Poetry Book Review: Customs by Solmaz Sharif

 

Customs can mean two different, relatively distinct in their difference, things. It can mean rituals, traditions, repeated actions generationally inherited. On the other hand, it can mean, when written with a capital C, the official, governmental institution allowing - or denying - access to persons or goods on the territory of a state. 

In Solmaz Sharif´s second collection of poetry, Customs epitomizes the routine of bureaucratic inquiries and limitations. Sometimes, the being is humiliated through the repeated investigations. It can go so far as to negate the rights of the being to be what it is. Race, religion, country of origin, language - all those defining features may alter the stamp of approval. 

Bureaucracy, wherever it exists, is a challenge for the language, with its own rules and trepidations and words that no one uses but the bureaucrat. Imagine how hard it is to translate this realm into the language of the poetry? Customs though speaks all the languages of expectations, fears, trepidation, disappointment and hurt. It is the individual being facing the bureaucracy whose heartbeats are accounted for.

Language is a priviledged, private space. Speaking, learning a language it is a very personal encounter, as explained in ´Learning Persian´, one of my favorite poetic stories in the collection. The language of rules though is not only private, but can be equally privative - taking away or refusing to grant citizenship priviledges, or considering who is a worthy citizen and who not - like in the case of Ethel Rosenberg, whose fate is mentioned at least twice in the collection.

Although my overall encounters with poetry - this year and the last and many other years before - continue to be limited, I am glad that this year I had more than ever the chance to read and review outstanding poets. Customs closed nicely the reading poetry chapter of the last 12 months, but I promise myself, and my readers too to expand my bibliography and poetic sensibility.

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: Eurotrash by Christian Kracht

At the border between self-story and fiction, Eurotrash by Christian Kracht is a literary continuation of both in form and content from his debut Faserland, in 1995. The mixture between fiction and autobiographical elements remains, the characters - the author and his mother - as well as the ironic road-movie feature. Only that this time the playground is Switzerland, compared to Germany in the previous novel.

In the American-English slang, Eurotrash refers to the kitschy part of Europe, praising postcard perfect locations and idealizing the lifestyle. The storyteller of the story, named Christian Kracht feels the world is his oyster, is used to the boarding schools, comes from a rich family, his father being - as real Kracht´s - a successful part of the Axel Springer successful entreprise after the war. There are former Nazis in the family, as there are in - the real and fictional - Switzerland he is crossing from Zürich to Gstaad with his drug and alcohol-addicted 80-year old mother. 

The private, public, author´s, characters memories do intertwin as it may happen in the post-modern (literary) realities of the writing. I´ve found personally the dialogues between Christian and his mother the most moving part of the story. Storytelling is healing, connecting the estranged parent and child after years of physical and emotional distance. The trip he takes to the mother - promising he will take her to ´Africa´ - is tracing fragments of the past, revisiting memories - visual, emotional, childhood, taste-like. 

Eurotrash was shortlisted for Deutscher Buchpreis 2021, alongside with another Swiss-based author Dana Grigorcea, and for the Schweizer Literaturpreis 2022. Kracht reported extensively on Asian issues, being based for years in India, and currently living in LA with his family.

Rating: 3 stars

Book Review: Histoires de la Nuit by Laurent Mauvignier

 

I am a very unfaithful reader. I may start several books at the same time, and leave them one after another, for months, fascinated by a new author or title. I rarely do not finish books, but it may take one year to finish a book sometimes. As I am taking careful - written - notes and thanks to my good memory, I keep the track of the ideas and observations, but still, my unfaithfulness is there. Until I really meet books and authors that consume my curiosity and time beyond my limited attention span.

This time, it was Laurent Mauvignier´s Histoires de la Nuit. My previous book by Mauvignier, Des Hommes was inviting, but still didn´t request exclusivity in terms of reading time. Histoires...though, absorbed my attention and time beyond my spiritual powers. For four days, I was devouring the book in my early hours before starting my hectic days, while commuting and while using my last active neurons before going to sleep. I breath and eat and dream this book.

The book is a bit over 600 pages, with sentences that build up as colours may fill the void of a painting. I´ve read the book in the original French - an English edition is supposed to be published at the beginning of 2023 by Fitzcarraldo Editions, translated by Daniel Levin Becker and I am really interested to have a look at the translation as well - and again, was grateful for the priviledge of having this language as my 2nd mother tongue - with the accent on the mother part. 

The reading of this book made me acknowledge something about my reading habits: a story that has a beautiful writing and an appealing story guarantees my full attention. The writing of Histoires de la Nuit is dense - almost page-long sentences - reproducing the thinking flow when it has to re-enacht thoughts, but short and alert when displaying a succession of facts. 

The story itself is a carefully built thriller: in a remote quiet French hamlet, the predictable life of a young family is turned upside down when three unknown men unexpectedly land at the door on the 40st birthday of Marion. The guys are not unknown for Marion, whose past suddenly seems to endanger everyone who happens to arrive to their house. The ambiance is built long before, with symbolic suggestions spread from the very beginning of the book. It is an exercise in attention and dedication required from the reader. 

This year, I started by getting to know the fantastic writings of Annie Ernaux, and ended by the discovery of Mauvignier. I still have some reading to be done until the next of the year therefore I avoid doing any final countdown. However, I am grateful for having so many extraordinary literary discoveries in the last 12 months and I am looking hopeful for the next 12 months of intensive reading and writing.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: I was offered an English version of the book in exchange of my honest review but the opinions are, as usual, my own

This Is Your Mind on Plants

 

When I discovered The Omnivore´s Dilemma by Michael Pollan I was at a point in my life when I was trying to better understand my relationship with food. I bet, 99.9% of humans do not think about food in cultural or philosophical terms but as a former anorexic, it took me years to re-build my world in a healthier and ´normal´ way. Words do help in such situations to see everything in a deeper way.

There is no turning point in my life as I was reading his latest: This Is Your Mind on Plants: Opium-Caffeine-Mescaline. I was not looking for reasons or a philosophical basis of any kind, but trustful to my life motto: ´No expectations no disappointment´, I am pleased to be surprised sometimes of some extraordinary ideas while embracing new topics. 

Except caffeine, which is my trustful companion since the early age of 14, which I already had the chance to read and write something about, the other topics were vaguely familiar, mostly through literary references. The mission of a well-written book though is to bring even the most novice reader into the world of the story. A mission perfectly accomplished by Pollan in this book. At least in my case.

What is really appealing in this book is the interpretation of the topic within the cultural, political and social context. Fascinating is for me the details about how coffee - and tea - turned popular as part of a wider efficiency driven culture aimed to keep the working force active and awake. The opium ´wars´ and the random incrimination of poppy seeds cultures for equally random political reasons is another deeply interesting chronicle of our cultural wars. As for mescaline, everything was completely new to me and I am grateful to have obtain this information through such a generous explanation connecting native population histories with the appeal for ´New Age´-kind of lifestyles. 

Well documented and written in a way that brings the topic close to a wide range of readers, This Is Your Mind on Plants is informative and relevant for the ideologically changing context affecting even the humble beans or tea leaves in your coffee. 

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes

I am always interested in reading books featuring intellectuals and teachers, as there is so much to explore in terms of connectivity and intellectual topics in general. Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes whose writings I usually appreciate in terms of deep intellectual take promised such a feast for the brain. 

Featuring the homonymous teacher of ´culture and civilization´, it is written by one of her teacher, Neil, with whom she had a platonic relationship for around 20 years until her death. It is a relatively short novel, of around 170 pages, but does have the potential to take on different topics, including the relationship between teacher and student or life seen and lived through intellectual categories.

I was definitely interested in the first part of the book - around 40-50 pages, as it does have an unfolding story. Elizabeth is strict in her professoral position - ´I am not employed to help you (...) I am here to assist you to think and argue and develop minds of your own´ - inspiring as only a mentor can be - ´I was clever in her presence, I knew more, I was more cogent; and I was desperate to please her´ - while remaining an intellectual mystery no matter how often they used to talk and meet - ´Elizabeth Finch who stood before us was the finished article, the sum of what she had made herself, what others had helped her make, and what the world had provided´.

The more ´mysterious´ part is enfolding as Neil is left after her death her manuscripts and he is trying to put together a book about her, which ends to be a philosophical - mostly stoic - collection of thoughts. In this moment, the story is broken and all the potential of the book vanishes. 

Do we need to delve into stoic philosophy when developing Finch´s story can actually lead to more narrative consistency? Philosophical thoughts inserted into a story, as collection of ideas for example, do not look very entincing, especially when the novel is supposed to be so short. It looks like stealing away precious space from the story itself.

Elizabeth Finch left me with a deep feeling of unaccomplishment. 

Rating: 2 stars

Random Things Tours: The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore

 

A modernist rendition of Russian folklore re-read in a predominantly women-oriented key lecture, The Witch and the Tsar, the debut novel by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore depicts a fantastic world of immortal witches and women friendship. 

As a child, I used to have a book featuring a witch living in a house with chicken legs, called Baba Yaga. An immortal woman featured in the Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga was mostly featured with a humb, a long nose eventually with a hair or two springing from the top of the nose. In the book, the eternal negative woman character is presented into a different light: as a trustful friend and a woman of honour.

Set in the second half of 16th century Russia, the books knits elements of folklore with historical fiction and fantasy. Baba Yaga´s determination to help her old friend Tsaritsa Anastasia Romanova leads her through the secret power rooms of the then Russian Empire and the supressed women voices. The elements of folklore added to the historical context make the story immortal, like Baba Yaga´s life. 

I confessed recently that I do struggle a bit to finish any kind of fantasy, no matter how good the writing is, due to a certain reserve I do have towards too much fiction - after all, my formation is very much nonfiction-oriented and my belief in any kind of magic and fantasy is practically non-existent. However, the journey I took alongside The Witch and the Tsar was more pleasant as I expected and although I´ve read the book for a couple of weeks, and the pace of some parts of the book was not always encouraging either, I was delighted by the reading adventure. Maybe because there were so many elements of Russian folklore that I am familiar with, or maybe simply because I was probably in a more open fantasy mood, I followed the book with interest and curiosity for the fate of the story and the characters.

The Witch and the Tsar is that kind of books to read during a long winter weekend, covered in warm duvets and surrounded by the overwhelming peace of the snow.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Flash Fiction from India

 

I adore flash fiction for its potential of telling a story in only few lines. Although I don´t read enough, and review even less, this genre of fiction has a potential I wish to spend more time exploring. Definitely, it is about time to upgrade my bibliography in this respect as soon as possible. 

In addition to this, I read even less books by authors from India. Another shameful confession. Despite that I have plenty of language classes students, consulting clients and friends from India, particularly in the last month, my overall knowledge of the literature in India is extremely limited. And this applies, unfortunately, also to the enormous linguistic heritage of the country, with only one regional language - Telugu - being spoken but at least the same population like Germany´s. 

Thus, I approach Orenda - ´a mystical force in all creatures allowing the strength to make a change individually and at the societal level´ - by Shalaka Kulkami with a lot of curiosity and interest. Inspired by travels, everyday interactions, relationships and parental worries, the story included in the collection may not be all the same, but do have each a grain of human life. The flash of the individual stories unfolds in a life movie entering the life and souls of so many diverse and different people. 

Ingeniously, each story is an introduced by a keyword, in various Indian regional languages, as well as in Slovenian, Hebrew, German etc. An appealing call for reading also for the language nerds and lovers - like this writer. 

Orenda is all one can wish in terms of flash fiction, as an experimental writing project, but also as a source of diversity. My appetite for even more - and more similar experiments is only getting bigger.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Book Review: Indelicacy by Amina Cain

How to Use Your Eyes by James Elkins was one of my most influential books. Ensconced in my world of words, I rarely allowed other senses to operate inside my mind. Elkins´ thoughts though helped me to start a long way where multiplicity instead of monochromy shapes my worldview.

Amina Cain´s Indelicacy was an intriguing read where seeing and being seen are reinterpreted and re-assigned through the process of writing. After reading her thoughs on writing, I couldn´t wait too long until reading her way too short yet philosophically inspiring novel. 

Vitória, the woman character of the book who is first named by her name in the second half of the novel, and after that maybe maximum 2 other times until the end, used to be a cleaner in an art gallery. Until she married a young and good looking rich man and she can dedicate her time to writing. ´I´m writing about myself looking at paintings (...) And sometimes at plants´.

But being surrounded by beauty doesn´t always bring beauty inside, or beautify the writing, for instance. She keeps her writing mostly to herself, but her soul is looking for more, for new adventures of the sight to discover the world and write about it. It is a primal need to go and search for it, and to put everything into words afterwards. And this is how books can affect us too. ´In books I found even more strongly my desire to write back to them and their gagged, perfect words. I found life that ran close to my own´. Ensconced in the cocoon of writing and reading, one needs space in the world outside, but either to get more inspiration or to put the imagination at trial. Books are an existential challenge.

The world of arts, Vitória is looking at, can offer more consistency than reality, and either turn reality into a second hand copy. Art is feelings and words and images together can remake, re-translate the world in its own vocabulary. ´It rains in a drawing, and if the drawing is good, you feel wet. The hard rain falls on the umbrellas moving slowly down the street´. 

The inclination of being an art lover and a books lover, doesn´t automatically make you an artist or a writer in the audience-focused kind of creative work. But words and colours do need a way out and this can make the life, as an overall experience different. It is stronger than life, because, for some, it really means being alive.

I am grateful for having discovered this year Amina Cain, but I am definitely searching for more of her writings. When philosophy and creativity meet, there are sparkles in the brain.

Rating: 4.5 stars

 

Book Review: The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber

I may confess that I have a very hard time reading fantasy fiction. It never been different, only that this time it is almost impossible to focus on stories from the world of pure fantasy. And although I am really sorry for my limitations, I am not giving up. It takes an enormous amout of time to finish a book belonging to this genre, however I am committed to delve as much as my overactive minds allows it. And very often, it is a rewarding experience to do so.

My latest fantasy read, The House of Rust by Mombassa writer Khadija Abdalla Bajaber was awarded with the first Graywolf Press Africa Prize. A - I may add beautifully crafted - debut novel, it follows the journey of Aisha, a Mombassa girl searching for her fishermen father, while trying to figure out her own place into this world. 

Accompanied by a wise talking cat, she is fighting against sea monsters or other fantastic creatures, evoking elements of old Swahili and Hadhram culture. We are maybe used to stories of coming of age instrumentalized in the case of boys. The House of Rust though, is focused on a brave girl, Aisha, and her infinite love for her father whom she is ready to save from the belly of the waters, without keeping in mind her potential limited resources. It is a different kind of ritual, nevertheless it marks a transition from childhood to adulthood.

The prose is expansive and descriptive, captivating the reader at least as much as the story itself.

The House of Rust is a dense story full of symbols that may keep interested until the end even the most evasive fantasy readers as me. At a certain extent it opened up my appetite for even more fantasy, so hopefully I can finish a couple of more books belonging to this genre until the end of the year.

Rating: 4 stars

Random Things Tours: Death on the Rhine by Heather Peck

Cruises of all kinds are a classical setting for crimes and it takes a lot of creativity to brings something new to this genre. Poirot´s Death on the Nile is hard to replicate, but there are more detectives than Poirot and even more interesting rivers than the Nile. Death on the Rhine, a novella featuring DCI Greg Geldard, by multi-award winning crime ficiton author Heather Peck is an example in this respect. 

Writing a novella is in itself a challenge, because you have a limited amount of literary time in order to create characters, develop stories and, when it comes to crime stories, to kill the characters and as fast as possible find the culprit(s). 

Despite those limitations, Death on the Rhine suceeds to tick successfully a lot of crime boxes, creating a story with unexpected twists, while featuring complex characters and human encounters. 

When Ben and Paula embarked on a luxury cruise on the Rhine, they were expecting to enjoy their second honeymoon. But gods laughed and their plans failed. A crime was committed and instead of admiring the castles across the Rhine and eventually have some Moselle wine, they are entangled in a web of deceit, adult bullying and unexpected human characters. 

Death on the Rhine is a cosy classical mystery, with very modern and ingenious twists. I enjoyed reading the novella both in terms of the plot and of the format. I wish I can find more short writings of this genre, as they are both entertaining and mind challenging, as running out of time to solve the crime riddle.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Book Review: Love from Mecca to Medina by S.K.Ali

Love from Mecca to Medina by S.K.Ali is a very diverse book both in terms of topics as of characters. More by accident than as the result of their own planning, Zeynab and Adam, a couple living separate lives in Doha, respectively USA, do embark on umrah, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, discovering new depths of their spiritual journey and relationship.

I haven´t read too many YA novels with a Muslim character feature, therefore I am not yet able to evaluate the accuracy of the representation. However, it´s clear to even the less informed reader the complexities of the identity which happily avoids any cartoonish outlook - both of positive and negative nature. Instead, the characters do have personal histories and approaches to faith, both as living in the USA or in a Muslim country, like Qatar or Saudi Arabia. 

There are many reasons I always appreciate writers familiar with the cultural and religious context of the subjects they are approaching, one being that there are many fine details and natural aspects that may escape to someone who got informed about it through lectures or second hand sources of information. Thus gives to the story and the characters altogether a natural consistency. Adam and Zeynab, for instance, are so natural in their expression of love, developing the thoughts and intimacies of the married couple, that some outsider may avoid to mention by fear of being ´inappropriate´. 

Another unique detail of the book is the introduction of a main character - Adam - who suffers of MS. I don´t remember any other book having such a protagonist and this adds an extra layer of diversity featured in the book. 

But there are many other instances that spin the story in so many directions: long distance relationships, young Muslims identity and the diverse take on present approaches, social struggle, converts to Islam, white supremacy and far right in the campus, antisemitism, a Jewish character Ava. There is even a cat who is having an important script into the story. This diversity is both a blessing and a curse and it may distract somehow the attention, or confuse as to the place of the information within the bigger story. 

Love from Mecca to Medina is a complex, well built story and that may appeal to readers interested in diverse, muti-cultural topics. Although there are too many directions that may affect the inner balance of the story, nevertheless it does has its own dynamics and plot that keeps the readers curious and interested.

Rating: 3.5 stars

 

Another unique 

Book Review: The Liar´s Life by Kiersten Modiglin

 

For this busy time of the year, when there is so much to organise, countdown to consider and plans for the New Year, it might be difficult to keep reading at my average - pretty fast - rate. However, although the virtual pile of unfinished books is asking my attention - particularly when my - way too many - wide opened tabs crash, I am keen to discover new authors and new titles. Particularly psychological thrillers set in family settings do have my full heart, as they may reveal intersting couple and individual interaction. 

Based on this mindset, I haven´t hesitated any single minute when I decided this Friday to spend some time in the company of a new author and a new title: Liar´s Life by bestselling author Kiersten Modglin. Liar´s Wife was my choice for the day, and it seems the author has a special interest in exploring the anatomy of lies in different contexts and manifestations. Most probably would be curious to come back to this author to check out more of her titles.

The chore of the book is Palmer´s discovery that her husband of few months, David, is having an affair and the subsequent disappearance of him and their 2-week baby boy. Having already experienced betrayal in previous relationship, Palmer a middle-class successful woman aiming to open her own business, is the bread winner in the family, while her husband decided to spend time with her son. She is starting to notice unusual behaviors of David, such as lunches for two and a woman with whom she is spending time in the park with their toddler. Until one day he disappears completely, most probably in the company of a raising food blogger, Kat. Nothing good to expect from this, especially for her little baby.

The stories are one-person account, either when uttered by David or by Palmer. Thus, they are allowed to present their fragments of reality. It breaks the monotony and creates a certain diversity of points of view.

I may reckon that the pace of the story, dramatically changing through the second half of the story, is not always satisfying, and there are a lot of elements that may have been more refined: for instance, while David and the baby are disappearing, she sounded to me a bit numb - normal for the situation, however a bit too slow for a relatively short book. Before the book ends, after it is clear about where the events will lead, there is another slow passage until the very end, which is, in my opinion, maybe the best part of the book. I also felt frustrated that Palmer keeps mentioning her ex without giving any single hint about him and what exactly happened between them.

Liar´s Wife was a great break in between many other books I still hope to finish until the year´s ending however, I would have expected some more thrilling twists and bites. I will give a try another time to more books by Modiglin, as there is no end to the ways in which lies are taking control of our lives and minds sometimes.

Rating: 2.5 stars

 

´Strangers to Ourselves. Stories of Unsettled Minds´

 

From all the medical fields, the one dealing with mental health issues is fascinating for me. If in the case of most of the other medical fields, a simple blood test or an MRT can eventually lead to a clear diagnosis, the mental health prognosis and overview is based exclusively on stories. Short description of symptoms occurs in all the other medical fields, but in no other but neurology/psychology is the diagnosis depending on such a great extent on the patient´s own feedback and insights.

For more or less personal reasons, I am interested in new takes on mental health, specifically outlining the scientific challenges on one side, and the personal struggles of the patient on the other side. 

The New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv´s Strangers to Ourselves. Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us has in this respect a both humble and creative. The book includes both insights about defining different mental illnesses - herself was hospitalized at 6 with an assumed anorexia nervosa, a diagnosis unheard of at this age - as well as medications and their ´magic´ power on our brains.

The categories of mental illness are extremely important in both the medication and the therapy strategies. A dear friend of mine is struggling for years with different diagnosis switched from a therapist to another, involving sudden switches of medication and therefore, extremely disturbing existential threats.

In the book, Aviv, although avoids from giving medical insights or to outline different theoretical takes, it brings the issue of mental health into a larger social, historical and linguistic as well approaches. Using the skills of an investigative journalist, still dealing in a very humble, humanly considerate way, it creates awareness and opens new fields of understanding and further understanding of this very sensitive topic. 

Rating: 5 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: Hound on a Scrounge by Maria Bucci

A very funny picture book for ages 6 to 8, Hound on a Scrounge by Maria Bucci, beautifully illustrated by Martynas Marchiusm is not only an invitation to reading practice, but also shares some secrets about the secret language of dogs. The target age of this book is still at that ´magical´ level of thinking when they can imagine themselves, and the others too, able to communicate beyond age, class, language and...species. 

Buddy is a playful dog, knowledgeable in all things foods, keen to share his dog experience to other creatures. And he is a dog of fine taste, as it seems there is no limit to his love for afternoon tea - a pleasure I am fully sharing with him myself, although living in a country where such afternoon habits are far from being fully appreciated. Oh, you don´t know what exactly does it mean to have a lavish afternoon tea? Then, you have to read this book, because Buddy is not only a gourmet lover, but seems to have some historical knowledge about this pleasant hobby, both in taste and appearance.

For curious, food and animal lover children and their parents, Hound on a Scrounge is a recommended read. If your little one is struggling to learn English or to improve his vocabulary, this book will definitely help. And with such a loveable character, you may want to read it more than twice...

Rating: 5 stars

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

Rachel´s Random Resources: Cover Reveal The Venice Secret by Anita Chapman

Don´t juge a book by its cover, the story goes, but I forgot how many times I actually bought a book based on the impression left by its cover. And it works for me, not a seasoned visual person, it may work for almost everyone else. 

Especially if you are looking to introduce a historical novel, set in one of the top places in the world, Venice, be sure that the cover should send a direct and subliminal message to the readers. 

Anita Chapman´s The Venice Secret, scheduled to be published in March 2023, can be used as a case study for such a visual coverage. Set in two timelines: 18th century and our times, it follows the story of a painting, attributed to Canaletto, which leads the women characters into a search for meaning and secrets. 

Besides featuring representative sightseeings in Venice - St. Mark´s Square and  Church - reproduced with architectural precision and an attractive game of volumes, it is wrapped in smooth, mild colours, with touches of gold on the upper front. The lettering of the title has a nostalgic touch, suited for a novel attached to stories from past times. Although it does not feature any human being, the picture has an inner dynamism, gave by the flocks of birds graciously moving across the middle area.

I can´t wait to hear and read more about this book and, definitely, the cover worked a bit in this direction. 

Many thanks to Rachel´s Random Resources for having me for this special bookish event. As usual, the impressions are my own.

Book Review: Waiting for the Past by Hadiya Hussein translated by Barbara Romaine

´It was a search for a truth that was missing and for a life of which she had dreamed but which she had never lived and must therefore seek elsewhere´.

Waiting for the Past, a novel by Iraqi author Hadiya Hussein beautifully translated by Barbara Romaine. starts like an old tale. The time is far away still, as we will figure out as the story unfolds, way too present. The search for an unfinished past invades the present, either of the persons or of the society. The future succumbs to the same wounds, it cannot exist independently. Even the dreams are of the past, are searches to explain why the past haven´t happened.

Nargis, the main character of Waiting for the Past is escaping Baghdad at the peak of the Saddam oppression against his own people from whom pretended veneration - the name of the dictator is not mentioned in the story - far away to the Iraqi Kurdistan trying to find the traces of her young love, Yusef, probably hold prisoner for his political remarks. His first part of the journey she is accompanied by a mostly silent old woman - ´The older woman was still an unknown quantity, a box with 15 secrets sealed inside´ - who is headed there hoping to find news about her other son, also probably imprisoned somewhere.

It is a journey through a life happening under the yoke of a police state, in the shadows of which a ´trade in catastrophe´ flourishes. Nargis is paying people to find out more about the wearabouts of Yusef, being took over isolated prisons of horrors and psychiatric wards. A human geography of cruelty - ´My God: How could a person - capable of laughters, of aspirations, of dreams - to be transformed, reduced to such ignomimious frailty?´. 

Although her human landscape changes often, and random human connections are established, there is a constant companion that will follow Nargis: fear, present even when it needs to be pushed far away to leave life unfolding - ´shook the dust of fear from your heart´. Fear, another way to stop present from turning into future.

The storytelling alternates from the Ist - Nargis - to third person, when the story is swithing not only th person, but also the perspective, turning into a panoramic view of the facts and souls of the characters.

The political mosaique - the terror state, the mass graves, the political persecution, the invasion of Kuwait, the chemical weapons, the fall of the dictator, the American invasion, the looting of the national treasures, the trade with public secrets, the terrorist attacks... - is a permanent marker of the present. It is a past re-enacted, predicting an equally unpredictable future at the mercy of history. 

The translator convenes the many fine richnesses of the Iraqi Arabic - here is an example of many: ´The wellsprings of the soul were full to overflowing´. The access of non-Arabic speakers to talented authors from the Middle East is extremely limited and translators are our brains and eyes and tongues. 

Waiting for the Past touches upon a topic I am personally very much interested about mainly how everyday lives are tormented by intrusive dictatorships. It does it with delicate patience and fearless strength of the word. That´s what dictatorships of all kinds are afraid of.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: A Deadly Covenant by Michael Stanley

There were many important things that happened to my blog this year, all good and bookishly-brilliant. One of them is that at least once the month I had the chance to read and review some great story published by the active and always surprising Orenda Books. Nothing against becoming an Orenda Books - Beautiful. Readable. Unforgettable - appreciation blog. And, in the end, that´s one of the aims of me blogging for such a long time: to become free to write and comment of what really interests me the most. I care about my audience, of course, but I will always share titles and stories of interest for me first and foremost. 

What I really like about the titles from Orenda Books I had the chance to review is the geographic and style coverage. The edition house not only features crime and thriller authors from diverse countries - Finland, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa - but also locations from all over the world, thus outlining various cultures and environments.

A Deadly Covenant by Michael Stanley - the common name of the authors Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, both South-Africa born retired academics - is set in Botswana, a country made famous among the crime and thriller readers by Alexander McCall Smith´s The No.1 Ladies´ Detective Agency, also turned into a movie. The book is the 8th from the series featuring Detective Kubu. It was the first for me and although I am interested in reading more books from the series, it was not difficult to understand the story as a stand-alone account.

During some pipeline construction related works near Okavango Delta, a skeleton is discovered. Than another one. And another one. Soon it seems that a massacre was committed there. But the locals are silents like the stones and refuse to give any details. And then, a local elder is killed but it may be more than a simple robbery. Detective Kubu´s mission is to shed light into this case and separate the doubts from certainties.

The story is fascinating because while it follows the crime novel format, it has a very local touch, integrating elements of culture and anthropology in a highly regarding approach to the culture and its people. I wish there are more and more crime novels placed outside our ´predictable´ Western world. Both detectives and crimes happen everywhere and the more diverse the coverage the better for the genre.

A Deadly Covenant is a very intelligent, page-turning novel with smart twists and a local story. A perfect combo for the chair travellers crime-lovers minds.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Book Review: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

´So between you I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all´.

I am terribly disappointed in my reading choices for having a practically non-existat knowledge about Carribean literature, both in terms of authors and topics. Although it may sound fake to pretend and promise in 12 months it will be much better, I will anyway do my best to correct it.

For now, I had my first important lecture from this realm: Wide Sargasso Sea by Dominican- British writer Jean Rhys. Published in  the 1960s, the book is important not only from the point of view of the topic, but also from the literary novelty as it is set as a postcolonial adaptation of Brontë´s Jane Eyre. But even for someone who never read this classical novel or did it too long ago to remember the details, Wide Sargasso Sea has a strong literary point to prove anyway. 

Antoinette Cosway, the main character in the book is a kind of mad woman in the attic - and she will be even re-named Bertha. Mr. Rochester is the man who left England for the dream of the Carribbean, while Antoinette herself dreams passionately about England. Antoinette, rejected by a mother with a complex mental illness history, will end up being herself caught into the social web of mental stigmatisation. (Right now I am in process of reading Rachel Aviv´s Strangers to Ourselves, that may fuel some clinical examples to the story of social construction of mental illness in general).

The ambiance elements are very strong, with traces of patois and various local legends intertwinned to and adorning the main narrative. To this, adds on the racial intricacies in a place taking over from the colonial era, but dominated by racial categorisations of skin shades and race-based social differences. It is also a world of black magic and ancestral traditions dislocated by the new world while reinserted into the modernized contexts.

From the literary point of view, personally I was delighted by the literary style, the point-counterpoint smooth translation from a chapter to another, the dialogues between characters and the small intrigues adding a special narrative dynamic to the story. 

May be that Wide Sargasso Sea was among my first Carribean novels to review, nevertheless one that left me a strong impression and made me even more curious to understand more about this realm. My Carribean challenge is now on!

Rating: 4.5 stars

Akzentfrei by Yoko Tawada

A collection of short literary essays about languages and literary journey, Akzentfrei - Without an Accent, in my own translation - by Berlin-based Japanese author Yoko Tawada is an important reference for books written in German by non-German born authors. 

Particularly the essay that gives the name of the collection, Akzentfrei. In your everyday life conversations as a non-German, your ´accent´ is often a passive-aggressive reaction against the difference. Job applications can be rejected and people´s ´linguistic allegiance´ is automatically denied based on the accent. Ironically, Germany itself has a high variations of accents that may make dialects spoken in different part of the country hard to understand by a native speaker him-/herself. Articulately, Tawada pledges the cause of accents as a very unique personal feature that enriches the community where spoken while empowers the speaker.

Tawada´s essays are rich in various linguistic references, particularly from Japanese. I love those kinds of analogies and genealogies and therefore the collection was a pleasure and a revelation. I don´t remember to have been reading a similar take on language by non-German authors but nevertheless I wish that there are more such collections and bold takes on language. After all, the way in which we speak and accept other people´s speaking measures the degree of tolerance within a society.

An amalgame of linguistic, anthropological, cultural and historical references, Akzentfrei is both a social and cultural testimony, from a German realm still looking for its own measure of tolerance.

Rating: 4 stars 

Random Things Tours: The Pain Tourist by Paul Cleave

I don´t remember right now to have read any other crime thriller author from New Zealand but Paul Cleave. The Quiet People was a very pleasant surprise that stayed with me for a long time after reading, both in terms of plot and writing construction. His latest, The Pain Tourist, it only gets better...and better.

James Garrett was only 11 when he assisted to the murdering of his parents. Severly injured during the incident, he slept in a coma for 9 years, dreaming his own life. When he woke up from this long sleep, at 20, there is a life he left behind but his re-birth is about to be cut shortly as the criminal seems to be targeting him, as the other survivor of the tragedy, alongside his sister Hazel. Detective Rebecca Kent took over the case that have not been solved by the now retired detective Theodor Tate. Meanwhile, Kent is caught in another investigation of crimes that may or may not lead to the other crime she investigates.

Cleave controls perfectly the plot, playing funnily with our hungry minds for clarity. I don´t know how many times I naively believed in what it looks like the shortcut to a solution, when I was eons far away from the final verdict. The journey through the comatose world of Garrett is a trip through the brain and adds more depth to the story, a dreamworld layer.

The story is fast-paced, installed through short-chapters. The reader is took to a ride with unexpected end, seasoned with sarcasm and humour. I couldn´t resist to stop reading until the very end, but I wish this book is turned into a movie too, so I can also visualise everything I´ve read breathless at least one more time.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Book Review: Summerwater by Sarah Moss

I was really entinced by Ghost Wall, particularly the sharpness of setting up a highly meaningful topic within an everyday life encounter. And it is rightly so, as (bad) habits and (mis)interpretations rarely took place at a larger scale in a neutral, ´academic´ environment. Rather, ideas took out of the context are spreading with the speed of light through the simple daily interactions and communication.

Her other novel I had the chance to read, Summerwater, which has a scent of lockdown feeling although finished way before the Covid epidemics is set within one day, during the summer holidays, in the Scottish Trossack. The residents of the wooden holiday cabins do have secrets, long for privacy for all the good and wrong reasons, are undecided or just confused. But all do have a big or small issue with the residents of one of the cabins - some loud Romanians/ Bulgarians/Ukrainians/etc. Instead of regarding them as just another holidaying family in Scotland, they are judged and labelled and definitely rejected as members of the summer collective. Until all the tensions will burst out. 

I just mentioned in another post I´ve written today about my fascination with beautiful nature writing. The nature intermezzo in Moss´ book are perfect such depictions, atmospheric and emotionally detailed. Except that the comparison between humans and animals is not always working. But in sounds fairy-tale-like and therefore acceptable.

An interesting aspect explored in the book has to do with cohabitation. Either in the family or in the community, sharing your space with other human being doesn´t come easy and involves a tremendous constant effort of negotiation and reconsideration. 

Summerwater do echoes some lines of thought from Ghost Wall but it goes deeper into the human closets of the brain and humanity in general. It does not fully resonate with my mindset or approach but nevertheless it shares a writing philosophy and set of values.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Amina Cain on Writing

 

Writing is one of the most complex creative human experience,  By words only, one should convene feelings and sounds and images. Just like this, by knitting words together and melting them into the pot of imagination. 

Literary diaries written by authors themselves may enlightens us, the readers, about the sparkle that is added to the sometimes long and mentally demanding writing process. This is what Amina Cain´s A Horse at Night, On Writing it is mostly about. 

I didn´t have the chance yet to read other books by her, but I can´t wait to check by myself how she put into practice the art of writing in images and landscapes. I am always mesmerized about the strength of words to convene images and trying to trace the intellectual exercise leading to it is both inspiring and motivating - particularly if you are stuck with your ´other´ writing for years already. 

But writing means not only building up with words. It also means sharing one´s identity challenges and changes, in the vein of Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi or essentializing the written expression for a meaningful wording reality, like in the works of Lydia Davis, both authors an inspiration for Cain. And I definitely share the interest in artistic insertions into the writing stories, with paintings being another meta level of creativity worth to consider.

A Horse at Night is an important source for both writers and translators, looking to expand their writing skills and emotional outreach. And I can´t wait to read her Indelicacy, already on my ´emergency´ TBR, together with other hundreds of books. 

Rating: 5 stars 

Random Things Tours: The Vicious Circle by Katherine St. John

 

I am very interested in understanding how and especially why our minds are so blindly following cultish movements and particularly their leaders, either for political or so-called ´wellness´ and ´self-help´ reasons. The nonfictional accounts are usually helpful in understading the factual realities, but the fictional support offers always an incentive to imagination. Because cults, in general, are based less on realities, but on irrealities sold as a steady future.

For the lovers of such creative investigations into the cultish mind, but also for the thriller fans, The Vicious Circle by Katherine St. John offers a captivating read. Sveta is a socialite, with a career in modelling, engaged with a rich and successful man. As her uncle Paul dies suddenly, it seems that she is the inheritor of a wellness empire in the heart of the Mexican jungle. But on the way to paying respect to her uncle, bizarre occurences and coincidences are becoming more worrisome than the chance of being assigned such a fantastic business opportunity. A poisonous present? A conspiracy playing with her assumed innocence. 

Both the action of the book and the characters are blood tingling. There are brutal and greedy characters, manipulative and double-faced. The secrets they hide add other layers of darkness. Sveta is caught into a labyrinth of lies with no escape in sight.

The Vicious Circle is an action packed thriller book, with insights into the dark sides of the brains and equally brainy explorations of the cultish movements, their followers and instigators.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: The Bookseller´s Secret by Michelle Gable

There is a lot to be said about Nancy Mitford, a successful author and a flamboyant woman, with a life larger than life itself. Her life inspired NYT bestseller author Michelle Gable, with her being the main character of The Bookseller´s Secret. 

Mitford, a successful writer in the making, is estranged from her husband and complex family - in terms of political allegiances and not only - and is starting her life anew as a bookseller. Eight decades later, another woman, Katie Cabot, also a writer, is visiting London aiming at finding a lost manuscript. 

Connecting the two women through books and time, the book has a complex narrative structure and elaborated characters. Women are the most visible characters in the story, profiled not only through their individual, sometimes revolutionary actions, but also from the perspective of their solidarity and the empathy they may share towards each other. Some men in the book do appear as characters aimed at supporting women characters or at least encouraging their aspirations, and this is a hopeful view on things as well.

A great read for anyone interested to read novels inspired by books and literature, The Bookseller´s Secret is not only a match between historical fiction and literary history, but also a book featuring women and what connects them through ages. Add to this that there is some book mystery included as well and you have an exciting book idea to add to your TBR.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Tree Glee by Cheryl Rickmann

I wish I can write more blog post appreciation about trees. I spent part of my happy childhood years surrounded by nature, climbing on trees and hiding in the garden. As a teenager, my holidays were mostly spent exploring the mountains and nowadays, when I feel down or too tired, I take a long walk around some of the many forests bordering Berlin. No need of medicine or therapy or any other tricks. A simple walk in the midst of a quiet forest means everything for me. It´s my source of life.

Tree Glee. How&Why Trees Make Us Feel Better by writer, tree lover and positive psychology practitioner Cherly Rickmann is just another love letter to the trees I had the chance to read lately. Beautifully illustrated with - what else - photos of trees, the book is a guide and an inspiration for anyone looking for a healthy alternative to the daily stress. 

Trees offer comfort and escape, do have a restorative power and do influence in a positive way the mental health. Based on her own experience as a tree lover and psychology practioner, Rickmann offer a very practical pathway to a more meaningful and positive life realm, through a genuine reconnection with trees and what they mean for us, as individuals and society. 

With an increase in urbanization and a surge of time spent indoors, understand How&Why Trees Make Us Feel Better is a guide beyond borders and ages. It is a gentle call to return to our natural roots, and as the trees, grow up boldly acknowledging where our ground and source of life is.

Tree Glee is an more than a book that helps you ´feel good´, it is a support for building up a life worth living.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Belly Woman by Benjamin Black

 

Words on paper do have a fantastic power to share and eventually change. Without stories and testimonies we cannot find the truth, we are unable to grasp realities and eventually take steps towards changing.

Besides saving lives in West Africa and consulting international aid organisations, Dr. Benjamin Black shared his experiences in helping pregnant women to survive extreme epidemic conditions, particularly ebola in a working memoir, Belly Woman published by Neem Tree Press. Almost every two minutes, a woman dies as result of pregnancy-related complications. Affected are mostly women from a precarious social and economic background. 

What can a doctor do in such circumstances, lacking proper funding and medical facilities?  The testimonies of Dr. Benjamin Black are an example of human dedication and highest professional standards. However, it also demonstrates how limited is our knowledge in this field and how much we need to think in terms of various circumstances and special conditions. Sexual and reproductive health rights during epidemics is rarely discussed but a reality for the doctors trying to save lives on a daily basis.

Belly Woman is an eye opening evidence of the fragility of the woman condition and the need to change the policies, particularly at the level of international organisations in this respect. For those considering to follow a career in the medical field, this book shows why such a profession is among the most important in the world and the huge responsibility a doctor has. 

It is an inspiring and thoughful read, and an important contribution to the medical nonfiction books about countries coping with the dramatic combined effects of epidemics and social crisis.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Bloody Soil by S.Lee Manning

 

Less than ten years ago, a novel build around a neo-Nazi conspiracy aimed at taking over Germany would have been rather a subject of science fiction than of a spy novel. Nowadays, everything can be as much possible as impossible. The world we are living is becoming a turmoil of unexpected events than the result of rational interesection of well meant actors. Cold War is far away, but in terms of stability under constraint, it was a more predictable realm.

Bloody Soil by S. Lee Manning, an author I had the chance to feature almost one year ago, is set in a Germany that sounds and looks like an upgraded version of Weimar Republic; about to explode and be taken over an anti-immigration movement with clear and open neo-Nazi roots. Lisette, the daughter of a lawyer who was murdered for his involvement on behalf of immigrants, started her own search for a man with a wolf tattoo, the perpetrator of the crime against his father. She is set to do it with any price, even by infiltrating the neo-Nazi movement itself and becoming the girlfriend of the closest associate of the man who is supposed to lead Germany.

But the earthquake it is supposed to take place in Germany doesn´t leave indifferent its old or new allies, therefore, Lisette´s personal vendetta is spinned into an international web of spies, deceit and search for justice. The topic in itself require a complex plot and characters´ planning skills, but Bloody Soil does not disappoint not only because everything comes rightly into place, but also because as a spy thriller it has intelligent and surprising twists. I preferred to let myself lead by the story, without daring to imagine too much where it will lead to in the end and was not disappointed. 

Bloody Soil is a recommended read to the lovers of spy novels set in our times, anchored in contemporary events and mentalities. It also has a good depictions of German places, very atmospheric and realistic.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Book Review: The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon

 

Some authors do the magic of bringing on a ride even the most reluctant readers. During the lifespan of the book, you are part of a different reality, watching the events until the very end. This is what happened to me this weekend, while completely immersed in The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon. 

It was my first time ´meeting´ Solomon, whose previous books were multi-awarded and received admirative reviews. In The Days of Afrekete - Afrekete is an African name to a Black mother and/or a goddess and the name Audre Lorde chose for herself later in life - Lisette is a Black Lesbian woman, who married Winn, a white middle-class man. As the book starts, she is about to organise a party for his fundraisers, although he just lost his political bid. Plus, and this only Lisette knows, FBI is tracing him for purposed mismanagement of campaign funds.

Acknowledging her ´routine deprivation´ of being Black, gay, woman, Lisette is graciously playing her assigned roles in a society extremely sensitive to social and racial layers. The complex interactions are very well reflected into the exchange of the characters and their behaviors, in a very immersive way. This is one of the many reasons I keep following the book without too many breaks, because I was interested where exactly those interactions are leading to. 

To her current career-less life as a companion of a man with political ambitions, the past story of her nervous relationships with women, especially with Selena, are completing the timeline. The gay layer of the story is equally interesting for the 

Although the story is engaging in its focus on present, many of the characters do lack a certain complexity and a place in the story, starting with the husband, Winn. Selena do have the potential of a multi-layered character too, but it looks like she is deprived of too much autonomy. The social aspects, no matter how elaborated, took over the story and block at a certain extent the events of the story to happen. 

I wished The Days of Afrekete delivers even more in terms of story, but even under the certain circumstances is eye opening for a large range of topics and interests that I am very much convinced I will follow in my next readings.

Rating: 3.5 stars 

Book Review: Bookends by Michael Chabon

My first and even second encounter with Michael Chabon were interesting from the point of view of insertion of Jewish topics into literary context. Sometimes I loved the humour too. But I was not necessarily entinced by the political stances therefore I rather skipped his last two or three releases. My reason is not necessarily because I do no accept other people may see things completely different than I do, but black and white views, sounding fancy and self-hate only because this is a certain public clapping the hands when hearing what they expect to, do literally bore me. 

Bookends, a collection of essays about his formative literary experience, looked like an encouragement to reconnect, at least through works which do lack any international politics reference. He brings on a lot of love for the ´comic strip´ and basic science fiction books. Comics are a late love of mine, and I still struggle to accept science fiction, but his love for the genre is contagious.

The Pullitzer Prize winner do also share few advices for authors. Some details about how to organise and find your subject are useful, some sound a bit cynical - like, for instance, to avoid getting an advance for writing in order to avoid being the slave of a book that in the end you might not write. Of course, when you have enough money to afford taking non-working time for writing, it may work, otherwise, not necessarily.

The short articles and essays from Bookends do help understanding the literary roots of some of his writings, both in terms of ideas and bibliography. Most importantly for me, it helps me to reconsider science fiction as genre although I am sure it will take a bit more to really dedicate some to a book belonging to this category. Nevertheless, it´s worth thinking about it once in a while. As for other books by Chabon, I am now ready to continue the literary exploration.

Rating: 3 stars

Book Review: Small Things Like This by Claire Keegan

 

I would have never encounter Claire Keegan if not for her nomination for The Booker Prize. It is a pitty that our interest for books is so limited to what kind of sources of information we have, but at least it is much better than not having any source of information at all. No matter how biased some prizes may be in terms of geography and ideological choices, rarely I had the feeling of dealing with a bad choice. Especially for the works in translation outside the priviledged English-speaking realm, I will be for ever grateful for having discovered unique authors like Bora Chung. 

But I am not necessarily a throughout follower and extensive reader of the books on the Booker Prize list, as I have (way too) many other ways to select my next reads. However, I do have an old literary interest in books with a social layer, and eventually dealing with historical abuses. Arts and particularly literature amplify the voices of the oppressed and forgotten.

This is the case with the (unfortunatelly too) short novel by Irish author Claire Keegan Small Things Like These. It is based on an episode only lately revealed in the history of the Catholic Church in Ireland, mainly the infamous case of Magdalene laundries. 

A woman is discovered in a laundry, confused, asking about her lost baby. She is found by Furlong, a working class man born without knowing his father. The women working in the laundry were all labelled ´disturbed´ and of low morals by the rest of the inhabitants. Furlong´s encounter enchains not only his own memories, but also projections of ´what ifs´ and a more sensitive observation of the world around, the first trigger of critical thinking. 

Claire Keegan´s writing is precise, with the perfect economy of words targeting directly the element matching the story. All the pieces are coming along together and I can only regret that this episode is treated only so shortly. I would have expected a novel about it, but in the end, the choice of the form belongs to the author, as well as the success of its achievements is a matter of talent and deep knowledge of wording ways.

Rating: 4.5 stars