Le nostre anime di notte

"Dove sei?" "Intendi in che punto della casa? " "Sei in camera da letto? " "Sì, stavo leggendo. È un po' come fare sesso telefonico? " "Siamo soltanto due vecchi che parlano al buio, rispose Addie. (Le nostre anime di notte )/ "Where are you? " "You mean where in the house? " "Are you in your bedroom? " "Yes, I've been reading. Is this some kind of phone sex? " "It's just two old people talking in the dark, Addie said. (Our Souls at Night).

I've just finished reading my first Harouf novel, "Our Souls at Night", the Italian translation. In one sentence, it's truly and simply an homage to love. It just broke my heart. This quiet story in its simplicity is so meaningful, a thoughtful story that reflects the complexity of human condition. No wonder The Library Journal described his writing as "honest storytelling that is compelling and rings true." The plot is not much to know about. We have Addie Moore and Louis Waters, both in their 70s, neighbours not friends who live in Holt, Colorado. One day, Addie approaches Louis and asks if he would consider coming to her house occasionally, to share her bed. Nothing sexual just conversation. What follows is so aching and beautiful and solemn. I love how they open up and talk about their lives and pasts, their hopes and desires. The title of the book reflects the theme of the novel so well. Meanwhile, they deal with their neighbours and friends spreading rumours and the grumblings from their children Holly (Louis's daughter) and Gene (Addie's son). Also Addie's son is going through a separation and for a while, her sad and insecure grandson Jamie, comes to stay with her. Such a short book but with a lot of meaning and substance to it. With this novel, Harouf shows us how much poetry is it in the everyday life if we choose to live it with a bit of courage; how much responsibility we have as parents, and at the same time how many handicaps and how it's practically impossible to escape stifling generational patterns of behaviour. Am I rambling too much about it? Just read it!

History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

Such an unsettling, coming of age story this is. It's the first time I read a novel in which the title has nothing to do with the development of the plot. The story is told from Linda's point of view, a 14 year old girl who lived in Northern Minnesota. She is socially awkward, no friends and a strange relationship with her parents mostly related to a lack of communication. Linda's knowledge of the world is limited because of the remoteness of the place in which she lives and this makes the story so unusual. However, she is a good judge of people, she is highly obsessed with observing people's gestures, activities. At the same time she knows so little about the world especially the grow up world and what should be taken for granted. It is her deep love for nature and her surroundings that allows her to connect with Paul, a 4 year old child she baby sits. Together they participate in games and daily walks in the woods. We learn from the start that Paul dies in peculiar circumstances but we don't know exactly what happens until the end. Other than that, the novel jumps forward and backward in time with a plot that succeeds to maintain the reader's attention. There is also a peculiarity about this novel that I enjoyed so much. It's strongly related to the setting, the atmosphere inside and outside home and characters. All characters within the story seem to be slightly detached from their present and this is not attributed only to their geographical remoted lives. On the surface they seem so ordinary and not very likable, but I've found them so interesting because of that weirdness and detachment. The language is poetical and it makes the writing and the winter descriptions so lovely. The pacing is slow and most of the events happen so quietly that they hardly seem to happen at all. Having said all that I can only say that I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and I recommend it to you all. Did you read it and if so did you enjoy it?

Great poetical stories!

“Maybe if I’d been someone else I’d see it differently. But isn’t that the crux of the problem? Wouldn’t we all act differently if we were someone else?” 

What a disappointment!

I wanted to like this book so much. I had so many high expectations about it. I liked  to idea of the story and the blurb I read on goodreads about it just caught my attention. I love the cover of the novel but that's about it.I've tried to hard to like it, I read 100 pages and then I had to stop reading.The language is so bad and the way the story is put into words is awful.I feel like I am reading a paper written by an 11 years old student who is doing his/her best to write a story by using simple and direct sentences.

"I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; 

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying"

(Sea Fever by John Masefield)

My reading list: Living the American Dream

My reading list: Living the American Dream: Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opprtunity to read such an amazing book. The story is set before and during the economic crisis of 200...

Living the American Dream

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opprtunity to read such an amazing book. The story is set before and during the economic crisis of 2007/2008. The main theme of the book is an old one "Follow the American Dream". This time, however the opproach is different and I enjoyed it so much. We see the American Dream from two different angles. On the one hand, we have the Jende Jonga family, Cameroonian immigrants who are desperately trying to get the green card and stay in the USA (New York). On the other hand, we have the Edwards, a wealthy upper class family, living in New York, who show the positive and negative idea of paradise held by the immigrants. 
The Jongas are deffinitely West African in their ideals, cultural practices, and still they wish to give their son and daughter a better life possible. There are so many cultural differences and multi-layered perspectives in this novel. For example, the Edwards, eldest son longs to abandon the law school and leave USA for India in search of spirituality and a better inner life, whereas Jende truly believes that the opprtunity to become a lawyer is the best thing he could give his son. We also notice the contrasts between a family of priviledge and a family with little and the powerful dynamic created between the two. We see the yearnings for home, Cameroon (Limbe town), whilst trying to fit into a new world, the eternal immigrant heart caught up between two worlds. There are so many other interesting themes and issues treated in this novel, the problem of race, violence, man controlling women, marriage, divorce, economic crisis, etc. There is so much pain and grief that traspasses in this novel. The plot is character driven, and the language is simple but wonderful. Definitely a novel that I would love to re read in the future!

This is my favourite page of the novel The Party by Elizabeth Day

The Party by Elizabeth Day

This has been my favourite book of this year so far. Such a well crafted novel, compelling enough to pull you through and a very good read. I enjoyed it so much from the first page till the end.

 This is a story shaped in the form of two diaries, one is Martin's and the other belongs to his wife, Lucy. It reminded me of Brideshed Revisited and The Greater Gatsby, but better written. I also loved the way the book shifts between Martin's police interrogation, his childhood memories, his school years and the time he met Ben and of course the party itself, the key event of our story. Lucy's diary entries scattered throughout the book helped me as a reader to see, feel and under how misplaced they were feeling as part of this so called friendship with Ben and Serena. She was the only one who could see Ben and Serena for what they were, manipulative , selfish and self centered. I spent so much time trying to figure out what kind of a character Martin is: a psychopath, madly and obsessively in love with Ben. What was it that made him go on lying to himself and increase his obsession for Ben. I tried to relate all this to his unhappy childhood, the negative presence of his mother and this ongoing desire to be liked and accepted by others. It's a novel that I truly recommended to you all! 

A Slightly Enormous Book and Bookish Things Haul

Tipsy Book Review: The Party by Elizabeth Day

"The Investigation" (La guardia, il poeta e l'investigatore) by Jung Myung Lee, my 3rd read from the Bancarella shortlist

• Can you fall in love with a book? Well, I did. "The Investigation " is my 3rd read from Bancarella shortlist of 2017. I gave 5 out of 5 stars. I really hope it wins the Award this year. I read the Italian translation of Benedetta Merlini and publishing by the famous Sellerio Publishing House in 2016. I believe it's the most beautiful novels I've read in such a long time. It's such a beautiful story about freedom, humanity, the survival in the war, the love of literature and books. It is inspired the life and death of the Korean poet Yun Dong-ju and uses some of his posthumously published poems that are presented throughout the book. The story is set in the Japanese prison of Fukuoka in the 40s during the war the Japanese took against the Korean.But I don't want to give too much away. Now that I read it in Italian I will definitely search for the English translation. It's such a beautiful and captivating story, that's not worth telling but reading and feeling each page of it.
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The Medici Family-my 4th novel from the shortlist of Bancarella Literary Award

• I just finished reading the historical novel about the family of Medici from Florence. It's a story which is part of a trilogy written by the Italian author Matteo Strukul. It is shortlisted for the Bancarella Literary Award . It's the 4th novel that I've managed to read from the Bancarella shortlist. This trilogy has become famous in Europe in less than a year and it's been translated into Dutch, English and Spanish. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. It fallows the lives and adventures of two brothers Cosimo and Lorenzo de Medici from 1429 to 1453, with a bit of a romance. It's an enjoyable read, and a turn page one. What I liked most about the story are the detailed descriptions of places, palaces, pieces of art and the physical descriptions of the characters. It gives so much detail about the city of Florence in the 15th century and its people and customs. However I expected more from the character in terms of language and psychological representation. They seem so flat. I could not relate to any of them neither good nor bad. However if you are interested to know more about the life of this famous family, the construction of Florence and its people, it's a good way to start. Enjoy your reading!
  

Bancarella Literary Award 2017

• Bancarella Literary Award,  is an Italian prize born in 1953. It is celebrated every year in the town of Pontremoli, in the province of Massa Carrara, Tuscany. It is a prize established by Italian booksellers who chose the best one out of a selection of six novels. The lucky winner is announced in the penultimate Saturday or Sunday of July. The short list contains six novels all written in Italian by Italian writers or literary translations from foreign writers. Over the years, the award was given to well know International writers such as Hemingway for The Old Man and the Sea" (1953), Boris Pasternak for "Doctor Zhivago " (1958), John Grisham, Umberto Eco and Elizabeth Strout. This year the winner will announced on July 16th. The novels from the short list are: "Il giardino dei fiori segreti" by Cristina Caboni, published in October 2016; "La locanda dell'ultima solutudine" by Alessandro Barbaglia, published in January 2016; "Gocce di veleno" by Valeria Benatti, published in September 2016; "Magari domani resto" by Lorenzo Marone, published in January 2017, "I medici una dinastia al potere " published in October 2016. This list also contains a Japanese writer Yung-Myung Lee and the Italian translation of his novel "La guardia, il poeta e l'investigatore " published in Italy in January 2016. This last novel was also translated into English under the title "The Investigation " published in 2015.
  

GREAT STORIES BY CHEKHOV

Thank you NetGalley and Dover Pubblications for giving me the opportunity to read this beautiful collection of short stories by Checkov. It's a collection to be published in January 2017 and translated by Constance Garnett, who actually translated most of the classical literary productions of Russian literature.

Whenever we think of Russian literature, we think of words like "hopelessness", "despair", and "dark"; but I can think of only two words when it comes to it "amazing" and "truthful". Despite his blunt and to the point writing, Checkov will always stand out for his concise messages and beautiful descriptions of characters and places. His style can easily be described as Impressionist. Impressionism as a movement was based on capturing a subjective experience rather than the realistic description of it. Checkov does not give too many details in his stories and leaves us as readers to peace the story together from his hints. As a reading audience we totally depend upon the appearances and actions of the characters. Each story is told through the characters' actions, movements and thoughts. If the action becomes confusing sometimes, it's because the characters are confused too. By the way of telling the story, we as readers become caught up in the plot as if it were happening to us right then and there.

Some critics described his stories "short and sweet". They may be short in length but they make up for the content. Checkov describes the characters in such a way that the audience already knew them. Checkov's writing style is so wonderful because of that. It make us connect with the charactes, bad or good, and he does that in such a beautil way.

I totally recommend this short collection of stories for all of you who love Russian literature and short stories.