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A book about the fall of Palmyra in Syria written by a Syrian-Polish writer. 12+

In 1999 I visited Palmyra in Syria. It is an oasis town in the middle of a huge desert. Fabulous ruins were everywhere. A huge castle overlooking the town. The temple of Baal (remember from the Bible) still standing. What I noticed were the very friendly people living there. Many surprisingly redhaired with blue eyes. I was told that when the Romans conquered the town it was left empty till the ancestors of the people living there in 1999 came to the town  as Russian refugees in the 19th century .

Fast forward: Newspapers full of horror stories of IS in Palmyra. The curator of the museum hanged, the temple and monuments destroyed, people killed. My heart bled. All of a sudden people from that country walked all the way to mine.

Around that time I was given this book to review. It took me a bit before I opened it.

It is written by a Syrian-Polish doctor now living in the United States. The book was listed on NetGalley as a children's book but I would suggest to list it as "young adults - teenagers". It is perfect material to use in class during a history project or for Latin classes. However also for adults interested in Palmyra it is a nice read.



It’s the year 272 A.D. In the book we follow three different girls: one the daughter of the queen, one a dancer who is in love with the boy king the brother of the other girl and a servant girl working in the palace.

Palmyra is at its power zenith.  Zenobia rules from Egypt to Armenia and is at first seen as a Roman alley but then tensions grow between Rome and Palmyra.

In the end the Romans conquer the town. The three girls see their lives completely turned upside down and have to take matters in their own hands.

They grow into strong women.

The book is quite short and for adult readers it might be a bit shallow in the emotions department. I however think that might reflect the ages of the main characters. A young person probably will just go with the flow and not worry if they will love someone still when he is not a king anymore.
Kijk hier voor verkoopinformatie: http://www.dutchysbookreviewsandfreebooks.com/2018/03/a-book-about-fall-of-palmyra-in-syria.html

Review of 'The Lost Letter from Morocco' by Adrienne Chinn - travelling through Marocco - Berber culture - lost sibling - love - breastcancer

It is 2009 and Canadian born but living in London Addy is battling breastcancer. While on chemotherapy her half sister visits her in hospital and hands her some paperwork that belonged to their recently died father. It is part of a letter in which father Gus writes to Addy he had fallen in love with a Moroccan woman. The letter is written in the 1980ties but was never send. With the letter come a few old Polaroid  pictures her father had snapped while travelling through Morocco. On one of them she notices hands wearing her mother's old wedding ring. On another is a woman who is definitely pregnant.

As her boyfriend just had showed his true colours by screwing around while she was diagnosed with cancer and her photographer business went belly up Addy decides to go on adventure and follow in her father'footsteps and maybe find a sibling her father never mentioned. She goes to Morocco thinking she can use the trip for a photobook about the country.

The novel was appealing to me on so many levels:
- Addy - my mother's name
- breastcancer at 40 - been there
- Morocco - seen that
- local boyfriend - had one (in Jordan)
- people having better things to do when you are very ill - alas met those as well

So maybe it was more interesting to me than to an average person. I recognised the local sites even when the falls were renamed.

There were a couple of things that could have been done better:
- breastcancer: Well mine was very very severe so that might be different but it is odd she never is fearful afterwards. You are not cured just because treatment is over.
- boyfriend - somehow he just seems bossy and not so attractive
- the ending: That did suck big time!!! The last couple of pages ruined the plot in my opinion because it made all the other shenanigans  not logical anymore. (Or I missed something????)

Nevertheless: still a nice book to read

Kijk hier voor de verkoopinfo: http://www.dutchysbookreviewsandfreebooks.com/2019/03/review-of-lost-letter-from-morocco-by.html

Review of "Bones of the Earth" by Eliot Pattison - a detective story set in occupied Tibet

A disgraced Chinese police detective is now released from the prisoncamp he was send to and allowed to serve as a constable in a village in Tibet. His son is however still in a camp and the high Chinese official who ordered his release has still a firm grip on his life. Near his town a hydro dam is built in a valley that has been sacred to the local people since all times and what is regarded by the local people as Gekho's roost, a local demon God. An executed Tibetan engineer, an American student who died in a car accident, a dead man in the sky train all seem to have a link with this hydro dam project. Chan is ordered to solve the case.

When I was on about 20% of the book I was thinking it reminded me so much of a novel I had read years ago. A fact finding discovery to my bookshelves produced the first novel in this series. This book is the 10th.

The series is set in Tibet and it is clear the writer has a lot of sympathy with the Tibetan people and their culture and detests the occupation and harsh suppression by Beijing.

It might sound strange but due to all the deities and demons and the for me unfamiliar Buddhist religion and Tibetan and Chinese culture and the harsh neglect of human rights and rule of law it felt most of the time as if I was reading a fantasy novel. But then remembering this is real and sometimes we see refugees from Tibet all the way in Europe.

The detective part of the story is nicely done but the real charm is the colour locale.

Lees hier verder voor de verkoopinfo: http://www.dutchysbookreviewsandfreebooks.com/2019/04/review-of-bones-of-earth-by-eliot.html

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