Ceylon, 1935. Louisa Reeve en haar man Elliot lijken een stel te zijn dat alles heeft; zij is de dochter van een succesvolle Britse juwelier, hij een charmante zakenman vol levenslust. Maar hun allergrootste verlangen mist: een kind. Terwijl Louisa met miskramen worstelt, trekt Elliot zich terug en brengt hij steeds meer tijd door op een nabijgelegen kaneelplantage met uitzicht op de Indische Oceaan. Wanneer hij plots sterft moet Louisa het mysterie dat hij achterlaat alleen oplossen. Bij het bezoeken van de plantage voelt zij zich onverwacht aangetrokken tot eigenaar Leo, een ruige man met ee... continue
A NEW YORK TIMES MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF FALL 2022 FROM THE BEST-SELLING AUTHOR & WINNER OF THE TAIWAN LITERATURE AWARD Keith Chen, the second son of a traditional Taiwanese family of seven, runs away from the oppression of his village to Berlin in the hope of finding acceptance as a young gay man. The novel begins a decade later, when Chen has just been released from prison for killing his boyfriend. He is about to return to his family’s village, a poor and desolate place. With his parents gone, his sisters married, mad, or dead, there is nothing left for him there. As the story unfurls, we ... continue
Que faire à vingt ans, après la mort d'une grand-mère, quand on se retrouve sans famille et qu'on aime les cuisines plus que tout au monde? Se pelotonner contre le frigo, chercher dans son ronronnement un prélude au sommeil, un remède à la solitude. Cette vie semi-végétative de Mikage, l'héroïne de Kitchen, est un jour troublée par un garçon. Yûichi Tanabe, qui l'invite à partager l'appartement où il loge avec sa mère. Mikage s'installe donc en parasite chez les Tanabe : tombée instantanément amoureuse de leur magnifique cuisine, elle est séduite par Eriko, la " mère " de Yûichi. Eriko, person... continue
El libro está dividido en tres partes; las dos primeras parecen formar parte de la novela corta, del título del libro. La tercera es el cuento Moonlight shadow.
La novela presenta el encuentro de dos personajes (y un tercero siempre presente); ninguno es una persona "típica". El encuentro inicia una serie de hechos, que giran en torno al destino ya definido (con una sombra de muerte) y la riesgosa aventura de tomar decisiones. Muy buena.
El cuento Moonlight shadow, se basa en la canción del Mike Oldfield, y la eleva al nivel de arte. A partir del arte de... continue
Palestine, 1948. A mother clutches her six-month-old son as Israeli soldiers march through the village of Ein Hod. In a split second, her son is snatched from her arms and the fate of the Abulheja family is changed forever. Forced into a refugee camp in Jenin and exiled from the ancient village that is their lifeblood, the family struggles to rebuild their world. Their stories unfold through the eyes of the youngest sibling, Amal, the daughter born in the camp who will eventually find herself alone in the United States; the eldest son who loses everything in the struggle for freedom; the stole... continue
Amir and Effi collected relatives. With Holocaust survivors for parents and few other "real" relatives alive, relationships operated under a "Law of Compression" in which tenuous connections turned friends into uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Life was framed by Grandpa Lolek, the parsimonious and eccentric old rogue who put his tea bags through Selektion, and Grandpa Yosef, the neighborhood saint, who knew everything about everything, but refused to talk of his own past. Amir and Effi also collected information about what happened Over There. This was more difficult than collecting relative... continue