A manual for cleaning women

This is surely a masterpiece. Berlin has been compared to Carver as she portrays the lives of women who struggle with alcoholism, being a mum and an alcoholic, the reality of rehab programmes and the inability to put their lives together.

Berlin herself was  an alcoholic and many of the events in the story echoe her life. Several characters and situations are repeated alongside the narrations, creating a continuity.

You know that with short stories collection there is tendency  to have some very good ones and others quite bad. In the case of this book, the quality of the stories is consistent, displaying a world full of loneliness and desperation.

Lucia Berlin's narratives are truthful, thought-provoking and brutal. They shows the fragile conditions in which these women live, the violence in the atmosphere and the isolation that engulfs them: the alcoholic mums whose teenager boy hides the car keys so she cannot go to buy more drinks, the reality of children being taken away from their mothers because they are unable to take care of them, the anxiety and physical pain of the first days in rehab facilities, all this is masterfully showed by Berlin, a unique voice displaying the actualives of people dealing with alcoholism.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

Salvage the Bones

Jesmyn Ward is a survivor of the hurricane Katrine and uses her experience to portrays the hopeless of the poor rural people who couldn't evacuate because they didn't have anywhere to go.

However, this book is more about the dynamics between the members of a family in the Missisipi coast.

The beginning of the story narrates the birth of a dog's babies, very roughly and savagely. Skeeter's dog is a pitbull and he uses her to win money in fights. With these babies, he hopes to get more money and helps his older brother Randall to go to basketball camp.

The book is told from Esch's perspective, the only girl in the family. Her sex encounters with one of his brother's friend are unemotionally portrayed, and as a consequence, ahe realises she is pregnant. Her drunken, wasted father is worried about the hurricane and he is trying to prepare the family for it.

During the narration, you can see how these characters feel the empty hours of the day, Skeeter's obsession with his bitch's babies, the lack of work around the area and their impossiblity to improve their lives: the family has been poor over generations,.

The beauty of the language makes this book a jewel, making regular lives important, making the experience of  peole who are outside the mainstream the central in a world that tends to ignore them and their needs.

In an interview, Ward explins the reality of the Mississipi coast after Katrina. She claims that many people have gone away after the hurricane destroyed their homes, but they were forced to return as their impossibility to economically sustained themselves. The government's reluctancy to acknowledge these people's needs and circumstances continues, keeping them in the outskirts of society.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com
instagram:ananbooks

Muslim experience in England

These two books play with the issues brought up by the clash between the Muslim beliefs and the contemporary values in the western world.

'Maps for Lost Lovers' portrays the story of  the Pakistani community in an unknown city in England. Jugnu and his lover Chanda have a different relationship according to the small community's ideas: Jugnu is a single grown man and Chandra is a divor cee living together without marrying. Suddenly, they disappear and later Chandra's brothers are arrested for murder. The narration display the following twelve months, gradually disclosing the several lives of various characters which live in a between-world, their ideas clashing with the British customs, their ancestral traditions, their ideas regarding honour and respect being challenged by the younder generation's actions.

'Minaret' narrates the story of Najwa, a Sudanese woman, who has become a maid in England. Her lefe in Sudan when she was young was full of wealth and parties, her beliefs and her father's position in the government challenge by her boyfriend's revolutionary ideas. Suddenly, her father is arrested and executed, and her life changes completely. Exiled in London, we gradually see her approach to religion in an attempt to fulfil the emptiness in her soul. This book portrays Najwa's interested journey towards her community traditional beliefs, finding friednship and understanding in other women.

Both books show an unkown reality by most western people, displaying a reality that is challenged by the clash of cultures, the younger generations trying to find a place in the world, a personal approach towards their parents' beliefs and their own feelings.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

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El laberinto de los espiritus

Carlos Ruiz Zafón es una de las grandes plumas españolas contemporáneas. Este libro forma parte de la tetralogía del Cementerio de los libros olvidados y varios de sus personajes se repiten, dando continuidad a la trama.

Este es el volumen final de la historia, comenzando con Daniel, dueño de la librería Sempere, y Fermín, su eterno aliado, una madrugada de insomnio, decididos a relatar la historia de la investigación llevada a cabo por Alicia Gris.

Alicia es una suerte de investigadora privada, y es el personaje que se devora el libro. Su inteligencia, sus comentarios sagaces, sus observaciones detalladas la llevan a liderar la investigación sobre la desaparición de el ministro Valls del gobierno de Franco. Junto a ella, el capitán de policía Vargas, hombretón entrenado y entrador, se adentran en los misterios que rodean a Valls, antiguo director de la aterradora prisión de Montuij, donde muchos republicanos perdieron la vida, o la cordura, a causa de las torturas y privaciones.

En este libro hay muchas aluciones a hechos sucedidos en los anteriores volúmenes, por lo que alguien que los haya leído, podrá disfrutar de una manera mas profunda el relato. Sin embargo, estos detalles no evitan que los nuevos lectores encuentro obstáculos para seguir la trama.

El laberinto de los espíritus es una aventura con todas las letras. No se puede para de leer, pasando las hojas para encontrar nuevos detalles que nos lleven a intentar descubrir a los culpables, para seguir a la intrépida Alicia, a Vargas con toda su experiencia a cuestas, a Fernandito, adolescente eterno enamorado de Alicia, a quien su corazón no tiene lugar para nadie.

Adéntrense en este laberinto, del cual no saldrán inmunes. Sigan las pistas, eluden obstáculos, y disfruten de este novelón que nos regala el autor. No queremos enterarnos que este es el fin, y sin embargo, releer esta historia será un deleite en el futuro.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

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We are all completely beside Ourselves

This book narrates de story of Rosemary and, as she clearly states, it starts in the middle of the narration. Rosemary is in college and trying to subdue her issues with alcohol and drugs. She suddenly meets Harlow, a completely unexpected girl who becomes a sort of friend.Soon, we discover events from Rosemary's past. For example, that she hasn't seen her brother in years, that once she went to her grandparents' house and when she returned, her sister Fern has been gone.

Rosemary has a lot of issues regarding her identity, her beliefs about who she really is, about her relationship with her parents and siblings.

Suddenly, there is a major twist in the story. Suddenly, we understand why Rosemary questions every decision she has made in the past, her guilty towards the dissapearance of her sister, her muteness against her past version of a very talkative girl : her grandma used to ask her to be silent for a second so she can hear herself thinking.

This is a story of growing up, of how silences engulfe people's certainties, shaping the mind of a young girl, how guilty becomes a weight to hard to sustain.

In a funny tone and seemly relaxed way, the author narrates this story that portrays more than you can see in the surface. The plot is presented in different chunks, moving from the past to the present, the consequences meeting the reasons, the fragility of life totally exposed.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com
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Sofía o el origen de todas las historias

Siendo de origen sirio, Rafik Schami sitúa sus libros en la tierra de su juventud, la cual tuvo que abandonar debido a la persecución política. Así en novelas como EL LADO OSCURO DEL AMOR o EL SECRETO DEL CALÍGRAFO, se puede vivenciar la pacífica convivencia entre judíos, cristianos y musulmanes en una Siria cosmopolita.

En SOFIA O EL ORIGEN DE TODAS LAS HISTORIAS, las causas de la Guerra Civil que aqueja ya hace tiempo al país y empuja a cientos de sus ciudadanos a huir y correr el riesgo de perder la vida en el Mediterráneo se evidencian en los secretos que los personajes callan, los silencios en las conversaciones en las calles y la tiranía de un gobierno totalitario que busca aplastar toda forma de oposición.

La novela comienza con Karim y Aida, el amor de dos personas mayores, un musulmán y una cristiana, y los comentarios que generan al pasear en bicicleta por el pasaje Yasmín, enfrentando las miradas inquisidoras de las vecinas.

Luego conoceremos a Salman, quien de joven se unió a la resistencia armada, por lo que tuvo que escapar de Siria. Ahora, un empresario exitoso en Italia, el gobierno sirio ha decretado la amnistía a todos los exiliados políticos. Realmente extrañando su tierra, Salan decide viajar, para encontrarse con una realidad hostil y persecutoria.

La Sofía del título es la madre de Salman, y antigua novia de Karim. Así se plantea la conexión entre los personajes, buscando una salida para Salman, una manera de salvarle la vida.

Una historia que atrapa desde el primer momento, el calor de la tarde y los olores del barrio cristiano llegando al lector en forma constante, duradera. Una historia antes de la guerra, de los niños ahogados en las playas, de la crisis humanitaria que parece no tener fin. La oportunidad de entender como una comunidad floreciente se torna en un infierno, un callejón sin salida.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

A case of exploding mangoes

The death of the dictator of Pakistan General Zia alongside all his high-ranked officers plus the US embassador has intrigued people since the day it happened. The cause for the fall of the plane is still a mystery, becoming excellent material for a writer.

This novel depicts the reasons behind those events, having as a narrator a young soldier who has a grudge with the government, which apparently is the responsible for his father's death. His best friend Obaid disappears with a fight plane and the CIA and the Pakistani Intelligence agency decide that the protagonist must know something about this.

What is unique about this novel is the sarcastic tone which the protagonist/narrator uses to retells his adventures, trying to survive a few more days in order to acomplish his sole purpose on earth: to kill General Zia. At the same time, we learn about this general superstitious mind, his relationship with his officers and the level of corruption and intrigue that surrounds this dictatorial leader.

A truly page-turner, this novel replicates the characteristics of a book that Obaid recommends to the protagonist: 'Tale of a death foretold' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: you know the end of the narrative from the beginning, but you want to know what has happened to get to that ending. Mohammed Hanif is a marvellous storyteller, creating a suspenseful plot that will keep you alert until the last page of the book.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

The assassination of Margaret Thatcher

Hilary Mntel is the first woman to win the Booker prize twice with her book about Thomas Cronwell 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring up the bodies'. This short story collection depicts the narratives published in different newspaper in England.

The language of the stories is superb, almost poetic. The characters are complete and complex, as the settings, which are well-depicted with a great variety that makes the stories really exquisite. 'Sorry to interrupt', the first story, displays a woman who receives a man at her house asking to use tha telephone. It is in mid-story that we realised the narrative is not happening in London. In 'Winter Break' a small detail shows us the true dramatic situation the characters have gone through.

Mantel's mastery of the language makes us see realities where there is only fiction, taking sides with characters that seem to be sympathetic with others' flaws, without acknowledging their ones.

If you have read her work before, you are going to see her characteristic writing style in the witty dialogues and sarcastic tone of the stories. If this is your first time with Hilary Mantel, you have an unforgettable encounter with literature with capital L ahead. Enjoy!

How to be both

Ali Smith's masterpiece is published in two different editions. Some readers would get the 'eyes' section first and the 'camera' section in second position. In my case, it was the other way around.

The 'camera' section depicts the life of  teenaged George who has lost her mother and who tries to figure out her father's attitude, her little brother's loneliness and her own pain. In unforgettable flashbacks, we see the family's visit to an Italian palazzo just to admire the frescoes done by the not-so-famous Francesco del Cossa. They had previously seen them at home in the computer, but her academis mother takes them to admire the frescoes for their unique beauty.

The dialogues between mother and daughter are superb, dissecting each others' ideas regarding art: 'Do things just go away?' ' Do things that happened not exist, or stop existing just because we can't see them happening in front of us?' Even the image in the cover of the book has a connecting with the plot and its themes, appearing on George's walls alongside del Cossa's printed-version frescoes.

The second section 'eyes' displays the life of Francesco del Cossa in the fifteenth century, who is the painter of the frescoes in the palazzo George and her mother visit in Italy. We see his love for his mother, the decision his father takes regarding his future, his learning how to use colours and how to create them. However, Smith has a surprise for us readers as not everything is as it seems.

'How to be both' has been described  as 'playful, tender, unforgettable' by the Guardian. I believe it ro be exquisite beyong measure. Regardless the edition you get, you know you have in your hands the work of a true artist.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

La Vegetariana

Esta novela, ganadora de premio Man Booker internacional, relata los dias de la vegetariana del titulo, desde el punto de vista de su esposo, su cuñado y su hermana.

Una madrugada, el esposo encuentra a la protagonista de pie frente al refrigerador, vaciandolo de todos los productos de carne. Cuando este le pregunta que esta haciendo, ella solo le contesta que tuvo un sueño. Asi comenzara el tiempo en que la mujer solo come vegetales o frutas, hasta llegar a la estapa que deja de comer totalmente.

El cuñado de la protagonista relata los dias en que esta ya se encuentra viviendo sola, alejandose de su familia, aislandose. Entre ellos, en especial de parte del hombre, existe un deseo escondido, que lo llevara a producir un proyecto artistico que los acercara de manera muy intima.

Su hermana cuenta los ultimos dias de la vid de la mujer, internada en un neuropsiquiatrico. Ella se cuestiona si lo que sufre su hermana es la locura, y como llego a estar inmersa en ella, y si su cordura puede tambien peligrar. Su pequeño hijo es el centro de su vida y en cierta medida, su ancla de la oscuridad.

Esta novela no es para todos. Los acontecimientos llevan al lector a cuestionarse sus decisiones e ideas, la razon de su rutina diaria, la fragilidad de la calma de sus dias, la facilidad con que todo puede desaparecer.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

El corazón del tártaro

La tapa de la novela hace referencia a el libro sobre pintura que Zarza, la protagonista de esta historia, tiene que editar en su trabajo. Al comienzo de la novela, su vida parece monótona, simple, cuando recibe un llamado en su casa que le dice 'Te he encontrado.'

Así entraremos en el pasado de Zarza, a medida que lo recuerda, huyendo de su perseguidor, quien no será revelado hasta mucho después.

Lo que pronto sabemos es que Zarza tiene un pasado lo sumamente oscuro para creer que alguien busca matarla. En su atropellada huida, ella recordará su pasado, dándole pistas al lector sobre su verdadera historia con las drogas, llegando a prostituirse y utilizar a sus seres queridos, siendo parte de asaltos, engañando a quién la ayuda, traicionando a todos a su alrededor.

El libro sobre el que trabaja es referida en la novela como el caballero de la rosa: la historia de dos hermanastros hijos de un duque, quienes viven con el y su esposa (la madre de uno de ellos). un día el bastardo salva a su hermanastro, perdiendo un ojo. Sin embargo, este lo encuentra teniendo sexo con su madre, lo que le enfurece, echándolo y encerrándola su madre en sus aposentos. Esta historia se entrelaza con la narración del presente de Zarza, la autora mostrando así las conexiones que abundan entre ambas historias.

El relato transcurre en 24 horas en las que Zarza rememora amargamente sus años de autodestrucción. La narración no es lineal, por lo que el lector trabaja activamente para ordenar los eventos en su cabeza y así, entender los eventos que llevaron a Zarza a huir.

Esta novela muestra una vez más la magistral prosa de Rosa Montero, una de las voces consagradas de la narrativa en español. Sin dudas, los atrapará, llevándolos a cuestionarse que harían en el lugar de la protagonista, preguntándose si los humanos realmente aprendemos de nuestros errores, si finalmente nos convertimos en mejores personas cuando admitimos nuestras flaquezas, cuando nos miramos al espejo sin maquillaje ni disfraz, sin nada que nos oculte quién verdaderamente somos.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

The Lacuna

' A story is like a painting, Soli. It doesn't have to look like what you see out the window.'

The novel begins with the terrors of mother and son every morning, the fantasy of the aulladores (howlers) coming to devour them, only their bones and Will's writing to give evidence of their existence.

Writing is an essential element in the story, as young Will, the protagonist, fills little notebooks endlessly, spreading his days in Mexico in paper. Having a Mexican mother and an American father, this duplicity in his identity is even displayed in his name: he is 'Will' to his mother Salomè, 'Pícaro' to Leandro, the Mexican cook who teaches him how tamales are properly made, 'Harry' to his American father, 'Insólito' to Frida, 'Sweet Buns' to Señor Rivera.

At the onset of the narrative, Salomé has abandoned America and her American husband for Don Enrique and Isla Pixol in Mexico. It is there where Will discovers the cave in the beach, its possibility of escape and a new reality. Later, when Salomé finds a new man, they move to the capital, the DF. There, he meets a man called 'The Painter', becoming the painting ixer for him. Soon, we discover that this man is not other than Diego Rivera, the famous muralist, and that the Azteca queen that walks every morning through the local market is his wife, the painter Frida Kahlo.

However, Will's luck runs out and he is sent to his father in Washington, where he is schooled as a boarding student. His writing continues and we, the readers, learn od his adventures and misfortunes from them directly.

After being expelled from school, he returnes to Mexico and becomes an important asset in Diego and Frida's home. There, his life becomes interwined with important historical events as Trotsky' exile in Mexico and his fragile safety in the Rivera's household is a continuous struggle for the protagonists.  After Trostsky's death, Will returns to America, where he starts writing novels about the Azteca empire. However, his former job in the household of famous communists makes him the target of the McCarthism movement.

As you can see, the plot has many suculent twists as a Will's true adventurous life is unfolded. Kingsolver's writing is magic and you can feel the heat of the Mexican atmosphere in your skin.

A 'lacuna' is a gap, an epty space in a story, a cave in the sea, a part that is missing for something to become a whole, to be utterly complete. There are always 'lacunas' in a narration ans is us, the readers, who have the marvellous opportunity to fill them with our dreams, our desires, our imagination.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

Sea of Poppies

Being  set in India, during the Opium Wars between England and China, this monumental story tells the lives of several characters, from different castes and ideological perspectives, narrating the tumultuos times they have to survive. Amitav Ghosh is a master of storytelling, unravelling a plot in which everycharacter embarks themselves in a journey that will lead them to a ship, the Ibis.

The story begins with Deeti, a shy woman who struggles growing poppies to sell to the Opium factory. Unhappily marriage, she is devoteed to her daughter who she wishes would have a different future. With her, we learn of Kalua's fate, an untouchable ox man who takes Deeti's husband to work everyday.

In the Ibis, we find Zachary Reid, a sailor, new to the business and the only survivor of the journey that finishes in India.  With the support of the lascars, especially their leader Serang Ali, he becomes the second in command of the ship. This is to become an opium trader, but before, it will take coolies (Indian workers) to the Island of Mauritania.

In Calcutta, we find Paulette, a French orphan, being taken care of by Mr. Bhurman, an important dealer in the opium trade. She has been brought up in an unique way, being her father a botanistin the Imperial Gardens. She considers Jodu, a young Indian boy, as her brother. He wants to become part of the crew of the Ibis, having to face dangers and perils to do so.

We also have the story of the Rajah Neel Rattan Halder, who the previously mentioned Mr Brhuman forces to sell his properties in order to pay his late father's debts.

As you can see, Ghosh introduces this diversity so as to display the multiculturality of India at the times of the colony in contrast to the imperialist view of one people talking English and having the ultimate desire to become like their English masters. This adventurous tale unravels magestically, the destinies of the different characters becoming one, sailing the Black Water, finding a future in an another land, a new home.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

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The song of Achilles

What an incredible novel! Not only a page-turner, what the language the authot uses is full of sensuality and poetry!

This narrates the well-known story of Achilles. However, it is told from Patroclus's point of view, his eternal companion and, acording to this novel, also his lover.

The story starts with Pattoclus's childhood, and the terrible event that changes his life forever, as he becomes an exile in Achilles's land. No longer a prince, at the beginning, he is with other boys that are being trained by the orders of Peleus, Achilles's father. Sitting in a corner of the diningroom, he delightfully admires Achilles's presence, his beauty and masculinity. Remember he is the son of Thetis, a sea-nymph, who is ferouciousle protective of his son and his famous destiny, knowing he will die young, but immortal in the tales of humans.

Soon Patroclus and Achilles become friends. It is in this moment when the author fully depicts the tension between these two boys, the description of their athletic bodies, the struggles to keep their passion controlled, the friendship leading to a deeper relationship.

The time of training with the centaur in the caves, away from the influence of Achilles's mother, helps them to build a bond that is indestructible, keeping each other together even in the worst times to come.

What happens to them is well-known. However, Miller is capable of making the reader avid to learn about the protagonists' destinies, afraid of losing them, wishing to finish the book and at the same time, for it not to finish ever.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

La isla bajo el mar

Esta novela esta ambientada en los tiempos de la esclavitud en la isla que actualmente es Haiti. Relata la vida de Zarite, una mulata que es vendida al terrateniente frances Valmorian, trabajando en la casa de este, atendiendo a sus dos esposas y teniendo sus hijos.

La lucha de los esclavos en Haiti es famosa historicamente, ya que constituye uno de los primeros lugares en el mundo donde la esclavitud es prohibida, gracias al exito de la rebeliones constantes de los esclavos contra sus amos. En este ambiente la autora narra la vida de esta esclava, que sufre las agrasiones de su amo.

Sin embargo, Zarite tambien cuenta con la presencia de distintas mujeres, quienes la ayudaran a sobrevivir: Violette que se dedica a la prostitucion, Loula es la mujer que organiza su negocio, Tante Rose es la curandera y Tante Matilde la cocinera de la plantacion. Con ellas, la autora crea un ambiente de amistad frente al horror, la magia femenina llenando los espacios de sus vidas, ayudandola a acercarse a su libertad, manteniendo su dignidad incluso en el peor de los momentos.

Allende logra una narracion entretenida, llena del calor del Caribe, los aromas envolviendo los cuerpos, el pasado volviendose presente y la libertad, tan ansiada, posible, al alcanze de la mano.

Lila

This a story that at first sight seems to be slimple. However, it beautifully deals with deep issues of loneliness, faith, the life during the Depression times, negletfullness, and primarily, love.

It narrates the story of Lila. We find her being the wife of the old preacher in Gilead. We learn throughher thoughts nd experiences, the life she hs had and the one that she is living now.

Being a girl, she is neglected by her family, and the point of being outside in the rain during whole nights. She is taken by a woman, Doll, and starts a life of wandering towns after possible jobs with a group of people. They spend the nights by the fire, and during days bathing in the river. There she thinks about loneliness, 'But if you're just a stranger to everybody onearth, then that's what you are and there's no end to it. You don't know the words to say.'

Lila learns to read during a year that Doll takes a job cleaning at a house. However, feeling always hunted by Doll's past, they move from town to town, their lives fragile, spending their days isolated from the communities they pass around.

Soon Depression comes and the author depicts how difficult their lives become 'How could it be that none of it mattered? It was most of what happened. But if it did matter, how could the world go on the way it did when there were so many people living the same and worse? Poor was nothing, tired and hungry were nothing. But people only trying to get by, and no respect for them at all, even the wind soiling them.'

The author makes us question our beliefs and position towards our lives in this world. Through Lila's memories and reflections, we learn her new days as the wife of a preacher, carrying a child that soon would be her first encounter to the entity of family, her struggle to live a life fully, her past always hunting her dreams.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

The Secret River

This story is a narration of immigration, building your HOME in another place, leaving behind life to travel to the unknown. This is what happens to the Thornills.

William Thornill was born in one of the poorest places in England, seeing himself forced to steal in order to survive. Sal is his neighbour, who is truly his soulmate and who becomes his wife once he finishes his intership as a boatman with Sal's father. The river Thames is his life. However, he gets used to stealing parts of the shipments he has to cross from one side to the other of the river, untill he is discovered and sentenced to death.

Sal truly saves his life as she encourages him to write to the authorities, sending him and his family to the prison island of Australia.

Now starts a new phase in their lives. At the beginning in Sydney, but once William gets a job transporting goods from the residents living in the shores of the river to the main city. Soon, he finds a place he sees as his future home: Thornhill's Point. However, his idyllic idea of how to make the land productive encounters the existence of aboriginal people.


Through the story, Thornhill and his family finds themselves having to choose between two approaches towards the aborigines: peaceful co-existence, as his neighbour Blackwood has achieved; or violence, the aggressive way another neighbour called Smasher chooses.

The 'civilised' convicts, who have become respectable citizents in the new lands, end up behaving quite 'uncivilised', as the author questions who are the savages. When they are angered, accusing the aborigines of stealing the products of their efforts, they use the word 'thieves', treating the aborigines the same way they were treated in London.

This story of colonisation depicts the effects it had in the aboriginal communities, erasing them from their own lands, enslaving them to the colonisers and their customs, being the victims of a mechanical operation to extinguish them completely.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

The Light between Oceans

This is a story in which you find yourself struggling with the consequences of the characters' decisions with them, decisions that have been taken with the heart, impetuously, solitude gnawing their souls, making them desperate.

The narrative begins with Australian Tom Sherbourne, returning home from war. He takes a position in Janus Rock lighthouse, a place full of the sound of the wind and the waves crashing the rocks. Later, he meets charming easy-going smart Isabel, marrying her and taking her to his home.

A presence that might have illuminated the isolated lighthouse, soon becomes the images of grief after several miscarriages. One night, they hear the crying of a baby. At the beginning, they think it is the wind, playing a cruel joke on them. Soon, they discover a baby with a dead man in a boat on the shore. Tom thinks of reporting inmediately. However, Isabel silently requests for him no to do it. They name the child Lucy.

Since that day, Isabel's life is full of noises and love. However, day by day, Tom struggles, his consciousness telling him that somewhere the baby is being missed. Two years later, they travel to mainland and soon discover 'they are not alone in the world'.

This story tells the lives of people who build their own home away from the rest of civilisation. When your dreams are washed away, you could take desperate measures to survive. A story of love and responsibility, of grief and solitude, of mistakes and redemption.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

On Beauty

This novel is Zadie Smith's homage to 'Howards End' by E.M. Forster as it plot loosely parallels Forster's masterpiece, dealing with the issues of class, appearance and, in Smith's narrative, black people's identity.

The story focuses on two very dissimilar families. The Besley family consists of Howard, a liberal university professor, his African-American wife Kiki and their children Jerome, Zora and Levi. The Kipps family is lead by conservative Trinidadian professor Monty, his wife Carlene and their children Victoria and Michael.

Smith cleverly interwines their lives, portraying the clash not only of their ideologies but also of their personal affairs. The conflict between Howard and Monty has being developed for several years, as their different approaches towards art makes they stand in totally opposite positions. During the story, the members of their families become more and more connected, creating bonds that the patriarchs don't agree with: Jerome works as an intern for Monty, having an affair with his daughter Victoria; Kikki and Carlene become friends, not taking into account their different backgrounds and beliefs; Monty's family moves and he starts working in the same university as Howard does, becoming a clearly opposition to what-used-to-be Howard's influential leadership.

As the novel takes place in an imagined upper-class white context, the author places significant issues regarding being black in the development of the novel. For instance, Kikki feels isolated as the black wife of a white professor, saying that '(her) whole life is white. (She doesn't) see any black folk unless they be cleaning.'  Meanwhile, her son Levi resorts to the city to find people he can identified with, changing his way of speaking, copying the street style he feels as the real black talk.

As you can see, this story is complex, intense, intelligent, puzzling, and more! Zadie Smith has created a masterpiece, becoming one of the most promising writers of her generation. Her power of observation fills the novel with a more deep understanding of topics that concerns the citizents of our contemporary world, without disregarding the pleasure you can find in a well-written story.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

The Namesake

This book narrates the story of the Ganduli family, the Indian parents who moved to the United States to have a better life, and their son Gogol/Nikhil. This diasporic tale revolves around the topic of identity, the notion of 'home' and the cultural crash that the protagonists live in a context totally dissimilar to their original one.

The father, Ashore, teaches at university and his wife Ashima spens her days at home, wearing saris and cooking Indian food everyday. When their first son arrives, they follow the tradition by which an elderly member of the family chooses the baby's name. When the letter with 'the good name' gets lost in the mail, they decide to call him'Gogol'. This name marks the boy as unique, different, 'At times his name, an entity shapeless and weightless, manages nevertheless to distress him physically, like the scratchy tag of a shirt he has been forced permanently to wear.'

The parents also feel they do not fit in this new world they have to inhabbit, feeling discomfort even in their own houses as  'For when Ashima and Ashore close their eyes it never fails to unsettle them, that their children sound just like Americans, expertly conversing in a language that still at times confounds them, in accents they are accustomed not to trust.'

The author beautifully portrays the days of the members of this family, struggling to find a place in a new community, the parents keeping their customs and sorrounding themselves with Indians like them; their children trying to figure out their identities in a position of in transit, in a world in which 'home' is buildibg everyday.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

All Our Names

This story appears to be a narrative about a man called Issac, told from two different points of view in two different times, and , however, I think this character is the less known as the book is closed.

The story is divided in two parts. One is named 'Issac' and displays the adventures two young men live in revolutionary times in Uganda. We are never told the name of the narrator: he is called 'the professor', 'Dickens', 'Heaney' and several names as the narrative goes on and his connection with books  is shown.We learn of the Ugandan war for independence, the rebel group to overthrown the government and the role of the university students in it. The narrator blindly trusts Issac, and in a degree, at least at the beginning, he idiolises him. However, his bond with a powerful man changes everything, and their relationship trembles.

The other part is called 'Helen' and narrates the life of a social assistant in the United States, and the affair she has with a young African man named Issac, who has travelled to America as an exchange student, presumably escaping from a dangerous situation in his country. As tines goes by, Helen starts discovering gaps in Issac's story, and his persistent silence to her questions strenghtens the idea that he is hidding facts from his past that he is embarrassed or ashamed of.

The reader easily makes the connection between the 'Issac' in Uganda and the exchange student in America. However, the author masterfully handles the suspense, and not everything is as it appears to be.

Mengestu is one of the most aclaimed contemporary writer in the United States, giving to his sentences a unique density, portraying the complexity of today world as people from different cultures meet, conflict arising from the diversity of our origins.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

The Forgotten Waltz

This is the story of an affair between two married people. However, being Anne Enright the writer behind the narrative, it is away from cliches with deep understanding of the conflict that this kind of situation arises.

It starts enigmatic, full of the cleverness of Enright's sentences 'If it hadnt been for the child then none of this might have happened, but the fact that a child was involved made everything that much harder to forgive.' In this story we not only find the cheater/husband, the wronged wife, the always waiting mistress; we also have their children, giving this situation started by two a more complicated nature than such a trio.

 In the beginning there is the mystery, the escapades, the danger of being caught. Later, the obsession, the hours waiting outside the other's house. In the beginning, the narrator even humorously claims 'all you have to do is sleep with somebody and get caught and you never have to see your in-laws again. Ever. Pfffft! Gone. It's the nearest thing to magic I ever found yet.'

Then, when they are discovered, they have to deal with their relatives' and friends' anger, disappointment, foolishness. The narrator says 'We're pariahs.'

What the narrator havent thought through is the relationship she must engage with her lover's daughter, a teenager full of anguish and predictable issues. Is there when Enright fully makes us understand how our impulses touch not only our lives but also those's surrounding us.


A clever analysis of how mature and responsible adults are suppossed to be. The development of an affair is dissectionated, making plain how humans are lead by their heart, not their brains.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

Vals with Bashir

This is the graphic novel based on the film with the same name, dealing with memory and its ways to deal with traumatic events.

This story starts with a middle-aged man retelling a friend about a dream. In this dream, a group of dogs run through the streets looking for him, knowing they want to kill him. He connects the dogs with his own duty during his twenties as he was a member of the Israeli army.

This situation triggers the question in the protagonist's mind: why does he have all his memories of his time in the army totally erased?

With this issue in his head, he starts a journey to uncover the events that surrounded the massacre in a refuggee camp in Beirut and the role the Israeli army played as they didn't stop the rebels to kill the civilians, among them, women and children.

The colours chosen by the artist and the outline given to the characters emphasise this feeling of urgency; the fragility of the soldiers' souls; the craziness involved in the decisions taken by a few; the consequences the young boys have to face once the battle is over.

I highly recommended graphic novel as it deals with issues that the powerful do the best to hide;  young boys having to face the horror with their own eyes; their lives never the same; never their own again.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

The Hours

This is Michael Cunningham's tribute to Virginia Woolf.

We have the lives of three women connected in a literary way: Virginia Woolf in her retreat away from London; Clarissa  Daloway, an editor preparing a party for her birthday, and, finally, Mrs Brown, a housewife in the 50s living an unsuitable life for herself.

All of then are struggling with her own issues. Virginia is fighting with the fact that she is hearing voices again, writing Mrs Dalloway and trying to make her husband understand that she would die of boredom if she stays in the countryside as the doctors recommend.

Clarissa moves herself through contemporary New York, buying flowers and in a way, reenacting what happens to her according to what Virgina has written in her already classic novel. She visits her dearest friend, ill with AIDS and trying to keep him alive.

Mrs Brown is desperately trying to convince herself that becoming a housewife and mother is what she has desired all her life. Being an invisible bookworn, she couldnt say no to the captsin of the school/medalled veteran asking her to marry him. Now, she feels imprisoned.


Cunningham cleverly interwines their lives, making a path for the reader to discover the secrets they are hidding from themselves in plain sight.

You are going to love the literary reference to Woolf's life and works, and the poetic language the author uses to create beautiful atmospheres that surrounds the characters. You will anguish with the characters' decisions, their hearts full of fear, their minds full of voices.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

The English Patient

This book contains the kind of story that marvels the readers because of its uniqueness: the plot is superb, the language poetic, the characters complex, the scenes dynamic, passion flowing its pages, destiny waiting for those who has challenged their fate.

It starts with the description of Hannah, a nurse taking care of a mysterious man whose skin is so burned that he is described as 'black'. Then, we learn that the story takes place during the Second World war, the Bedouin seeing the planes falling from the sky, the desert engulfing them, this man ( a soldier? A spy? A explorer?) being rescued by the nomads from his plane on fire. Hannah devoutedly, patiently is trying to subdue his pain while struggling with her own losses, an abandoned Italian villa providing an enchanted backgroung for the characters' sorrow.

There are flashbacks? Dreams? Stories? that overcomes the patient's mind, fulfilling his hours as he mutters endlessly.Through them, we get glimpses of the patient's past, a passion that overwhelmed his days, an affair that is both a blessing and a curse and finally, a broken promise.

In the villa, the appearance of Caravaggio, a soldier looking for revenge, gives the reader the possibility to see the cruelty of human nature. Kipp, the Indian bomb expert, makes Hannah realise her need for love in a time of horror, the fragility of life perceived in the lives of these characters.

A heart-breaking story, the images that populated this narrative enrich the readers' experiences, the heat of the desert touching their skins, the wind blowing their hair, their eyes shadowed under the scorching sun.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

Atonement

The cover of this edition shows it truly as what it is: a classic. The story of deception, perspective, imagination, delusion and responsability is one of the best written by McEwan.

It tells the story of a particular day that changes the characters' lives forever. Briony is a twelve-year-old girl whose imagination drives her to create explanations for the things that she doesn't know about or understand. When she sees, through the window, the scene between her eighteen-year-old sister Cecilia and the maid's young son Robbie, you realise how Briony unconsciously sees the tension between them as something dangerous, a puzzle she must solve.

In times of the beginning of the war, in the house there are other visitors: Briony's cousins, the twin boys and their teenaged sister Lola, and a friend of the family, the chocolate manufacturer Paul Marshall. During the night, the boys run away as they fight with their sister and everybody seeks them through the darkness of the garden.

A terrible thing happens, being Briony the only witness. This event changes the flow of the plot completely, moving through time as it portrays an older Briony, now a nurse in the army, trying to atone for the mistake she made that night years ago.

What is to say about Mc Ewan's well-crafted writing, the quick-pace of the plot only slows to give us a glimpse of the characters' complexity, the reasons behind their actions, the decisions they make as History leads their days into chaos.

A surprise is waiting for you if you think you know where the story is going. You soon realise Briony is the best storyteller McEwan could use to tell his splendid story.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

El corazon Helado

Almudena Grandes es una de las mejores escritoras españolas contemporaneas. Gracias a ella, un publico joven se ha acercado a la historia tragica reciente de ese pais, conociendo detalles sobre la Guerra Civil y sus consequencias.

'El Corazon Helado' es un libro lleno de momentos fascinantes, escenas en las que la Historia se hace presente, interpelando a los personajes, demarcando sus destinos, numerando sus dias.

Julio Carrion es un empresario quien tras su muerte no solo deja una fortuna a sus hijos, tambien un pasado turbio y escondido. Por ejemplo, fue miembro de la Division Azul, grupo de soldados que durante el gobierno de el General Franco viajaba en tren, las ventanas tapiadas para frenar las piedras que los habitantes de los pueblos por los que pasaban les tiraban en repudio, hacia el borde ruso, peleando junto a los alemanes contra Stalin. Tampoco hace referencia a su trato con los exiliados españoles en Francia, con quienes cosecho una gran amistad, vaya a saber cual era su proposito.

Cuando su hijo Alvaro acude a un llamado del banco sobre una cuenta de su padre, encuentra a Raquel Fernandez Perea, quien parece haber tenido mas que una relacion profesional con Don Julio. Sin saberlo, comenzara un viaje al pasado de su padre quien, como muchos, se movio como pez en el agua en tiempos de crisis, en momentos en que hombres eran prisioneros en condiciones atroces, niños robados a sus familias, muerte y desamparo.

Raquel tambien tiene un pasado que contar. Su abuelo Ignacio, anarquista, lucho del lado del gobierno de la republica y perdio. Salvo su vida de milagro, escapando cuando los socialistas (algo que yo no sabia) supuestamente pactaron con Franco entregar a los anarquistas ante la inminente rendicion. Su vida en Francia tiene una rutina en la que Raquel cumple un rol principal, niña mimada a quien siempre le recuerdan los gloriosos tiempos de la republica. Asi, ella jurara venganza.

Grandes llena de sentimientos los diferentes momentos. Uno se emociona hasta las lagrimas ante la preciosa descripcion del festejo de los españoles en las calles francesas ante la muerte de Franco, la esperanza en los ojos de todos los presentes,  la ruidosa celebracion llenando la ciudad luz. O la desgracia acahecida sobre aquellos apoyaban la republica y tuvieron que vivir en España, siendo perseguidos, amedentrados, no permitiendoles siquiera pararse ante la timba de sus seres queridos para llorarlos.

Se que los temas que trata esta novela son duros. Sin embargo, la prosa de Grandes lo lleva a uno a querer saber mas, el desproposito de la guerra claro como el agua, el 'corazon helado', de los traidores congelando las vidas de todos aquellos a los que tocan.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

Seating Arrangements

This story happens during a weekend, just three days of a family celebrating the weeding of the eldest. However, the author is able to show in that short period of time the strenghts and weaknesses of the human heart.

With a tragicomedy tone, we meet the issues unearthed by the fact that the whole family Van Meters is together in their beach house. Upper class, wealthy, member of golf clubs, the father Winn seems to have everything he wants. However, we soon discover his insecurities as he is obsessed with his business rival ( who, btw, is the father of his second daughter's exboyfriend and married to Winn's high school girlfriend) and having a serious crush with one of the young maid of honour, the alluring Dominique.

His wife is the classic glamorous wife but who has a sister, Celeste, proned to alcoholic outburts, saying whatever crosses her mind. And real life gives her a lot of material: the bride is getting married because she is pregnant (the dress needing readjustments to cover her eight-month belly), her sister Livia, heart-broken, struggling not to fall for the best man, a positively 'bad boy', a dead whale lying in the beach nearby, the lobsters bought for the special dinner with the in-laws missing, and more!!!!

The story is so well-developed that you find new details in every page, giving the characters and the plot the complexity and texture present in everyday life. You can symphatise or hate the characters' decisions and motives, but you won't be indiferent, you will feel the need to take sides, to acknowledge people's urges as possibly your own, to question yourself 'what would have I done in his/her place, to face the fact that we, all of us, are simply humans.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

State of Wonder

This story is truly an incredible adventure, peopled by intriguing characters and puzzling settings; a genuine page-turner.

Dr Marina Singh works for a pharmaceutical company. Her partner in the laboratory, Dr Anders Eckman travels to the Amazon jungle to check on Dr Annick Swenson, who has been doing a research for a new drug, very pricy for the company, and hasn't given reports about it. After weeks of no correspondence, a letter from Dr Swenson arrives saying Eckman is dead. What? When? How?

There are no answers in the short communication. Consequently, Marina is sent to the jungle with two purposes: to discovers what is behind Eckman's death (to start with, where is the body?) and to extract information from Dr Swenson about the new drug. She is sent by her boss Mr Fox.

However, not everything is what appears to be.
1- Mr Fox is not only Marina's boss, but also her (secret) lover.
2- Dr Swenson is not only the scientist who is developing a new drug, but she is also Marina's former mentor, and shares with her a tragic moment in Marina's life.
3- The narrative is not only adventurouss and intriguing, but imaginative and colourful. You can feel the humidity of the jungle air coming off the pages, the characters' decisions hiding obscure intentions, the carnavalesque Bovenders, Rodrigo's unvaluable help, 'Easter' pizzling identity, and more!!!!

Ann Patchett's timing is excellent, keeping the pace of the narrative as she includes information to build the characters' past and present. In few lines, she unearths important data for the plot as you have to be careful not to skip content essential for you to understand the development of the mystery.

Learning and entertainment together, this novel will keep you awake long hours past your bedtime, unable to stop reading, to close the book, to leave the jungle.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

The Farming of Bones

'Misery won't touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of.'

This story tells the masacre of Haitains in Dominican Republic in 1937. These two countries are divided by a river, a borderline easy to cross by thousands of peasants looking for work harvesting the sugarcanes. Here is where we find Amabelle, a young Haitian who works in the house of Señora Valencia since she was a child, becoming an orphan as her parents died trying to cross the river/border.

She loves Sebastian. She delivers Señora Valencia's babies. She talks with Papi, as he listens to the radio, trying to get news from Spain, involved in war. During the first part of the book, we get the daily life in the Dominican Republic, people's traditions and beliefs.

A car accident tells us that the situation of the Haitians is pretty unstable. Suddenly, danger arrives and the atmosphere changes completely, becoming the book a page-turner, the reader escaping alongside the narrator, feeling the edge of the machetes, the burning of whole villages.

The mention of vultures clouding the sky gives us the exact measure of the killing; survivors retelling what they have been witnesses of; the reader grasping the horror developing unstoppably.

The memories of the survivors become the collective history written in the wind, the dead kept alive by those who remember them, by those who went through hell and stand alive, a journey that has no end.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks

History of the Rain

'We tell stories. We tell stories to pass the time, or go more deeply into it. We tell stories to heal the pain of living.'

This is a book about stories, about retelling and the importance of books in the lives of the readers, about finding answers in the pages of books, in poetry, in the flowing of the river, as the salmon does, upcurrent.

Ruth is a teenaged narrator, telling the story of her family. The first one is her grandfather Reverend Swain and the 'Impossible Standard' he sets for himself and that sets the bar for the following generations. Later, grandfather Abraham, and his 'History of the Salmon in Ireland', struggling to find meaning in a place in which he seriously doesn't belong. Last but not least, Ruth's father Virgil, the poet who never stops working, who has 'ash in his soul'. From him Ruth and Aegny arrive, they own stories waiting ahead of them.

I 've found the story beautifully written. The poetic language makes the narrative flow, God becoming a fisher, hooking people to their destinies, to the after life, off the river.
The characters are described intelligently 'Young Father Tipp came, parked his Starlet the way priest park, on the outwr edge, carried his missal low down and a little behind him the way Clint Estwood carried his gun, loke he'd only use it if he had to.' You imagine them clearly, the humorous tone involving the most incredulous parts, making them believable and understandable.

Those who doesn't have 'Human-Glue', who hide themselves in books, who escape from reality sometimes, will feel totally connected to this story, to the idea that the answers to the big issues are found in books, in the lives of others, in other's adventures.

Ana Ovejero

mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com

instagram:ananbooks