by Aja Gabel
This is a debut novel about a classical music quartet. It is about the lives, conflicts and success of the quartet. The most powerful part of the book is that the four people, Jana, Brit, Daniel and Henry develop a powerful friendship and connection amongst themselves that it seems to take precedence over all other relationships. None of them have much of a relationship with their respective families, the quartet seems to become their created family.
The members of the quartet are very focused on career success, especially the leader Jana. They all work hard to succeed and are very competitive in the classical music scene. But not is all sweetness and light, there are internal jealousies (Daniel is resentful of the prodigy Henry, and later when Henry manages to have a life in the quartet but also a married life and family.... he resents that Henry seems to have everything come easy to him).
The strong hold that the quartet has on them is portrayed in an interesting way. Henry is wooed by an agent to become a solo artist. He turns it down feeling commitment to the quartet. Even though Henry's good fortune runs out when he develops some serious medical issues and is urged to give up performing he sticks with the group
Daniel and Brit have on again off again relationships. At one point they break up and Daniel marries a girl totally unsuited to him. The marriage doesn't last and in the end Brit and Daniel get back together. Jana also has an affair but her commitment to the quartet outways the relationship.
The author brilliantly portrayed the interactions that occur as the members of the quartet play and how they respond to each other to create incredible music.
In some ways the characters were frustrating because they were all so self-absorbed both in their music and themselves.
"We laid a perasive claim on one another. On our hearts....We weren't yet full people but we were required to pretend to be. We thought that together we could pretent to be until we were.... We found it to be, if not pleaurable, alive. We found each other to be amenable and willing and calling and then insistent and hungry and answering. We found each other." They fought, they cried together or about each other but they were there for each other always.
A very powerful, complext story.
Friday, 24 August 2018
Sunday, 12 August 2018
The Bookshop of Yesterdays
by Amy Meyerson
This is a book that is getting a lot of buzsz his year. It is the story of a young history teacher, Miranda, who is teaching history in the Eastern U.S. and getting used to living with her boyfriend. She is named for a Shakespeare character (daughter of Prospero, in the Tempest). She is surprised to learn that the Uncle she hasn't seen for decades has died and left her something in his will. She had always liked her uncle. He always had puzzles for her to solve.
She decided to go to LA for his funeral and to see her parents. Her parents refuse to go to the funeral. She knows her parents and uncle had a fight on her twelfth birthday but doesn't really know why. She never saw her uncle after that.
She is surprised to learn that her uncle has left her Prospero Books, his LA bookstore, in his will. As she checks things out she finds that the bookstore is failing financially.
As she goes from one clue, left in books, to another, she talks to various people who knew their uncle. Each person has another book/clue for her. She keeps trying to get her mother to talk about the relationship with her uncle but her mother doggedly refuses so Miranda suspends contact with her mother.
The acting Manager and Miranda try different ideas to get business improving. Their relationship is a bit rocky, the Manager, Malcolm was close friends with her uncle and doesn't trust her.
After following all the clues Miranda finds out that her Uncle is really her father and her parents adopted her after her mother died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the family cabin. Her real father had difficulty coping with his wife's death and taking responsibility for the baby. He feels he is responsible for his wife's death because he had not repaired the cabin roof when she asked him to do it. He basically abandoned Miranda to her adopted parents. Miranda had always thought her uncle was a cool guy. She is angry and devastated when she learns the truth, including angry at her parent for not telling her the truth. Eventually her mother tells her what happened and why and that her Uncle/Father accused her adopted mother of tricking him to get the child from him. This was totally untrue and selfish/irresponsible of him. This is what caused the rift between them.
In the end Miranda decides to dump her boyfriend and job and stay in LA to run the bookstore. But she decides they need to let go of the past associations to her birth mother and father, and suggests a new name "Yesterdays Bookshop". Not sure I like the name. Of course Miranda evenutally falls for the Acting Manager.... after all this there seems to be the need for a happy ending. She does reconcile with her adoptive parents also.
The story was very well written. It was interesting how the author gradually told the story through the clues/people that Miranda unearthed. I just find it difficult to believe that a father would completely walk away from his child. I can believe the temporary grief but believe he would have eventually have wanted to reconnect, even if only under the guise of the uncle.
This is a book that is getting a lot of buzsz his year. It is the story of a young history teacher, Miranda, who is teaching history in the Eastern U.S. and getting used to living with her boyfriend. She is named for a Shakespeare character (daughter of Prospero, in the Tempest). She is surprised to learn that the Uncle she hasn't seen for decades has died and left her something in his will. She had always liked her uncle. He always had puzzles for her to solve.
She decided to go to LA for his funeral and to see her parents. Her parents refuse to go to the funeral. She knows her parents and uncle had a fight on her twelfth birthday but doesn't really know why. She never saw her uncle after that.
She is surprised to learn that her uncle has left her Prospero Books, his LA bookstore, in his will. As she checks things out she finds that the bookstore is failing financially.
As she goes from one clue, left in books, to another, she talks to various people who knew their uncle. Each person has another book/clue for her. She keeps trying to get her mother to talk about the relationship with her uncle but her mother doggedly refuses so Miranda suspends contact with her mother.
The acting Manager and Miranda try different ideas to get business improving. Their relationship is a bit rocky, the Manager, Malcolm was close friends with her uncle and doesn't trust her.
After following all the clues Miranda finds out that her Uncle is really her father and her parents adopted her after her mother died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the family cabin. Her real father had difficulty coping with his wife's death and taking responsibility for the baby. He feels he is responsible for his wife's death because he had not repaired the cabin roof when she asked him to do it. He basically abandoned Miranda to her adopted parents. Miranda had always thought her uncle was a cool guy. She is angry and devastated when she learns the truth, including angry at her parent for not telling her the truth. Eventually her mother tells her what happened and why and that her Uncle/Father accused her adopted mother of tricking him to get the child from him. This was totally untrue and selfish/irresponsible of him. This is what caused the rift between them.
In the end Miranda decides to dump her boyfriend and job and stay in LA to run the bookstore. But she decides they need to let go of the past associations to her birth mother and father, and suggests a new name "Yesterdays Bookshop". Not sure I like the name. Of course Miranda evenutally falls for the Acting Manager.... after all this there seems to be the need for a happy ending. She does reconcile with her adoptive parents also.
The story was very well written. It was interesting how the author gradually told the story through the clues/people that Miranda unearthed. I just find it difficult to believe that a father would completely walk away from his child. I can believe the temporary grief but believe he would have eventually have wanted to reconnect, even if only under the guise of the uncle.
Tuesday, 7 August 2018
Dear Mrs. Bird
by AJ Pearce
This is a summer best seller and I would say it is a summer read.
The story is about a young woman, Emmy, in London who is living through WWII. She is working as a typist in a legal office and as a volunteer Fire Warden (answering phone calls at a fire hall about bomb hits so that fire fighters can be sent out, She longs to be a journalist covering the war.
When she sees an ad in the paper for a junior clerk at a newspaper she applies and is hired. She wasn't aware that the ad was not for a newspaper but for a women's magazine. Her job will be to assist the grumpy woman who responds to letters in an advice column. Mrs. Bird does not want to see any letters that are unpleasant. The young girl is shocked that so many pleas for advice go unheaded. She writes back to some of the people and even sneaks in a couple replies she has penned as Mrs. Bird never reads the paper.
Emmy is engaged but one day her soldier fiancee (whom she has known since she was a child) wires her to tell her that he has fallen in love with a nurse and they are getting married. She is of course devastated.
Her best friend (Bunty) is engaged to one of the firefighter. One day Emmy goes to see bomb damage and sees her friends fiancee do something dangerous to rescue a doll for child. She chastises him and they argue. She later tries to apologize but that doesn't go well.
Bunty and her fiancee plan pre-wedding party at a fancy restaurant but Emmy is late arriving because the fire hall is shorthanded and she has to wait for other people to show up to cover for her. She is horrified when she finds that the restaurant has been bombed. With the help of her boss, whom she happens to meet on the scene, she is able to find her injured friend, but not the fiancee. They later learn that the fiancee was killed.
Emmy goes to visit Bunty in the hospital but Bunty tells her she never wants to see her again as she blames Emmy for her fiancees death. He had gone to look for Emmy when she hadn't arrived at the party. Emmy keeps writing letters to Bunty but Bunty doesn't contact her. Then one day a letter arrives at the women's magazine which sounds very much like Bunty's situation. Emmy takes another risk and submits her response into the paper.
Emmy's employers find out what she has done and are going to fire her and possibly press charges as she was signing the letters she sent as Mrs. Bird. She is called into the Managers Office and he reams her out. She is sure she is going to be fired but Bunty rushes into the room (how did she know about this meeting). She says it was she who had written the letter to the paper and she really appreciated the reply. She has forgiven Emmy. Emmy's boss mentions that sales of the magazine have risen since Emmy has been including some of her letters and the response she sent to Bunty got picked up by other newspapers. He also mentions that Emmy had been assisting him with some writitng and coming up with stories more appealing to young women. The owner says she can stay if sales increase even more in the next few months.
This was a light read, entertaining but predictable.
This is a summer best seller and I would say it is a summer read.
The story is about a young woman, Emmy, in London who is living through WWII. She is working as a typist in a legal office and as a volunteer Fire Warden (answering phone calls at a fire hall about bomb hits so that fire fighters can be sent out, She longs to be a journalist covering the war.
When she sees an ad in the paper for a junior clerk at a newspaper she applies and is hired. She wasn't aware that the ad was not for a newspaper but for a women's magazine. Her job will be to assist the grumpy woman who responds to letters in an advice column. Mrs. Bird does not want to see any letters that are unpleasant. The young girl is shocked that so many pleas for advice go unheaded. She writes back to some of the people and even sneaks in a couple replies she has penned as Mrs. Bird never reads the paper.
Emmy is engaged but one day her soldier fiancee (whom she has known since she was a child) wires her to tell her that he has fallen in love with a nurse and they are getting married. She is of course devastated.
Her best friend (Bunty) is engaged to one of the firefighter. One day Emmy goes to see bomb damage and sees her friends fiancee do something dangerous to rescue a doll for child. She chastises him and they argue. She later tries to apologize but that doesn't go well.
Bunty and her fiancee plan pre-wedding party at a fancy restaurant but Emmy is late arriving because the fire hall is shorthanded and she has to wait for other people to show up to cover for her. She is horrified when she finds that the restaurant has been bombed. With the help of her boss, whom she happens to meet on the scene, she is able to find her injured friend, but not the fiancee. They later learn that the fiancee was killed.
Emmy goes to visit Bunty in the hospital but Bunty tells her she never wants to see her again as she blames Emmy for her fiancees death. He had gone to look for Emmy when she hadn't arrived at the party. Emmy keeps writing letters to Bunty but Bunty doesn't contact her. Then one day a letter arrives at the women's magazine which sounds very much like Bunty's situation. Emmy takes another risk and submits her response into the paper.
Emmy's employers find out what she has done and are going to fire her and possibly press charges as she was signing the letters she sent as Mrs. Bird. She is called into the Managers Office and he reams her out. She is sure she is going to be fired but Bunty rushes into the room (how did she know about this meeting). She says it was she who had written the letter to the paper and she really appreciated the reply. She has forgiven Emmy. Emmy's boss mentions that sales of the magazine have risen since Emmy has been including some of her letters and the response she sent to Bunty got picked up by other newspapers. He also mentions that Emmy had been assisting him with some writitng and coming up with stories more appealing to young women. The owner says she can stay if sales increase even more in the next few months.
This was a light read, entertaining but predictable.
Sunday, 5 August 2018
Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
This is the story of several generations of Koreans and the hard life and sadness that seems to follow them.
The story starts with Sunja, a young Korean girl whose father is crippled. He is respected by the people of the town because despite his disability he is hard working and honest. Sunja's mother runs a boarding house where fisherman borders sleep during the day and fish at night and factory workers/mine workers? sleep in the same beds but during the night. Sunja and her mother work very hard, her father dies and they struggle on. One day Sunja meets a handsome man working near the market where she goes to buy supplies for the household. He eventually seduces her and she becomes pregnant. She is dismayed to learn that he is married to a woman in Japan and has children. She had been expecting him to propose to her.
Her mother is shocked when she learns the news and can hardly speak to the daughter who has brought shame on the family. One day a young missionary arrives at their home, he had heard about their boarding house from his brother who had stayed their years before. The young man is very ill with a recurrence of TB. Sunja and her mother nurse him back to health. When he finds out about Sunja's plight he asks her to marry him and they head off to Japan to join the man (Isek's) brother and his wife. Isek doesn't earn much money as a minister but his brother and sister in law let them live with them. When the child is born, Noa, Sunja's father accepts him as his own and loves him.
Life is difficult for the Koreans in Japan, the Japanese are very prejudiced against them saying they are poor, lazy, liars, etc. Noa is very bright and his parents encourag him to study. Sunja gives birth to a second son, Mozasu who is not as bright and who is harrassed at school.
One day Isek and other Ministers at the church are arrested and put in prison because of something one of their parishioners said (not sure about this). Isek is kept in prison for several years. The other two people he was imprisoned with die in prison but dispite his weak constituion he doesn't. However he returns home a very ill man and dies soon after he returns home. While he was away his wife and her sister-in-law have been selling Korean food and candy in the market to make money.
One day Sunja's lover arrives and tells them they need to leave and is is dangerous in the city (world war II). He gets them to a farm where they work hard but are safe. He is doing this partly because Noa is his only son but also because he cares about Sunja. He offers Sunja money but she always rejects these offers. Eventually he finds Sunja's mother in Korea and brings her to join Sunja so she will be safe
Noa studies hard and is eventually accepted into University but Sunja worries about how she wll pay the tuition. Hansu, the former lover, offers to pay his tuition and board. At first Sunja is reluctant and she eventually agrees. Noa accepts thinking that Hansa is just a generous benefactor. We learn that Hansa is a shrewd but also tough, possibly criminal, businessman.
Noa is doing well with his studies and has a girlfriend. All seems to be going well. Meantime Sunja's other son has taken a job at a Pachinko parlor and is gradually getting promoted until he becomes a manager. Before he finishes his degree Noa's girlfriend, who had crashed a lunch Noa was having with Hansa blurts out that Noa looks like Hansu so he must be his father. Noa is furious at this and when he confronts his mother he is furious at her. He drops out of school and out of her life telling her he wants no contact with her. He is disgusted that his biological father is a "gangster" businessman.
Mozasu marries and has a son Solomon. He loves his wife and child very much and is very successful. He is devastated when his son is injured and his wife killed by a car. Sunja leaves her mother and sister-in-law, who is now also a widow, to join Mozasu to help raise Solomon.
Throughout the book it is mentioned about how the Japanese dislike the Koreans but the Koreans feel they have little to return to in Korea even though they are ghettoized and looked down upon by the Japanese.
When Noa leaves school he goes to a different city and adopts a Japanese name, because he is half Japanese no one questions his identity. He gets a job working as a bookkeeper for a business man and eventually marries and has several children. Sunja always wonders where he is and eventually Hansa is able to track him down. Hansa takes Sunja to "see" him but she jumps out of the car and runs to him. After they have a brief chat he tells her she has to leave but he will call her. After she leaves she kills himself..... This was shocking development and I am not sure why he would do it, just because he was afraid his Korean lineage might be found out? He was ashamed of his parentage?
Mozasu has a Japanese girlfriend, a divorcee, who will not marry him as she thinks that in addition to her divorce the marriage would further shame and alienate her children. Her daughter Hana comes to see her. She is four months pregnant. The mother arranges an abortion for her. Hana starts having an affair with Solomon but realizes she is a bad girl from bad seed. She eventually leaves and becomes a prostitute. Solomon goes to study in the US and gets a Korean American girlfriend. She comes back to Japan with him where he has gotten a job in a bank. She can't work in Japan.
Solomon thinks things are good but when he asked Mozasu's aid in convincing an old Korean woman to sell her land to a company that wants to build a golf course things go wrong. The old woman dies, probably of natural causes, shortly after the sale goes through. But the developers get cold feet as it could be perceived as suspicious that she died so soon. Solomon is fired by the man he thought was his supporter and mentor. His girlfriend leaves him to return to the U.S. Solomon's father encourages him to find another bank job but Solomon asks if he can come in on the family business. His father reluctantly agrees.
Solomon eventually sees Hana again when she has returned to her mother very ill. She had been a prostitute, drinking and doing drugs and now probably has aids. She speculates what life could have been like if she had stayed with him. However, in living her life it was as if she thought that she was doomed because of her mother's transgressions (having had several affairs while married). She seems to have done everything she could to harm herself/self-destruct.
After all this Sunja learns that her mother is dying of stomache cancer so she rushes back to be with her and her sister-in-law who had been living with the Mother. As the mother is dying she launches a tyrade on Sunja about how her behaviour with the married man ruined the family and basically cursed the family implying that all the sadness that has happened to her family is her fault. She accuses her of being selfish when Sunja really slaved hard for all the people in her life. Yes, she made the one mistake but she was a devoted mother and daughter and loved and respected and was faithful to her husband.
I found the book well written but terribly sad. So many characters bore such anger and resentment over things that others did. There didn't seem to be any forgiveness. Both Sunja and Hansa, seemed to be decent people who made a mistake. Hans did have other lovers and he was a shady character in his business dealings but he did a lot to try to help Sunja and her family. Yet, even after his wife died Sunja would not consider marrying him and cut off ties with him.
The Pachinko theme was very prominent in the story, it is a game of chance, of gambling.... I don't know what connection the author intended but I think in this book a chance encounter/event really had impact on people's lives and in most cases made their lives more difficult. The characters seem to react to people on principles rather than be willing to look at them warts and all. There didn't seem to be any option for reconciliation for forgiveness. The only persons who seemed to accept people were Isak and Sunja's Sister-in-law.
As she visits her husband's grave one day Sunja learns that Noa had been visiting his Father's (Isek's) grave but he never came to see her or her family,.
This is the story of several generations of Koreans and the hard life and sadness that seems to follow them.
The story starts with Sunja, a young Korean girl whose father is crippled. He is respected by the people of the town because despite his disability he is hard working and honest. Sunja's mother runs a boarding house where fisherman borders sleep during the day and fish at night and factory workers/mine workers? sleep in the same beds but during the night. Sunja and her mother work very hard, her father dies and they struggle on. One day Sunja meets a handsome man working near the market where she goes to buy supplies for the household. He eventually seduces her and she becomes pregnant. She is dismayed to learn that he is married to a woman in Japan and has children. She had been expecting him to propose to her.
Her mother is shocked when she learns the news and can hardly speak to the daughter who has brought shame on the family. One day a young missionary arrives at their home, he had heard about their boarding house from his brother who had stayed their years before. The young man is very ill with a recurrence of TB. Sunja and her mother nurse him back to health. When he finds out about Sunja's plight he asks her to marry him and they head off to Japan to join the man (Isek's) brother and his wife. Isek doesn't earn much money as a minister but his brother and sister in law let them live with them. When the child is born, Noa, Sunja's father accepts him as his own and loves him.
Life is difficult for the Koreans in Japan, the Japanese are very prejudiced against them saying they are poor, lazy, liars, etc. Noa is very bright and his parents encourag him to study. Sunja gives birth to a second son, Mozasu who is not as bright and who is harrassed at school.
One day Isek and other Ministers at the church are arrested and put in prison because of something one of their parishioners said (not sure about this). Isek is kept in prison for several years. The other two people he was imprisoned with die in prison but dispite his weak constituion he doesn't. However he returns home a very ill man and dies soon after he returns home. While he was away his wife and her sister-in-law have been selling Korean food and candy in the market to make money.
One day Sunja's lover arrives and tells them they need to leave and is is dangerous in the city (world war II). He gets them to a farm where they work hard but are safe. He is doing this partly because Noa is his only son but also because he cares about Sunja. He offers Sunja money but she always rejects these offers. Eventually he finds Sunja's mother in Korea and brings her to join Sunja so she will be safe
Noa studies hard and is eventually accepted into University but Sunja worries about how she wll pay the tuition. Hansu, the former lover, offers to pay his tuition and board. At first Sunja is reluctant and she eventually agrees. Noa accepts thinking that Hansa is just a generous benefactor. We learn that Hansa is a shrewd but also tough, possibly criminal, businessman.
Noa is doing well with his studies and has a girlfriend. All seems to be going well. Meantime Sunja's other son has taken a job at a Pachinko parlor and is gradually getting promoted until he becomes a manager. Before he finishes his degree Noa's girlfriend, who had crashed a lunch Noa was having with Hansa blurts out that Noa looks like Hansu so he must be his father. Noa is furious at this and when he confronts his mother he is furious at her. He drops out of school and out of her life telling her he wants no contact with her. He is disgusted that his biological father is a "gangster" businessman.
Mozasu marries and has a son Solomon. He loves his wife and child very much and is very successful. He is devastated when his son is injured and his wife killed by a car. Sunja leaves her mother and sister-in-law, who is now also a widow, to join Mozasu to help raise Solomon.
Throughout the book it is mentioned about how the Japanese dislike the Koreans but the Koreans feel they have little to return to in Korea even though they are ghettoized and looked down upon by the Japanese.
When Noa leaves school he goes to a different city and adopts a Japanese name, because he is half Japanese no one questions his identity. He gets a job working as a bookkeeper for a business man and eventually marries and has several children. Sunja always wonders where he is and eventually Hansa is able to track him down. Hansa takes Sunja to "see" him but she jumps out of the car and runs to him. After they have a brief chat he tells her she has to leave but he will call her. After she leaves she kills himself..... This was shocking development and I am not sure why he would do it, just because he was afraid his Korean lineage might be found out? He was ashamed of his parentage?
Mozasu has a Japanese girlfriend, a divorcee, who will not marry him as she thinks that in addition to her divorce the marriage would further shame and alienate her children. Her daughter Hana comes to see her. She is four months pregnant. The mother arranges an abortion for her. Hana starts having an affair with Solomon but realizes she is a bad girl from bad seed. She eventually leaves and becomes a prostitute. Solomon goes to study in the US and gets a Korean American girlfriend. She comes back to Japan with him where he has gotten a job in a bank. She can't work in Japan.
Solomon thinks things are good but when he asked Mozasu's aid in convincing an old Korean woman to sell her land to a company that wants to build a golf course things go wrong. The old woman dies, probably of natural causes, shortly after the sale goes through. But the developers get cold feet as it could be perceived as suspicious that she died so soon. Solomon is fired by the man he thought was his supporter and mentor. His girlfriend leaves him to return to the U.S. Solomon's father encourages him to find another bank job but Solomon asks if he can come in on the family business. His father reluctantly agrees.
Solomon eventually sees Hana again when she has returned to her mother very ill. She had been a prostitute, drinking and doing drugs and now probably has aids. She speculates what life could have been like if she had stayed with him. However, in living her life it was as if she thought that she was doomed because of her mother's transgressions (having had several affairs while married). She seems to have done everything she could to harm herself/self-destruct.
After all this Sunja learns that her mother is dying of stomache cancer so she rushes back to be with her and her sister-in-law who had been living with the Mother. As the mother is dying she launches a tyrade on Sunja about how her behaviour with the married man ruined the family and basically cursed the family implying that all the sadness that has happened to her family is her fault. She accuses her of being selfish when Sunja really slaved hard for all the people in her life. Yes, she made the one mistake but she was a devoted mother and daughter and loved and respected and was faithful to her husband.
I found the book well written but terribly sad. So many characters bore such anger and resentment over things that others did. There didn't seem to be any forgiveness. Both Sunja and Hansa, seemed to be decent people who made a mistake. Hans did have other lovers and he was a shady character in his business dealings but he did a lot to try to help Sunja and her family. Yet, even after his wife died Sunja would not consider marrying him and cut off ties with him.
The Pachinko theme was very prominent in the story, it is a game of chance, of gambling.... I don't know what connection the author intended but I think in this book a chance encounter/event really had impact on people's lives and in most cases made their lives more difficult. The characters seem to react to people on principles rather than be willing to look at them warts and all. There didn't seem to be any option for reconciliation for forgiveness. The only persons who seemed to accept people were Isak and Sunja's Sister-in-law.
As she visits her husband's grave one day Sunja learns that Noa had been visiting his Father's (Isek's) grave but he never came to see her or her family,.
Monday, 23 July 2018
The Shadow Land
By Elizabeth Kostova
This book is about an American girl who is still haunted by the loss of her brother who disappeared on a family hiking trip years before. She feels guilty because she and her brother had an argument just before he disappeared. Her brother had talked about wanting to visit Bulgaria (why we never know).
The young woman, Alexandra, decides to take a temporary job in Bulgaria. Soon after arriving in Bulgaria she helps an elderly couple into a taxi - and realises too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. Inside she finds an ornately carved wooden box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. It is a funeral urn.
She asks the driver of the taxi she is in to return quickly to the hotel but she is unable to find the people the urn belongs to. She goes to the police and until they learn the name on the urn they don't seem interested. Then they do take an interest and give her the address of one of the dead man's family in a different town in Bulgaria. Alexandra and the taxi driver set off for there.
This is the first of many trips around Bulgaria trying to find the owners of the urn. Along the way they meet other members of the man's family.
As this story is being told we also have the story of the dead man. He was an accomplished violinist, working in Vienna. He returned to Bulgaria when war started to break out in Europe. He wasn't able to get jobs in an orchestra so did other work. He was arrested several times and sent to work camps.
I read a review of the book and they talk about the tortuous journey to the resolution of the book.... I agree... I don't know why there had to be all this to and fro'ing. In the end we find out that the dead man had written a history of his imprisonment and included information that will implicate a man who is aspiring to lead the country as one of the violent leaders at one of the camps.
While Alexandra is driving around with the taxi driver we find out he was a former police officer and is an acclaimed poet. Alexandra seems to like him but he is gay. For some reason she has fallen for the young man, the father of the dead man. This part doesn't seem justified, nor does the girls sadness about her brother seem to belong to the story. I don't think that she comes to any resolution about her brother in the course of the book. In the end, she and the young man go to Vienna, to bury the dead man, as this is where he wanted to be buried. He was a fan of Vivaldi.
It was an okay read but a bit labourious.... I was skipping some near the end of the book just to finish it.
This book is about an American girl who is still haunted by the loss of her brother who disappeared on a family hiking trip years before. She feels guilty because she and her brother had an argument just before he disappeared. Her brother had talked about wanting to visit Bulgaria (why we never know).
The young woman, Alexandra, decides to take a temporary job in Bulgaria. Soon after arriving in Bulgaria she helps an elderly couple into a taxi - and realises too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. Inside she finds an ornately carved wooden box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. It is a funeral urn.
She asks the driver of the taxi she is in to return quickly to the hotel but she is unable to find the people the urn belongs to. She goes to the police and until they learn the name on the urn they don't seem interested. Then they do take an interest and give her the address of one of the dead man's family in a different town in Bulgaria. Alexandra and the taxi driver set off for there.
This is the first of many trips around Bulgaria trying to find the owners of the urn. Along the way they meet other members of the man's family.
As this story is being told we also have the story of the dead man. He was an accomplished violinist, working in Vienna. He returned to Bulgaria when war started to break out in Europe. He wasn't able to get jobs in an orchestra so did other work. He was arrested several times and sent to work camps.
I read a review of the book and they talk about the tortuous journey to the resolution of the book.... I agree... I don't know why there had to be all this to and fro'ing. In the end we find out that the dead man had written a history of his imprisonment and included information that will implicate a man who is aspiring to lead the country as one of the violent leaders at one of the camps.
While Alexandra is driving around with the taxi driver we find out he was a former police officer and is an acclaimed poet. Alexandra seems to like him but he is gay. For some reason she has fallen for the young man, the father of the dead man. This part doesn't seem justified, nor does the girls sadness about her brother seem to belong to the story. I don't think that she comes to any resolution about her brother in the course of the book. In the end, she and the young man go to Vienna, to bury the dead man, as this is where he wanted to be buried. He was a fan of Vivaldi.
It was an okay read but a bit labourious.... I was skipping some near the end of the book just to finish it.
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
The Gate Keeper
by Charles Todd
This is the latest book by the mother and son team. In this book Rutledge's sister has just gotten married. He wishes her the very best but is sad at "losing" the person he is closest to. After the wedding celebration he packs a small suitcase and decides to go for a drive.... if he just wanted a drive, why did he pack a bag?
As he is driving well into the night he comes upon a stopped car with a man lying shot dead on the road. A distraught woman is standing by the man. Rutledge tells the woman to take his car and go get the local police. All the woman can tell him is the murdered man was driving her home after a dinner engagement. He stopped when someone was standing on the road and exchanged a few words with the person on the road (which the woma did not hear). Then the person on the road shot him.
Rutledge offers to take over the investigation and is given permission to do so but a local police official is angered by this. Rutledge intereviews everyone he can think of and finds out that the young man was wealthy but was running a local bookstore. He seemed to be a pleasant and well liked person, so why was he killed. He did escape to Peru at one point shortly after his engagement was broken off. Could it have something to do with that?
When he meets the dead man's parents he find they, especially the Mother, have little affection or regard for him. The mother believes he killed his twin brother when a small child.
Then another man is killed, a local farmer. He is found shot on the road in front of his home. Rutledge learns that the man was lured out by a letter asking him to come and judge the quality of a cow that was for sale. The person who recommended the letter writer to the second dead man denies any knowledge of the letter writer.
Rutledge finds out that a book the bookseller, Wentworth, ordered for the Farmer was stolen from his shop. As several figures in the story serves in the war Rutledge wonders if there is an old grudge behind all this. Eventually he manages to track down who owned the book originally and is shocked to learn that the agent who handled the book sale for the woman has also been murdered.
Eventually Rutledge finds out that the woman had secretly married a wealthy man but he was killed in the war, she had left his family, where she had been working as a servant. The man's brother had sent her a copy of an old book about ancient apples that she had admired when she works with the family. What she doesn't know is that the marriage certificate that would prove her marriage has been bound intothe book (a bad "joke") by the man's brother who is now living in the family estate.
It turns out that this man's wife has been the one doing the murders as she fears someone will undo the binding and learn the truth. This will ruin her husband and her life and also ruin the financial future of their son.
These books are always entertaining, the author team do a great job of presenting England just after the second world war, sharing the lives and trials of those who survived the war, and keeping us guessing until the end.
This is the latest book by the mother and son team. In this book Rutledge's sister has just gotten married. He wishes her the very best but is sad at "losing" the person he is closest to. After the wedding celebration he packs a small suitcase and decides to go for a drive.... if he just wanted a drive, why did he pack a bag?
As he is driving well into the night he comes upon a stopped car with a man lying shot dead on the road. A distraught woman is standing by the man. Rutledge tells the woman to take his car and go get the local police. All the woman can tell him is the murdered man was driving her home after a dinner engagement. He stopped when someone was standing on the road and exchanged a few words with the person on the road (which the woma did not hear). Then the person on the road shot him.
Rutledge offers to take over the investigation and is given permission to do so but a local police official is angered by this. Rutledge intereviews everyone he can think of and finds out that the young man was wealthy but was running a local bookstore. He seemed to be a pleasant and well liked person, so why was he killed. He did escape to Peru at one point shortly after his engagement was broken off. Could it have something to do with that?
When he meets the dead man's parents he find they, especially the Mother, have little affection or regard for him. The mother believes he killed his twin brother when a small child.
Then another man is killed, a local farmer. He is found shot on the road in front of his home. Rutledge learns that the man was lured out by a letter asking him to come and judge the quality of a cow that was for sale. The person who recommended the letter writer to the second dead man denies any knowledge of the letter writer.
Rutledge finds out that a book the bookseller, Wentworth, ordered for the Farmer was stolen from his shop. As several figures in the story serves in the war Rutledge wonders if there is an old grudge behind all this. Eventually he manages to track down who owned the book originally and is shocked to learn that the agent who handled the book sale for the woman has also been murdered.
Eventually Rutledge finds out that the woman had secretly married a wealthy man but he was killed in the war, she had left his family, where she had been working as a servant. The man's brother had sent her a copy of an old book about ancient apples that she had admired when she works with the family. What she doesn't know is that the marriage certificate that would prove her marriage has been bound intothe book (a bad "joke") by the man's brother who is now living in the family estate.
It turns out that this man's wife has been the one doing the murders as she fears someone will undo the binding and learn the truth. This will ruin her husband and her life and also ruin the financial future of their son.
These books are always entertaining, the author team do a great job of presenting England just after the second world war, sharing the lives and trials of those who survived the war, and keeping us guessing until the end.
The Vineyard
by Maria Duenas
This book starts with the story of a Spaniard, Mauro, living in Mexico, who through hard work and taking some financial risks which paid off, has gone from being mine worker to a wealthy man. He has married daughter who is about to give birth and a son who he has sent away to France, to learn the mining business, because he was getting into financial trouble and romantic entrigues. His son is engaged to the daughter of another wealthy Mexican family. He hopes the stint in France will help his son mature.
As the story opens we find out that the man is on the brink of bankruptcy because he used most of his wealth to procure some mining equipment from the U.S. and with the U.S. Civil War underway his money is gone and he will not get the equipment.
He goes to a lone shark he had dealt with in his youth and strikes a devil's bargain, borrowing money to try to re-establish himself in Cuba, with the equity being his only remaining property, his fabulous house in Mexico City. If he does not make the first payment on the loan in four months he will forfeit his house.
Before he leaves for Cuba two people insist on entrusting money with him, his daughter's mother-in-law gives him money to invest. Another man approaches him asking him to take the man's sister's inheritance money to her in Cuba. He reluctantly agrees to do take the money from both people.
When he arrives in Cuba he is surprised to learn that the woman who has inherited the money does not want people to know that she knows him and does not want her husband to learn of the money.
They end up having apparently secret meetings. However her husband finds out about these meetings (perhaps the woman even dropped the news trying to get him to be jealous) and challenges the man to a billiards game. If the man wins he can have the mans wife, if he loses he must leave the woman alone. Mauro doesn't the woman but is intrigued by the challenge. He is advised by a man he has made friends with to lose the game as he thinks the husband wishes to lose his wife. So Mauro does lose the game. The husband then ups the stakes, offering property and a vineyard that he recently inherited in Spain. Mauro wins the game this time and heads to Spain to see the property and sell it so that he can make his firs debt repayment.
He finds the property and vineyards are in terrible condition. He also meets a woman who has fond memory of the property and of the family that owned the estate. It seems that the last owner didn't care about it and let things fall into disrepair as he fell further into debt. The woman confides in Mauro that she is having trouble with her step-son who is tyring to take over the family business. Her husband is still alive but seems to be suffering from a mental condition and she has been running it. She asks Mauro to pretend to be the dead owner of the property to help her cover some illegal things she has done to protect her business.
As the story goes on the man's son winds up in Spain with him, the woman whose husband lost the property in the billiards game arrives and insists Mauro give back the property. Mauro and the other woman end up locking her up, she escapes and tells people she was held against her will but Mauro and his lady friend are able to convince people that the other woman is making things up.
The book was very tense at times as you saw how desparate the man was to financially recover. Some people in Cuba had wanted him to invest in a slave trade venture but he refused to do this on moral grounds so he has some principles. As the story goes along we find out that a family story about one of the family members being shot in a hunting accident actually had the wrong person being blamed for the killing. The woman in Cuba had wooed the relative from Spain who owned the property and Vineyard in Spain to Cuba and convinced him to change his will to have her husband be the beneficiary.
In the end the man decides to stay in Spain and resurrect the vineyard. He does not make his debt repayments so loses his property in Mexico city but he does not regret it and eventually he and the woman (whose husband had committed suicide) realize they love each other.
It was very well written story but there were so many story lines, some I have not even mentioned, going on and so many intrigues it was hard to keep it all straight at times.
This book starts with the story of a Spaniard, Mauro, living in Mexico, who through hard work and taking some financial risks which paid off, has gone from being mine worker to a wealthy man. He has married daughter who is about to give birth and a son who he has sent away to France, to learn the mining business, because he was getting into financial trouble and romantic entrigues. His son is engaged to the daughter of another wealthy Mexican family. He hopes the stint in France will help his son mature.
As the story opens we find out that the man is on the brink of bankruptcy because he used most of his wealth to procure some mining equipment from the U.S. and with the U.S. Civil War underway his money is gone and he will not get the equipment.
He goes to a lone shark he had dealt with in his youth and strikes a devil's bargain, borrowing money to try to re-establish himself in Cuba, with the equity being his only remaining property, his fabulous house in Mexico City. If he does not make the first payment on the loan in four months he will forfeit his house.
Before he leaves for Cuba two people insist on entrusting money with him, his daughter's mother-in-law gives him money to invest. Another man approaches him asking him to take the man's sister's inheritance money to her in Cuba. He reluctantly agrees to do take the money from both people.
When he arrives in Cuba he is surprised to learn that the woman who has inherited the money does not want people to know that she knows him and does not want her husband to learn of the money.
They end up having apparently secret meetings. However her husband finds out about these meetings (perhaps the woman even dropped the news trying to get him to be jealous) and challenges the man to a billiards game. If the man wins he can have the mans wife, if he loses he must leave the woman alone. Mauro doesn't the woman but is intrigued by the challenge. He is advised by a man he has made friends with to lose the game as he thinks the husband wishes to lose his wife. So Mauro does lose the game. The husband then ups the stakes, offering property and a vineyard that he recently inherited in Spain. Mauro wins the game this time and heads to Spain to see the property and sell it so that he can make his firs debt repayment.
He finds the property and vineyards are in terrible condition. He also meets a woman who has fond memory of the property and of the family that owned the estate. It seems that the last owner didn't care about it and let things fall into disrepair as he fell further into debt. The woman confides in Mauro that she is having trouble with her step-son who is tyring to take over the family business. Her husband is still alive but seems to be suffering from a mental condition and she has been running it. She asks Mauro to pretend to be the dead owner of the property to help her cover some illegal things she has done to protect her business.
As the story goes on the man's son winds up in Spain with him, the woman whose husband lost the property in the billiards game arrives and insists Mauro give back the property. Mauro and the other woman end up locking her up, she escapes and tells people she was held against her will but Mauro and his lady friend are able to convince people that the other woman is making things up.
The book was very tense at times as you saw how desparate the man was to financially recover. Some people in Cuba had wanted him to invest in a slave trade venture but he refused to do this on moral grounds so he has some principles. As the story goes along we find out that a family story about one of the family members being shot in a hunting accident actually had the wrong person being blamed for the killing. The woman in Cuba had wooed the relative from Spain who owned the property and Vineyard in Spain to Cuba and convinced him to change his will to have her husband be the beneficiary.
In the end the man decides to stay in Spain and resurrect the vineyard. He does not make his debt repayments so loses his property in Mexico city but he does not regret it and eventually he and the woman (whose husband had committed suicide) realize they love each other.
It was very well written story but there were so many story lines, some I have not even mentioned, going on and so many intrigues it was hard to keep it all straight at times.
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