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Review of "Guns and Saffron" by Alif - Two Muslim young men in India have to choose for goodness or for illegal things

Someone I know is from Pakistan and is always spewing hatred about India. And although I understand the background - his family lost all during the Partition and was kicked out of India - I once told him I was sick of hearing that and he had to stop. But with this in mind and as I had liked the first novel by Alif a lot I picked up this novel to read and review.

The novel is about two young Muslim men who grow up in predominantly Hindu India and that is definitely not easy. While one is nurtured in a poor but loving environment (a loving grandmother, a caring Christian boss, a motherly Sikh cook), the other is raised by a terrorist uncle in a world of violence. One part of the story full of goodness and love and makes you smile, the other so sad you want to cry. But the author makes it clear that environment will form you but still one has one's own will to choose what road to take in life.

The characters - even the minor ones - are very three-dimensional. 

Large parts of the story read like reading a history book or attending a lecture about Indian politics. So you really need to be interested in that.. Speaking for myself I thought it an interesting read.

I will recommend it to my Pakistani friend.

Lees hier verder (ook waar u het zelf kunt kopen) http://www.dutchysbookreviewsandfreebooks.com/2020/04/review-of-guns-and-saffron-by-alif-two.html

Review of "A Single Swallow" by Zhang Ling - Three men and a Chinese girl bond during WW2 in China

On the eve of the surrender of Japan and thus the end of the second World War, three man are sitting toasting in a small village deep into China. One is an American Missionary who is almost 40, the others are almost half his age. One is an American soldier sent there to train Chinese recruits, the other is one of those Chinese who became an expert marksman. They make a solemn vow: when they will die their ghost will return to the village on the anniversary of this victory and wait for the other ghosts.

Soon after one of the ghosts arrives but it takes many decades until the friends are reunited again. They realise that a forth person is missing: the girl they all loved in their own special way. (I think as a father figure, a bosom friend and a lover)  They start to tell each other about their lives.

Most time is spend on the life of the young Chinese soldier thus creating the recent history of China. From the days that rural villages had only one scribe and people lacked decent shoes to a son in law who ia now a professor in America. That is maybe also because the book is written by someone originally from China.

It is translated from the original Chinese into English but the language still oozes foreign origins. Some sentences are real jewels

Although the part told by the dogs is sweet but it does not fit into the concept of a meeting in the 21st century as the dogs tell their ghost story in 1945.

I liked the glimpse into a for me foreign culture and a historic era. The story is divided amongst several people what makes it less easy to identify with one but I liked the Chinese soldier most. It is beautifully written and I liked the ending.

A story you will remember.

Lees hier verder (ook waar u het zelf kunt kopen): http://www.dutchysbookreviewsandfreebooks.com/2020/04/review-of-single-swallow-by-zhang-ling.html

REVIEW of novel set in pre-Taliban Afghanistan. Very impressed by this insiders account

When you stop your car at a truckstop so you can read a bit more a book is really interesting!

I am NOT going to tell too much of the story as essential in that story is the past getting revealed bit by bit.

At the beginning of the novel we meet Scottish Miriam married to a doctor in rural Afghanistan. He is her second husband and things are less happy than they seemed at first. Bit by bit we get to know her history and that of her husband.

It is clear the writer knows - later I discovered she indeed has firsthand experience- Afghanistan.

As I met people from Afghanistan in the 90ties when I worked with refugees I was really interested in the cultural background of the story. But the author is a blessed storyteller as well. Miriam really seems real. And you hope nothing bad will happen to her. The mentioning of Dumfries made me smile. Not many people around where I live will know that small Scottish town but I have a friend who lives there and I guess she might even know the writer.

AMAZON writes: "Scottish-born midwife, Miriam loves her work at a health clinic in rural Afghanistan and the warmth and humour of her women friends in the village, but she can no longer ignore the cracks appearing in her marriage. Her doctor husband has changed from the loving, easy-going man she married and she fears he regrets taking on a widow with a young son, who seems determined to remain distant from his stepfather."

 Lees hier verder (ook waar u het zelf kunt kopen):
http://www.dutchysbookreviewsandfreebooks.com/2017/08/review-of-novel-set-in-pre-taliban.html

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