Random Things Tours: The Translator by Harriet Crawley

When you put together a diplomatic translator, a post-Cold War drama that involves just another Russian-led sabotage attempt, plus some romance in the shadow of political dramas, you got my full attention. If the post-Cold War struggle for influence and power is constantly featured in well written political thrillers, the character of the translator is almost absent. I can hardly remember a novel I actually liked that assigns any front row to a translator character.

Therefore, a novel with this complex profession in the title sounded as a perfect time investment. The Translator by Harriet Crawley is an ice breaker but more than that. Set on the background of an expected sabotage of the undersea Internet cable by a Russia lead by a president Serov, the translators are playing the roles of the saviors usually attributed to spies in the Cold War novels. Actually, they are supposed to save the free world. Clive and Marina, rekindling an old love, are ready to give up everything for sparing the world from a dramatic communication sabotage. 

The author is well familiar with the post-Soviet world, as she lived for 20 years in Moscow and is a fluent Russian-speaker. But besides the good knowledge of the world she is writing about, she is as well versed in the art of the political thriller, building up the right amount of tension and the suspense as the action is speeding up as the clock is ticking louder and louder. Will the sabotage succeeed in the end or the translators are really about to save our old European world as we know it?

A recommended read to any lover of political thrillers and international intrigues.

Rating: 4 stars

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

An Animal Chronicle

Books for adults distributing animals as main characters are hard to written good, without becoming too cliché and attributing to the four-feet intentions and emotions the humans may be openly express as well. My favorite so far is Timbuktu by Paul Auster, a short and very emotional novel about a dog about to become homeless as his human is dying. 

But I have a new favorite though: Temps de Chien/Dog Days by Cameroon-born and German-educated Patrice Nganang. The main character of the book and the first-person storyteller is the dog philosopher Mboudjak, a chronicler of the daily human fights and interactions in Yaoundé, Cameroon´s capital city. 

From his low standpoint he is looking up to the human misery, their cheating and fighting and murderous intentions and sometimes facts. Although he is more than a simple observer, and he is intensely experiencing his human stories, Mboudjak prefers to stay in his corner and notice the humans, with humour yet healthy distance.

He is also documenting the torments on the streets of Yaoundé, the political and social struggle, the corruption and the inequities. But everything with a smile and some good laughs too. In the original French version, the book is intense, with vivid dialogues and puns.

And if you thought dog´s life is hard, then you should try at least once to change seats with a dog and notice what really means to be a human...

Rating: 4 stars

Rachel's Random Resources: The Good Patient by Alex Stone

 

An exploration of emotional and mental trauma, The Good Patient by Alex Stone is an unputdownable psychological thriller. As a rule, I usually refuse to separate mayself from a good thriller, at least until it is clear for me what is the solution. Not in this case, though, as I simply devoured the book in a bit over four hours, one lazy weekend day at a time. 

A fantastic achievement of this book is in my opinion, the suspense built carefully that leave you guessting from the very beginning until the end. It´s a special art of the thriller writer that Alex Stone really used it generously. 

From outside, the long relationship between Lauren and Josh looks more than perfect. Young, in love and successful. But there are a few dark secrets in this relationship that not everyone is privy about. Dr. Abhilash Menon - inspired by a real character from Alex Stone´s personal real life - as a different version though, based on his intensive care he offered to Lauren in the last weeks. Thus, when Josh disappears and Lauren ends up - again - in the ER, he may guess something no one is aware about.

In addition to the well-built suspense permeating every step of the story, The Good Patient displays as well a very interesting cast of characters, whose psychological depth - with both good and bad parts - is extremely challenging. The reader may change his or her mind every chapter, at least, as new elements and details are insidiously introduced into the story. 

This book is a recommended read for anyone looking to explore trauma stories as shared through Lauren, supported by the faithful Dr. Menon. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: The Ugly Truth by LC North

 

When a local socialite disappeared, rumours about the reason and her location took over the social media. From one day to another, fragments of truth are exposed by different people that got in touch with her or familiar with her situation. She may be taken captive by her rich father, Sir Peter Lange. But the father himself is trying to convince the public opinion that the measure is temporarily as his younger daughter is treated in a private mental clinic. 

Echoing #FreeBritney campaign, The Ugly Truth by LC North is a suspenseful novel built on different episodes. The different testimonies and points of view of different characters involved in Melanie´s life and affected by her disappearance created a multi-faceted story. The different perspectives, in different formats - interviews, social media shots, testimonies - do create a diversity of situations, bringing up new details or conflicting information. It looks like a skillful game of mirrors the author created in order to confuse us. 

As an engaged reader who adores to make her own assumptions, I kept changing my scenario over and over again, until the very end of the story, and still haven´t get at least 50% of the ending right. I took ot as a smart challenge and a plus for the book. 

The construction of the story is purely addictive and The Ugly Truth kept me very busy for few hours, with anything else seemed to be more important than understanding what exactly happened to Melanie and especially why. 

The talented author of this psychological thriller loves to tell stories about families and their dark secrets and, obviously, loves psychology too. I can only add her name on my list of authors I will definitely want to hear more and more about. Especially to read their books.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Graphic Novel Book Review: Just Another Meat Eating Dirtbag by Michael Anthony

 

Love changes everything and there are few things - if any - left when we have to fight hard for our love. Iraq war veteran Michael Anthony had a relatively easier decision to take when faced with keeping the love of his life, Coconut. Becoming a vegetarian - not necessarily per convinction but...again...for love and lvoe only - was his love´s hard labour and although he hesitated more than once, in the end he followed the heart and waltzed the Vegetarian game.

The illustrated memoir - with images by debut graphic artist Chai Simone - Just Another Meat Eating Dirtbag has humour and a bit of cynical take, but it´s a thoughtful and direct story of thinking and re-thinking the relationship with meat, through the lenses of a love story. Indeed, love comes first but what about being honest? It´s sometimes a risk not always worth taking it, particularly in love.

The illustrations do give a certain dynamic to the story, through the colourful and full of life visual characters. I appreciated the honesty and the irony and the attractive design, qualities that I always appreciate to both humans and books. 

A recommended read to anyone keen to discover an different kind of love story translated into a graphic novel.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Many thanks to Anne Cater for the opportunity of reading this book. 

Random Things Tours: Forgotten Women by Zing Tsjeng

In the last years, more and more books, articles and movies do aim to reveal stories about women whose contribution to science, arts and politics was previously either neglected or obstructed from being made public. It started with the ´Radium Girls´, working class women who died from radiation poisoning and continued with women pilots and spies during WWII, or involved in the American projects of building up the atomic capabilities during Cold War. Practically, we need more and more examples to convince everyone that women can do everything and they always used to. Except that very often their achievements were hidden from the public eye, for all the wrong reasons.

Journalist and author Zing Tsjeng collected a tremendous amount of examples across centuries, of women stories. Forgotten women stories, to be more specific. Her book, Forgotten Women. The Leaders collected an impressive collection of examples, organised in some important chapters: Campaigners, Mavericks, Revolutionaries, Trailblazers, World changers, Truth tellers, Visionaries. 

Well-researched and written in a simple yet impactful journalistic style, the book offers enough stories that can be used in classrooms, for educating both girls and boys, but also for journalists and writers, that could use the material in order to continue featuring women stories. The more the better. 

The book is so dense that even someone who may consider her or himself knowledgeable in the field would find enough unknown profiles of famous women who lead the world to a better place, either in the arts, politics or education field, to mention only few areas covered.

Forgotten Women is a book that will bring us more knowledge and understanding about women leaders and histories. A recommended read to anyone curious about a more complex and comprehensive way to read history.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Book Review: The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai

Built around the stories of a house using to host a colony of artists, The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai is a story made of intertwinned memories. Set in different timelines, from our current times to the beginning of the 20th century. 

I fell in love with Makkai´s writing since reading The Great Believers and The Hundred-Year... do have the promise of a story well told. Actually, each of the separate timelines describing the intrigues and drama of the artists does have a promising storytelling background. However, the plot is often broken as it simply looks of not going anywhere, with a very slow motioned character development stopped short once the focus is smoothly switched to the action.

I may be biased, as I usually prefer stories set in our current times, but the beginning of the novel, focused on an evolving shy love story between Doug - obsessed about Edward Parfitt, a once resident of the colony, married with Zee, whose mother is the daughter of the colony owner, and Miriam, also part of the colony´s family, an artist of recycled everything. The characters are alive and their story has an inner pace, until it simply stops to be took over to the other sequences of the history, which are by far extremely slow and not necessarily going anywhere. 

However, the story is dense and there is a red thread to follow, adding surprising layers of information to the general history. Only that for my taste, it may either too slow or just sparsely connected to the narrative.

Those shortcomings though will not change an ounce my overall appreciation for Makkai´s style and I can´t wait to read her latest book: I Have Some Questions for You.

Rating: 3 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: Ten Dates by Rachel Dove

What can you do when the love of your life forgot ever being in love with you? How can you fill the years and recreate the experience of the first dates, not only for rekindling the flame, but for getting your past and ultimately, your love, back?

Ten Dates by Rachel Dove is a sweet romantic novel, about a couple - Alice and Callum - in love. But their love story was cut short after Alice was the victim of a car accident. In coma for a couple of months, as she woke up, she could not remember the last two years of their common life. Callum will try, in just ten dates, to convince her to fall in love with him again.

I loved how slowly we are introduced into the story and the beginning convinced me to keep and keep reading. For me, it was an easy, weekend read, but very emotional, as it deals with the processes taking place into our brains while highlighting the fragility of life and love.

I also loved the idea of doing all possible to get the loved one back, to fight against oblivion against all odds. Callum´s fight to get his Alice back is very romantic and heroic, a reminder that love still has a price worth paying for.

Ten Dates is a perfect read for hopeful romantics and anyone interested in a different take on falling in love and fighting for love in a completely unexpected situation.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Bring on More Energy!

 

Spring is - finally - around the corner, and it is the right time to start cutting short the bad life and eating habits. Particularly during this time of the year, affected by the change of seasons and temperature is prone to various health challenges. Our modern life is rarely taking a healthy break and trying to get things done makes us often deaf to the urgent calls of our body to hear its needs.

Dr. med. Anne Fleck is close through her professional and family ties to the Kneipp movement, a German-bread health philosophy encouraging, among others a return to the rhythms of the nature and a balance between body movement, eating and finding the right work/life balance. Her book Energy! in 5 Minutes that I had access to in audiobook format offers tons of ideas and tips, including through self-assessment questionaries, aimed at taking the chronic tiredness at a different, self-care-oriented level.

Although I am on the skeptical side when it comes to the homeopathic/plants-oriented, anti-medicine of some medical schools of thought in Germany, I think that listening to your body and trying to understand - through the right medical consultation - what your body - and mind - needs, is important. As it is equally important to have the knowledge for making the right choices in terms of food and healthy life habits.

The book - as for now, only available in German - teaches the reader to identify, with the dedication of a detective, those factors that may affect one´s degree of energy - like dirt in the apartment or lack of sleep, but also how to prevent an chronical sickness to take over your body. As everything when it comes to the German mentality, prevention is key.

A recommended read to anyone looking to catch up some healthy habits and offer a well-deserved spring body to his or hed body.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Random Things Tours: A Psychic Subterfuge by JP Alters

 

Paranormal books are a very rare choice of lectures in my books. This genre was so much abused for very kitschy reasons that I am very cautious in terms of the topic and approach. But this year I want to give a try in terms of diverse topics and expand my literary realm and experiences.

Therefore, giving a try to debut author JP Alters - a pseudonym - and her first installment of A Psychic Subterfuge went hand in hand with my plan. There are so many interesting parts of the story that interested me: the character, Mary Jameson is a diagnosed schizophrenic and her attempts to dismantle a dangerous conspiracy do mirror questions about her sanity. Is she really serious or it is just the result of her troubled mind? This narrow distinction is fascinated to follow in the different episodes of the story.

Personally, I´ve found very entertaining and highly challenging the association between paranormal and thriller. Besides getting the best of both worlds, it also creates so many opportunities to build up suspense and tension in the most unexpected, (para)normal ways. Thus, even the most skeptical and cautious readers - like me - may feel caught into the web of stories and stop having second thoughts about the - almost compromised - genre.

For curious and open minded readers, as well as for thriller AND paranormal lovers, A Psychic Subterfuge is a pleasurable and action filled book and that left me curious to find out what gonna happen next to the main character of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Compulsive Readers Book Tour: The Accident by Julia Stone

 

What would you do when while driving someone, a woman to be more precise, is falling down on your car, from a bridge? The woman dies while the driver is took to the hospital. The driver too, may not take any easy explanation for an answer. Plus she is a genealogist, therefore, may have some experience in terms of tracking difficult cases. This is the beginning of a long and complex story of lies and deceit.

The Accident by Julia Stone is a novel of psychological suspense, carefully built with characters with at least one hidden face. A great start for building a web of fragments of truth and as many lies. Slow paced but in an engaging kind of way, the story is taking the reader to the hidden mechanisms of lies and how they may bring us together and take over our lives, until the very last breath.

I really liked to be taken into this story, trying to figure out - guided by the book thread or just by myself - the mystery of the falling woman. The problemsolver-in-chief, Janice Thomason, is smart and relatable, able to smartly control her dark and bright sides.

Overall, a psychological suspense worth spending some hours with. The Accident is intelligent and carefully build up, a wandering through the shadows of untruth and secrets.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: TEKEBASH & SABA- Recipes from the Horn of Africa by Saba Alemayoh

Travel around the world one plate at a time may be as extraordinary as changing airplanes and taking long journeys around the world. When it comes to food, well curated recipes featuring international cuisines may be an unique opportunity to open up to specific histories and cultures, one spice at a time. 

With influences from the Sudanese and Ethiopian cuisine, the traditional meals from Tigray are featured in Tekabash&Saba. Recipes from the Horn of Africa, a mother and daughter experience of East African identity. Saba Alemayoh, after a career in the Australian Army, among the first women to go to combat, is the owner of a successful restaurant in Melbourn, Saba serving a fine selection of Eastern African dishes. 

The book, with a beatiful cover and equally beautiful illustrations is an introduction to the geography and tastes of East Africa, particularly Tigray, Ethiopia´s northernmost state. The cuisine mostly developed under the impact of faith and available resources. 

The backbone recipes of the cuisine are three essential recipes: tesmi - spiced butter, injera - fermented flatbread where, for instance, different meals spread on, instead of dishes (and there is another type of flatbread, the kicha), and dilik or berbere - a kind of powdered chilli mix or paste (the recipes of how to prepare all of them are also included). Ingredients such as chickpea are one of the most used and appreciated, present in various combinations in the recipes of local meals, such as vegan scrambled eggs that I´ve tried and keep perfecting it over and over again. Some combinations are unique, like the cardamom seeds into the shiro powder. The stuffed green chillies, the accompaniment for meat dishes, are also an excellent and easy recipe to try. For a long summer evening, shredded flatbread with tomato sauce is an fresh choice, to be prepared within minutes (as a matter of fact, the book does not inlude the time requested for preparation, and it may be a bit confusing, but after you try the recipes - or just have an acknowledgeable look over the recipes themselves - one may just realize that mostly one may not spend more than 30 minutes preparing it). It also features one of my favorite veggie, Okra - or Bamya - which is such a pleasure to match with meat or vegetarian dishes. 

The recipes are sharing stories of her mother´s and her own´s life. They also introduce the readers into the everyday pace and customs of the average Tigraweyti family, a priviledge to be taken with gratitude. 

Most of the ingredients featured can be easily found in the ´ethnic food´ stores from all over the world. The recipes are easy to follow and written in a way that addresses both the experiences and the beginner cook.

Tekebash&Saba are an extraordinary introduction into the food culture in this part of the world. A very delicious invitation, actually.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: The Scapegoat by Michael V. Solomon

The poet Ovid, exiled at the far away borders of the Roman Empire, in what is now the city of Constanța, in Romania is par excellence the symbol of the artist punished by the a government for expressing his opinions. The Emperor Augustus who sent Ovid out of the Roman sights can be any of the political actors unhappy and jealous on the popularity of artists and intellectuals in general. Except that since then, free thinkers faced much worse punishments that spending some time in a quiet place at the border of the Black Sea: as we can still see all around our world, in Iran or Russia or Belarus or Azerbaijan, they may pay with their own lives. Ovid escaped those attempts against his life, others haven´t.

Romanian-German author Michael V. Solomon took upon himself the enormous duty of imagining the story of Ovid out of his exile. Such a literary task is extremely hard because re-writing the past is a risky bet. However, The Scapegoat, the fate of Ovid as he is returning to Rome is a historical rendition with strong references to our current world affairs and ways of dealing with the world in general. The story is also a bitter lesson of what happens when the world of words and the politics collide. 

The Scapegoat is a thoughtful and interesting novel, with a good historical background research and unique take on historical facts. A long yet heartly recommended weekend read.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Emergence by Guy Portman

A teenage sociopath with a love for mathematics and precision, Horatio is set to act once and for ever against the main source of his latest problems. While suspended from school, he has plenty of time to plot a sweet revenge, that he is planning with the same fine precision he is using for solving complex mathematical questions.

Emergence by author Guy Portman is the fourth book in the Necropolis series. I may confess that I haven´t read any of the previous books from the series, but I didn´t feel too lost while reading it. I am definitely interested to find out more about the characters and the topics featured, anyway, and hopefully will be able to continue with the rest of the series soon.

The psychological aspects of the book, reflected through the characters, are really entincing. It´s like we are offered a short trip into the darkest rooms of the human mind. The audience addressed is both young adult reader and more adult reader. But what it really matters is the story and the way in which it is built. From this point of view, the book has an universal take, while sharing a dark, humorous story.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Beautiful Shining People by Michael Grothaus

 

A dystopic novel set in a Tokyo of the near future, Beautiful Shining People by novelist and author Michael Grothaus is so many things at once, but first and foremost it´s a fascinating book. I am usually a very rare reader of dystopic books but I can hardly refuse myself not reading anything Orenda Books is publishing and with such a high publishing rate I may end up turning my blog into an Orenda Appreciation Blog. 

Plus, as I have lived and worked for one year in Japan, I love being there even only through the pages of the book and, as this time, in a future populated with robots and drones - robots exist already and even work in Toyota factory so we are not too far away lost in the time translation, anyway. This book took the reader to places like Hiroshima and Nagano, searching for a mysterious secret but first and foremost for human connection. 

Philosophically speaking, the speculative story does have, beyond the quest for community beyond what makes us consider each other ´different´ - in the out of normal sense - is why are we setting for in this life. In this life or in another one, which does not make always sense. Why to long for the uncertain when we have this material real world - although unfolding in a drone observed future, among others?Why not, in the end, accept our daily ephemeral condition instead of dreaming loud for THE world to come, even not sure if heading somewhere will actually lead us anywhere at all.

Beautiful Shining People, which also has a beautiful cover in addition to the magnetic story, is a human story, with its own layers of deep philosophical questioning. Space travel may not be my thing but a journey through the human realm definitly is. And this journey is always worth taking it.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Awakening the Power of Self-Publishing by Rudo Muchoko

Self-publishing may not be necessarily a new thing nowadays, but as the publishing industry is becoming more structured and ultimately, niche, there are never enough references aimed at helping more or less experienced authors to reach their publishing goals. 

After working herself in the publishing industry, Rudo Muchoko is wisely sharing her survival tips and not only in a book with an inspiring title: Awakening the Power of Self-Publishing. 

The book though has more than very useful tips about how to launch your self-publishing career in a digitalised world. It empowers the first or second or even more times author to think about writing from a fresh and profit - both economically and professional perspective. Because, what is an author without a public to reach and learning how to go to your public is as importat for an author as writing the book. For instance, there are tips on book branding and book formatting, as well as about understanding the role of the editor and copy-editing your book.

The book is writing in an engaging way, bringing the author closer to his or her incoming problems, while easening the process along the way. 

A recommended book to anyone keen to write and publish a book as a self-publishing author.

Rating: 4 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 Cheesemaker´s House by Jane Cable

As usual, it is my great pleasure to be part of a special event organised by the multi-awarded Rachel´s Random Resources. 

The cover reveal of The Cheesemaker´s House by Jane Cable is a new visual rendition of the romance bestseller. Trying to forget a cheating husband, Alice is trying to find peace in her second home in Yorkshire, in the company of William, her Spaniel. Her refuge is not necessarily offering her the quiet nest she was looking for, but it definitely helps her to break up with a toxic past. 

The cover, a photography which makes you think to a silent retreat in the middle of the nature, is simple yet very suggestive. It makes you think of a woman taking a break from the daily chaos, to find herself and enjoy the silence of her own thoughts. Just like Alice, the main character of the book. The lettering, made of different sizes and colours, is directing the view to follow the text, from the title to the smaller undertitle, outlining the story-promise of the book: ´A new start means new neighbours, from present and past´. The cover offers enough visual and written information to send to the potential reader the right encouragement to decide for reading the book. A good weekend read, in a month that has a special women-related focus.

Cable published the book independently but shortly afterwards signed with Sapere Books and One More Chapter, an imprint of Harper Collins.

Short Stories Book Review: White Dancing Elephants by Chaya Bhuvaneswar

 

For very personal reasons that maybe I will disclose at a certain moment in time, I struggle a lot lately in getting the right focus and mood for reading. I still do read a lot, but I miss the interest in following up long intricate stories. Happily, I have plenty of short stories book to keep my mind attached to.

White Dancing Elephants by practising physician and writer Chaya Bhuvaneswar was waiting to be read for over a year, but it took me half a day to finish it. Actually, to devour it, one story at time. Then, feeling depleted that it ended, maybe too early.

The writing is captivating, with long sentences allowing the ambiance to settle, creating a world in one paragraph. In this realm, the fragments of legends and class struggle, clash of worlds and mental illnesses settle and weave. It may destroy wishful thinking and reveal the naked reality, but nevertheless it does display a wide range of feelings and human questions. The stories do reflect the complexities of everyday life in our modern disfunctional ´civilized´ world therefore their strong sense of human emergency. 

I will love to read White Dancing Elephants any time soon, for the literary inspiration and humanity in its fragility and ambiguity.

Rating: 5 stars

Limbe to Lagos - Nonfiction from Cameroon and Nigeria

 

Nonfiction collections are rare, as most of the short-type story mostly focus on fiction. Limbe to Lagos though it´s unique in more than one aspects: it is a collection of nonfiction stories, AND it gathers creative pens from Cameroon and Nigeria, countries that do share a common history and geography and intense publishing connections.

The stories, not equal nevertheless relevant as windows into contemporary existence in those countries, beyond the usual corruption and political mayhem that is mostly associated to these countries and geography in general, are part of a exchange project supported by Goethe Institute. It was developed over few years and through various locations, including some literary residences in the exquisite German island of Sylt. 

It was very interesting to follow the stories, for their unique particular voices, but also sometimes their very mundane focus: human (sometimes obsessive) connections, everyday life and death. Although politics and social challenges do represent the tapestry of the stories, they are rarely singled out as such, and this is a well-deserved fresh literary air. There are stories with a nuanced literary value and hard to distinguish from literature; who will check if there are facts that really happened in real life or just it´s the outcome of the author´s imagination?

The collection carefully edited by Dami Ajayi, Dzekashu Macviban and Emmanuel Iduma should be an example to be replicated in other countries as well, in Africa and beyond. It´s a candid eye into a world whose voices are hardly heard in the everyday chaos. There may send a ´no news´ signal, but nevertheless it open the eyes and the hearts of the readers to a world who has as much right to be featured as the political one.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Random Things Tours: Independence by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni

A story of sisterhood set on the background of the 1947 partition of India, Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, an author I featured before on my blog is developing one of my favorite literary motives: life of everyday people in times of tremendous historical changes.

An event with significant regional and national impact, the partition is reflected in the everyday life of a doctor´s family in a Bengali village. The sisters, one of them married with a Muslim, are turned into mirrors of such global events, dramatically shaking their everyday life and in the end, their destiny. Gender and religious prejudices, violence and heartbreaking choices echo towards the story which is dense still able to keep a certain story structure despite the complex plot lines. 

The book is built with a fine attention to psychological details, allowing the reader to enter into the skin of the characters and therefore to understand at a great extent the ways in which such historical events may impact psychologically the individual lives. 

However, first and foremost, Independence is a story well told, with interesting characters that will remain with you for a very long time, a reflexion about innocent destinies caught in the windmills of history.

A special note to the cover which offers an adequate visual representation of the story.

Rating: 4 stars

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