pick3.5⭐️ “Death is terrifying no matter where and when it comes, and life, though it brings us closer to death with every instant, is wonderful.”
I felt so gloomy after reading this story. Sadly, the brutality in history is not enough to stop us repeating the same mistake.
I follow Lauren Grubaugh Thomas‘ Substack, A Soulful Revolution, and today‘s piece was hopeful and encouraging to me, as I feel somewhat at a loss over effective action in the face of current events. I‘ll link her piece below. She highlighted the tagged book and an upcoming series of online book discussions, if anyone‘s interested in joining in. I just put the book on hold at the library! Links in comments ⤵️
This is the book I picked up from the Serbia leg of our trip through Eastern Europe.
pickBleak and painful. Whilst Bolla portrays the impact of violence and turmoil suffered by the Balkan people, Arsim takes centre stage. A difficult and unpleasant character, as destructive as the war raging on in the background. Difficult to rate as the strength of this novel lies in how unlikeable it is. 8/10
pickWow! Apparently I started this book in June 2021. It is now February 2025 and I‘ve finally finished reading all 1150 pages! It‘s taken me as long to read it as it took Rebecca West to write it! An amazing, epic read that I was happy to dip into, savour, leave and return to over 4 years. The author at one point says that her book is so long probably no one will ever read it. She was wrong. Completed in 1941 and still being reprinted says it all.
A man in the final stages of cancer tries to reach his native #Montenegro to die. He is pursued in the forest and the mountains by a group 2 men soon to turn into a mob. This novella was a random find at the bookshop and I was bowled over.
#Serbia
Pic of Čvrsnica by Ante Perkovic, via Wikimedia bc I couldn't find one of Prekornica from a free source
pickBit of an odd one this - I have been dipping in and out for a few weeks. On one hand a fascinating loose fiction of war time comings and goings in Lisbon on the other a spraling cast it was@difficult to emotionally connect with
pickA moment in my San Francisco hotel room after dropping my daughter off at college.
I finished this on the plane here and loved it. Literature and life and a dizzying kaleidoscope of cultural clashes and mishmashes. And many beautifully quirky lines. Halfon is a Jewish-born Guatemalan grandson of a Polish Holocaust survivor and writes about himself fictionally or metafictionally, occasionally holding the seams up for us to see.
