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2011 Books in Translation Other Prizes

Blooms of Darkness by Aharon Appelfeld

Blooms of Darkness Translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green

Winner of the 2012 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

Five words from the blurb: Holocaust, Jewish, boy, hides, brothel

Blooms of Darkness is set during WWII and follows an eleven-year-old Jewish boy as he is forced to leave his family and hide from the Nazis in a brothel.

Blooms of Darkness is one of the most depressing books I’ve ever read. It isn’t a roller coaster of emotions, it is an endlessly bleak book without a glimmer of hope anywhere. I think the fact it is narrated by an innocent child, separated from his friends and family, makes it have even more impact. The loneliness and grief were heartbreaking and the thought of any child growing up in such terrible circumstances is hard to take.

Very little happened, but the observations and emotions were powerful and realistic – the author’s own experiences as a Jewish boy in hiding gave this book a painful authenticity. The writing style was simple and quiet and it was surprising to see how distressing a book could be without actually containing any graphic scenes.  The fear of discovery and imagining what might have happened to loved ones was enough to give this book a terrible sense of impending doom:

Hugo refused to think about what had happened to Erwin in the ghetto. One night they sealed off the orphanage on all sides, took the orphans out of their beds, and loaded them onto trucks while they were still in their pyjamas. The orphans wept and cried out for help, but no one did anything. Anyone who opened a window or went out would be shot.

It seems wrong to criticise a book for revealing the painful truth, but the continual darkness was too much for me. I longed for a few lighter moments to penetrate the bleakness, but I guess I’ll just have to take comfort in the fact that I’m lucky enough to never have experienced anything like this.

Recommended to anyone who’d like to know what it is like to be a child living in constant fear, but I’m sure it will be too distressing for many.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

Aharon has shown why he considered one of the foremost Hebrew writers. Winstondad’s Blog

…there’s nothing in the novel which makes it stand out amongst its peers and competitors. Tony’s Reading List

It’s a sombre work, because it deals with the Holocaust, but it’s beautiful all the same… ANZ Litlovers Litblog

 

 

Categories
Books in Translation

The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke

The Mussel Feast Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

Five words from the blurb: German, family, issues, revolutions, understand

Beside the Sea is one of my favourite books, but I’ve had less success with other Peirene releases. A few weeks ago Meike, the founder of Peirene Press, assured me that The Mussel Feast would be to my taste, so I decided to accept a review copy. She was right – this is a fantastic book and the ending is particularly good.

The Mussel Feast is a 112 page monologue narrated by a daughter as she waits for her father to return home for dinner. The father is expected to receive a promotion so the family cooks a large pot of mussels to celebrate.  A wonderful sense of foreboding mounts as the father is increasingly late; mirroring Beside the Sea in the way an ordinary situation slowly becomes unbearably tense.

She opened the wine and we felt terribly insubordinate. We sat around the dead mussels as if part of some conspiracy and drank father’s second best wine without him, gradually realizing that the mood had been spoiled for all of us.

The book is set in Germany and was written shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The repressed state that they live in is revealed over the course of the book, perfectly capturing what life is like for a family living under the power of a tyrannical father.

The writing was gripping, despite the meandering narrative, and the lack of chapter/page breaks encourages the reader to complete the book in a single sitting, giving the book maximum impact. 

This is a wonderful little book and I’m sure that a second reading would reveal even more depth. Recommended to anyone interested in thought-provoking international literature. 

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

For a book so troubled in tone, I found it to be funny and inventive, and with surprising flashes of relatability to familiar aspects of family life… Tolstoy is My Cat

The style is curiously hypnotic… Book Word

…a work which is surprisingly powerful and layered for its size. Tony’s Reading List

Categories
Other

BBC Good Food Cookery Book Set

set

I love cooking so was very happy to receive unsolicited review copies of the new BBC Good Food cook books. Unfortunately they aren’t as good as the wonderful BBC Good Food website, but if you have limited access to the Internet they’re worth the investment.

There are 10 books in the series, with titles ranging from Low-fat Feasts to 101 Recipes for Kids. Each book is small (15cm square) with about 200 pages and each recipe is paired with a full colour photograph of the completed dish.

goodfood

The recipes are simple and “triple tested” to ensure that they work. The books focus on quick, easy recipes which are ideal for everyday meals. As a good cook I found most of the recipes quite basic, but there were still a few original ideas to inspire me. They’re perfect for a new cook as there aren’t big ingredient lists and each meal can be prepared in a short amount of time, without any fancy equipment. I was surprised to learn that these are Britain’s best-selling cookbook series, with over 3 million copies sold. I was aware of the website and the monthly magazine, but somehow this set of books had passed me by. Shahnaz Indian Cuisine can help you to find best books related to food.

The BBC Good Food Website allows people to comment and rate each of the recipes. I love this feature as it allows me to read extra tips on the dish and see which recipes are the most popular. For example, this recipe for lemon drizzle cake is one of the highest rated on the site, but the comments let me know that many people prefer it with more lemon zest and that others have successfully made it with oranges. None of this information can be found on the recipe for lemon drizzle cake in the Good Food: 101 Cakes & Bakes, which bizarrely includes this recipe for the less popular Lemon and Violet Drizzle Cake.  The-tea-set is one such awesome platform for cakes and drinks recipes.

Overall this is a good basic cookery book set, but I’d head the website first every time.

Books: 

Website: 

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Are you a fan of the BBC Good Food books/website?

weekendcooking

For more cookery posts see the Weekend Cooking post at Beth Fish Reads

 

Categories
2013

The Good Father by Noah Hawley

The Good Father

Five words from the blurb: son, killed, President, questions, guns

The Good Father is a compelling novel that shows how a father reacts when he discovers that his son has shot the next President of America. It questions how responsible parents are for their children’s actions, whilst also including information about other assassinations in recent history.

This book was fast paced and gripping throughout, but it failed to come to any new conclusions. The issue of parental responsibility was covered with far more depth and emotion in We Need to Talk About Kevin; so although this book came from the slightly different perspective of the father, I felt as though it was treading on old ground.

I sat carefully on the edge of the bed. Between us I felt the weight of so much history. I was the father who had divorced his mother when he was seven. I was the absent dad, the one who had missed birthday phone calls, who had forgotten to send presents. I was the weekend dad, the summer-vacation dad. …What did he owe me? Why should I expect a straight answer?

Over the course of the book the father researched conspiracy theories and this interesting information allowed the reader to join the father in questioning his son’s innocence. This merging of fact and fiction was the best aspect of the book and I loved the way other high profile murderers were compared with each other in the futile attempt to find a link between them all.

There were many twists and turns and, although none were especially surprising, they were entertaining enough to keep the reader interested. This book will be loved by those who found We Need to Talk About Kevin too dense and disturbing.

Overall it was a light, entertaining read, but it didn’t have the insight I’d hoped for.

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The thoughts of other bloggers:

…an intensely powerful book that is gripping from start to finish. The Little Reader Library

The story itself did not wow me. Bibliophile By the Sea

..a fascinating portrait of life, death, family, love, responsibility…all mixed up with some wonderful psychology! Shooting Stars Mag

Categories
Other

Three Abandoned Books

The Bronze Horseman

The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

Five words from the blurb: Leningrad, sisters, siege, love, spirit

A few years ago I read The Siege, an amazing book about the siege of Leningrad. At the time a few people suggested that The Bronze Horseman was even better. I struggled to believe that anything could top the perfection of Helen Dunmore’s book, but I was curious enough to give it a try. Unfortunately I was right. The two books are very different in style and if you prefer lighter reads, focusing on romance, you’re sure to love The Bronze Horseman. 

The book started well, with the introduction of a family living in Leningrad. All the characters were well defined and the two teenage girls, Tatiana and Dasha, were immediately engaging. Unfortunately as the book progressed I became increasingly frustrated with it. The war seemed more like a convenient plot device, capable of removing people from each other at exactly the right moment, than the serious subject it should have been. The plot focused on romance and I felt the horrors of war were glossed over. After about 100 pages I realised that I no longer cared what happened to the characters and I abandoned it.

Recommended to fans of light romance novels.

 

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

Five words from the blurb: family, America, heartbreak, fate, together

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie has been getting a lot of positive press recently. Oprah is a big fan and positive reviews are everywhere. Unfortunately I found the book too fragmented and so abandoned it after about 80 pages.

The book centres on Hattie, a black woman who migrates to Philadelphia in the hope of a better life. Hattie is just a teenager when she gives birth to twins and battles to keep them alive. Each subsequent chapter is then told from the view point her other 9 children. This means that the book feels more like a collection of short stories and, apart from the occasional mention of Hattie, there was nothing to link the chapters to each other. I found it impossible to connect with the large number of characters and there was no momentum to carry the story forward.

The first chapter was outstanding, but I’m afraid the rest of the book was unable to live up to this early promise.

Recommended to those who enjoy short stories.

 

Herzog

Herzog by Saul Bellow

Five words from the blurb: mind, thoughts, raging, letters, survive

Herzog has been mentioned in the press a few times in recent months as it is being recommended as a treatment for depression. I happened to own a copy (mainly because I liked the title!) and so decided to give it a try.

Herzog is in his early sixties when his second marriage breaks down. In an effort to cope he decides to write letters (most of which he never sends) to a large number of people, both living and dead.

He was an interesting character, but after a while I found his letter writing tedious. His confused, meandering thoughts bored me and there wasn’t enough plot to entertain me. I can see why this is a classic, but it was too slow for me.

Recommended to those who like bleak books without a plot.

Have you read any of these books?

Did you enjoy them more than I did?

 

 

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Other Uncategorized

Books Are Dangerous!

Last week I mentioned my mission to remove 7000 from my house and I thought now would be a good time to update you on my progress.

The week started well and I managed to donate 5 boxes of fiction to my son’s scout group for their upcoming jumble sale. I then sorted and catalogued 4 boxes for sale on eBay, then I bent down to pick up a box lid and …

I slipped a disc in my back!

I am now barely able to lift a single book and am virtually house bound. Unfortunately the pain/pain killers are making me feel so sleepy/spaced out that I can’t concentrate enough to read. Hopefully this will change over the next few days, but I think all my elaborate book sorting plans are over.

I’m off to lie down with some trashy TV.