will travel around Europe to Paris, Venice, Vienna. It is the end of the 1930s and Europe is about to go through a tremendous historical earthquake. Madeleine is putting on trial her journalistic skills, observing carefully the ongoing political and social changes. This, when she really had time to think about besides the small surprises Violet prepared for them.

Try to figure out: two young ladies on their own in Europe, at the end of the 1930s. For a woman living in the 21st century it sounds pretty normal, but at the time, although women enjoyed more freedom and mobility as two centuries before, it is still a novelty. One of the merits of the novel is that allows contemporary ideas to be re-framed in a given historical moment. Another inspirational hint associated with the two sisters on the road is the healing and transformative power of travel - a motto often mentioned by women of all ages who chose a travel lifestyle, which I mostly believe in as well - but translated elegantly into the social language of the time. 

The story in Three Words for Goodbye is a reminder why, from a very early age, I loved reading: for the power words have upon us to take ourselves out of time and space, transported into someone else´s story. For almost half a day, I was out of my regular world, following Maddie and Clara fulfilling the wishes of their beloved grandmother, meeting new people, experiencing new feelings and looking for new meanings.

The adventures are unfolding mostly as a duet of diary entries which continue or enrich the story. Writing as a duo may have, among others, the advantage of creating original, genuine and distinctive points of view. 

Although there is a general frame defining the story, expect some gentle twists and interesting turns that request attention while challenging the reader.

A special mention is well-deserved for the cover, as well as for the elegant book setting.

Three Words for Goodbye is a book that you don´t want to finish too fast, a special recommendation for historical fiction lovers, to be slowly enjoyed during a quiet weekend afternoon. Books like this encourage me to explore more historical fiction and keep believing that with a good moderate approach history can be a wise background for beautiful stories as well. It should not be all so academic and serious and undergo multiple checkings as in the case of a nonfiction book, anyway.

Rating: 4 stars

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

How to Grow Out of the Emotionally Absent Mother

 

Many children whose parents were born or grew up during terrible circumstances, like wars, political and social hardships do experienced mothers and fathers mostly emotionally distant if not utterly absent. It is mostly true, but on the other hand, those of us, parents living in economically stable countries, do have the priviledge of long-term paid maternal leave and various priviledges affording more time spent with our children. Although it does not necessarily implies that we are emotionally ready for a genuine connection with your parents.

In The Emotionally Absent Mother Jasmin Lee Cori offer not only an overview of the symptoms and manifestations of the childhood drama, but also very intelligent and inspired ways of healing - including through exercises listed at the end of each chapter. 

Optimistically, she assumes that ´it is never too late to have a happy childhood´ and learn to take care of yourself, but I presume that this book can be mostly the beginning of acknowledging one´s problems as overcoming the serious emotional dryness of the first years of life cannot be done properly without a therapeutical help. 

Especially if you are a parent yourself and dream of offering your children a different childhood than yours, it´s better to start this introspection process earlier, preferably before the start of your parenting. Healing may take longer than expected. Coming at terms with your own past and at the same time trying to understand the reasons why your mother was distant - her own trauma, social pressure, immaturity etc. - and stop blaming yourself for not being good enough it´s one stage of the process. Learning to value yourself and even accept your mother back into your life - if you are lucky enough to still have her - is another stage. An important step of this new start is also learning empathy and practising a new and different perception of yourself and your body.

It´s both an useful and inspiring reading which may help you understand your own situation but equally to see it in a larger social and personal historical perspective. At the same time, it gives us hope that with compassion and patience, we can turn the experience into a personal gain and move forward with grace and wisdom.

Rating: 5 stars

Deutscher Buchpreis 2021 Longlist: Identitti by Mithu M. Sanyal

2021 will be marked in my bookish history as the year when my German skills felt safe enough to explore as many as possible books nominated for the longlist of Deutscher Buchpreis. In the next days and weeks I am able to offer longer or shorter reviews of most of the nominated books. Most probably although will not be fast enough to finish the list until the short list, respectively the winner will be announced, the reading and reviewing exercise will reveal important directions in the German-speaking realm.

I often think and write - but more think, anyway - about the state-of-the arts of the identity (crisis) discussion in Germany. More often, I´ve find the discourse inconsistent, dogmatic, insincere, superficial and also boring. Don´t expect too much out of it except narcissistic voyeurism. Until I´ve read Identitti by Mithu M. Sanyal. 

What does this almost 400-page book brings new to the discussion? First and foremost, a sense of humour and an intellectual irony that you can search for centuries in any ´serious´ media interventions on the topic. They are called ´serious´ for a good philological reason, I suppose. 

´This will blow your mind´. Yes, please. 

The main topic which is turn on all its faces, intersectionalist or not, is...race. Nivendita Anand is exploring her Indian-German heritage as a blogger - on her ´Blog by a Mix-raced Wonder-woman´ and student of advanced studies. At university, she is following and defending Saraswati, a kind of German Rachel Dolezal who claims a mixed heritage but in fact has a very German family. 

The discussion is very nuanced, complex and philosophical touching upon issues relevant not only for Germany, but on the race topic in general. For pages long, it looked for me as a philosophy lesson addressing very serious issues, but without the drama, the sights and the rolled eyes of self-contempt usually associated with it. Also the name dropping and the big words are missing and I am very glad for it.

One can talk about identity and race without necessarily looking for a final verdict or definition. Philosophical inquiry is a journey without a destination, but in order to continue, it needs dedicated humans with critical minds to advance. And with a smart sense of humour. Actually, smart people afford themselves to approach life with humour. Only smart people do it.

Identitti is a gem of a book whose juicy dialogues and introspection I´ve enjoyed a lot. It brings such a fresh air in the literary works in German language on topics of high actuality. I can only hope that someone will have the bright idea to translate this book into English. It´s really worth being known outside, in the wide intellectually curious world.

Rating: 4.5 stars 

Random Things Tours: A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

 

I may confess that I was not so enthralled by The Girl on the Train and even less about Into the Water by Paula Hawkins but as in the case of one author´s writing style, also tastes and literary criteria are changing, improving and mature. Thus, her third, A Slow Fire Burning is for me, by far, one of her best books equally for the complexity of the characters, story and of the writing in general.

For me, and I bet not only for me, this was a strongly emotional experience. The characters from the story, set in London, in Islington and Clerkenwell, alongside Regen´s Canal (there is a very inspired map at the beginning of the book tracing the local geography) can be your neighbours or your relatives or one of the many people with whom you cross paths every day. Anonymous inhabitans of a big city. And they are, oh, so damaged not because they chose for or they were born to, but because at a certain moment, someone damaged them. A someone that, maybe, was also damaged at a certain point by someone else. Who...

It may sound very old psychology, but a damaged child is a very damaged adult. No matter who exactly is creating the damage and the reasons behind it. And this is what 90% of the characters from A Slow Fire Burning are coping with: a deep trauma that turned their life into a nightmare. As adults, they just give up to alcoholism, anger, self-harming, eating disorders. 

´But power shifts, doesn´t it? Sometimes in unexpected ways. Power shifts, and worms turn´.

The predominant characters in the book - Miriam, Laura, Carla, Irene, Angela - are women. Women who are trying their powers, restraining themselves, defending themselves from men or other women in shifting positions of power. As Daniel Sutherland is found dead in his houseboat, it is first Laura, a young lady with a long history of aggressions who is the culprit no. 1. However, she is not the only one in the story whose behavior does not match its emotional state. The ways in which the characters secrets are intertwinned is deceiving and I may confess that I placed my bets completely wrong - not on Laura, anyway, but on someone else but not on the right person anyway.

From my point of view, besides the circumstances, the drama of the characters is also because they are dealing with a standard definition of ´normality´ - in terms of physical appearance, lifestyle, mental profile - and the social expectations attached to it. Relying on such standards may be as poisonous as the childhood drama.

There are men characters in the book as well - Theo, the successful writer through which the authors introduces diplomatically into the story a couple of topics related to the publishing industry; the absent fathers. Compared to the women, though, they don´t have to exert and display their power. They have it already, it´s only a matter of momentum when they will actually use it, or just run away. I´ve felt a fine gender disbalance between characters which may feel suffocating sometimes.  

What Paula Hawkins is admirably doing in this novel is not only to create perfectly coherent and build-up characters, but also stories and multiple voices that not necessarily interfer. I´ve had more than once the feeling that I am in a room with multiple echoes but unable to grasp the difference between illusion - or the voice of trauma - and reality. In fact, all the characters do may have a reason to kill because their wounds are so deep and salty. 

In a way, the crime is less important compared to the psychology of the characters, their relationships between the different women characters and the extent of their emotional numbness. A small disclosure: the culprit is a woman.

A Slow Fire Burning is not an easy book both in terms of the accounts and the darksides of the characters. But it is a reminder how important is to treat each other well and with contempt. But, if world is perfect, how would I read such thoughtful and suspenseful books?

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: After the Rising&Before the Fall by Orna Ross

 

Historical fiction novels are not easy and not for everyone. They request your mind at maximum capacity as the reader should not only deal with the usual intrusion in other people´s lives, but is also facing complex historical and social circumstances he or she may hardly have heard about before. Personally, I am a very parcimonious reader of books set in a specific historical context because compared with other books, it forces me to do an additional research of circumstances and historical facts - if there is something that can be call it like that; still, I feel compelled to have my own non-fictional investigation of the fictional setting.

I come across award-winning author Orna Ross mostly through her poetry and particularly her involvement on behalf of independent authors and creative publishing industry. After the Rising&Before the Fall was my first encounter with her historical fiction work. 

For the short-attention span reader - which I am myself sometimes as well - the fact that the two volumes count over 500 pages may sound discouraging. However, I confess that it is so well written that I hardly felt the weight of the pages. Instead, the smart educated writing balances historical facts with intricated personal histories in such a smooth way that one hardly notice the passage of time. 

Jo Devereux is returning to the small Irish village where she had to break up with the love of her life, to burry her mother, with whom she did not speak for 20 years. Family letters and documents lead her to a very complex family mystery enfolding under our eyes in the book. The social and historical details are molded to allow the fictional story to develop. 

Orna Ross is a fine writer, with a great sense of balance and which creates skilfully authentic stories that stay in your mind both for the historical resonance as for their literary relevance. I will be interested in reading more historical fiction by her and of course, to pay more attention to the more or less recent Irish history.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Death is a Very Personal Story

 

Recently, after just another domestic accident occured I had to pay a visit at the emergency room and after long hours of waiting in the middle of the night, I was brought inside the ward and assigned a bed for another couple of hours of more waiting. 

On the other side of the curtain, the doctors were busy asking questions to what sounded like an old man. It was someone who just had a stroke and they were first hand checking at what extent his vital reasoning was affecting. What year are we in? Do you know when you were born? What was your profession? What´s your name? What day of the week are we in? Overwhelmed by the intensity and the frequency of the questions, the old man answers were becoming more and more insecure as the questioning advanced. He sounded lost and tired and who would not be after 1am in the morning, in a  narrow hospital bed, surrounded by doctors whose presences were illuminated by the strong yellow lights. Please Gd, I told to myself, not that...pls...and then I remembered about my aunt Hannah who after a stroke that mountain of a woman was reduced to a mass covered by a white blanket in a bed surrounded by decaying body smells. And about a family friend, a very active woman with a sharp mind, who in just one a stroke of a minute turned into a wheelchair-bounded unhappy person. 

It´s terrible to lose control of your mind.

Gabriele von Arnim latest successful book Das Leben ist ein vorübergehender Zustand - in my translation Life is a temporary condition - is a thoughtful memoir about the ten hard years spent taking care of her husband, journalist Martin Schulze. A journalist who lost the way with words, reduced to an articulation of a couple of words based on which Gabriele could guess what he meant. 

I refuse to make comparisons and in any case, my bibliography about chronical illness and mourning includes two brilliant books: The Year of Magical Thinking (for unexpected death, sickness and mourning) and Sick (for living with chronic disease at a young age, a book that I´ve read with fear and interest where I was myself getting used with being diagnosed with a chronic disease). Definitely, you have to focus on your own emotions and feelings and frustrations when writing about such topics.

What surprised me in the book of Von Arnim is less the personal experiences of her ten years of witnessing the life struggle of her late husband, but the pressure to intellectually understand what is going on in such situations, the connection of her personal experience with other similar situations, her own story being relevant as part of a larger human story about ephemeral life and inexorable death. 

´Wie lebt man in der Krankheit und blebt in der Welt?´ (´How one can exist within the sickness and still stay present in the world´, my amateurish translation from the original German) Indeed, how can we co-exist with the permanent deterioration of our life skills. Of our mind, who is the center of our existence, which organise the existence through words. Her detachment from her everyday reality and the refuge in upper worlds is not denial, but part of the struggle to survive. (´Ich will von der Schwere meines Schicksal nicht einmal etwas hören, will es nicht wissen´. - ´I don´t want to hear anything from the hardship of my destiny, I don´t want to know anything about it´). It´s the intellectual skill of permanent inquiry which she is using while recording in a diary her husband´s ten years of survival after the double stroke. She is registering and suffering for his suffering. Her own suffering is less important, she is existentially caught in the middle of the impossible situation that once he will be no more left a huge hole into her existence. 

Every stage of the new life is observed with attention, inscribed in the diary and later made part of a book which is not only a tribute to her late husband suffering, but a tribute to a life that is not giving up the power of words as fully aware of how easy those words can fade away in the night of the brain. Just a stroke of a second and all is gone.

Rating: 5 stars

Random Things Tours: The Olive Grove by Eva Glyn

 

The Balkans, particularly former Yugoslavia, as the Middle East as well, are conflict-prone literary geographies. Very often I am nauseated reading books set in this parts of the world which are set in the black-and-white narrow-minded take where the local history should be always bloody, uncivilized and eventually dangerous for the rest of the world. However, there are many authors doing their best to offer a different narrative. Few of them are succeeding.

The Olive Grove by Eva Glyn is set mostly in the Croatian island of Korčula, in the Dalmatian archipelago. There is Antonia that decided to re-start her life as a multilingual manager of Vila Maslina. And there is the owner of the Vila Damir Maric which is an interesting character as well. And there are many other characters in the book which are very well portrayed and do have a level adorable of maturity which resonates a lot with the type of characters I love to meet in books - and in real life too. Most of them do have a way of behaving with the freedom of life thoughtful experiences. Such characters can only be part of equally thoughtful stories. 

One of the story includes dealing with the long-term trauma of the war in the former Yugoslavia, but there are also stories of self-discovery, acceptance, mature love and romance. All told in the slow-pace narrative, sometimes contemplative, sometimes romantic, There is a perfect match between the main two layers of the narrative amplifying each other. This balanced prose was for me one of the most entincing features of The Olive Grove.  

As someone deeply interested in how political events shape everyday life and interactions, I appreciated the thoughtful way to feature the trauma of the Balkan wars into a personal unique story. The author´s approach is elegant and respectful, dealing gently with facts and personal trauma.

The ways in which the natural Croatian setting is described, a place which happen to know more than the average travel magazine descriptions, is diverse and realistic and takes the reader out of his or her reading chair far away, on a beach near the crystal clear waters of the Dalmatian coast.

The Olive Grove is different in some many respects of many of the books dealing with such topics and I can only be glad to have been given the chance of reading it. Eva Glyn´s book is a proof that one can still respect a classical literary canon and write in the most interesting entincing way.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Wolf Tones by JJ Marsh

 

I did not know what exactly to expect from Wolf Tones by J.J. Marsh but I am very much interested in books about musicians therefore this significant detail about the story was enough for catching my interest. However, the more I was lost into the book the less I wanted the story to end. No, Wolf Tones is far from being one of those feelgood books that one may be interested in because it gives you a positive vibe. Rather the opposite, but what kept me so much interested into the book was the unique art of the writer to create a suspense which builds up as a concerto.

Rolf Jaro is a young cellist with a relatively shady past that just got a new job at Salzburg Orchestra. He moved from Bratislava with his glamorous girlfriend Leonor, a beautiful and well-connected lady with a flash of temper. Their love is not enough though as Leonor is in fact a very manipulative and psychotic person whose narcissistic personality will not refuse herself anything for reaching her mentally-distorted aims. She is playing the most hideous game of psychological torture and manipulation that may occur in a private relationship. 

This is not love, but a survival of the fittest in a scenario which involves breaking the most humanly possible rules. Leonor knows his victim very well and is obsessed about controlling Rolf and breaking up his career. If in the case of Rolf there are details about his past revealed, I would have been a bit curious to find out some details about Leonor´s personal history as well. What happened to her that she ended up so vicious?

The details about how an orchestra operates at a human level are very important for understanding the framework of the story. The ambiance details are an important element of the story construction, helping the characters to operate. 

The innate aggressivity and the mind games are not for everyone and some readers may feel overwhelmed by the rough sexual scenes as well. Personally, I needed a short break after every chapter as it kept me breathless. But although most of the characters are either broken or enjoying breaking each other, there is a fascination of the evil very well described and featured by JJ Marsh that made me keep reading. She is such a knowledgeable person of the darkest sides of humans and writing about it is equally important as encouraging people to see the positive side of life.

Wolf Tones is a masterpiece of book featuring in such a vivid way the temptation of just being evil, and enjoying it, with no explanation or reason to be somebody else. 

Rating: 4 stars

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