A separate peace (John Knowles)

A separate peace

John Knowles

This novel narrates the lives of teenagers who go to a boarding school in Devon in 1944. The boy who tells the story is Gene Forrester. He deeply admires his friend Phineas (Finny), who is the best athlete in the school, adventurous and decided to break all the rules.

An adult Gene remembers their days during the time of the Second World War. The idea of enlisting is always surrounding them as they believe they have to show their masculinity to the other students.

One of Finny's ideas is to climb a tree and jump to the lake from above. Gene follows him since he always feels his friend is pushing him to his limits.

This is not a plot-driven story. The growth of the characters is the essence. Gene and Finny learns to expand their friendship, even when obstacles seem to break this fragile connection. They discover each other, their ambiguities and weaknesses. the way a friend shape their days, even when tragedy engulfs them.

A coming-of-age story, critics have connected this novel with The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger.  Adults will remember the delicate link that onnected them to their friends, the days in the secondary school when being outside in the sunshine was more important than classes and grades.

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La danza de la araña (Laura Alcoba)

La danza de la araña

Laura Alcoba

Laura Alcoba relata su niñez y comienzo de la adolescencia en la trilogía creada por los libros La casa de los conejos, El azul de las abejas, y esta novela. Siendo hija de miembros de la organización guerrillera Montoneros, desde pequeña conoce los silencios y secretos en los que debe vivir para sobrevivir.

En esta historia Laura tiene unos doce años y vive en Francia con su mamá y una compañera de lucha de esta llamada Amalia. El padre de Laura es un preso político en la cárcel de varones de La Plata, donde ya lleva seis años de sentencia por terrorismo.

Laura tiene una comunicación fluida con él por carta y, a pesar de tener que cruzar el océano, se sienten muy cercanos y comparten secretos. Un día, el padre le cuenta a Laura de un hombre que tiene una araña pollito de mascota, encerrada durante el día en una caja, la que hace sonar con su movimiento cuando lo oye llegar. Éste la libera y la araña se deja acariciar.

A partir de esa carta, Laura decide que ella también quiere una araña de mascota. Pronto elabora todo un plan para transportarla en avión. Sin embargo, su padre le hace ver la imposibilidad del plan.

Más adelante, Laura usará la imagen de la araña en varias oportunidades, comparando los eventos que le suceden tanto a ella como a los que la rodean. Por ejemplo, hablando de la enfermedad de Amalia, ella dice " En ese cuerpo que es cada vez más una oreja sorda, Amalia está presa, como la araña. Pero nadie puede abrir la puerta de su jaula."

Una historia que muestra la cotidianidad de los refugiados argentinos y sus hijos en el exilio, cuenta el crecimiento de una niña que se convierte en una mujer joven en un país lejano, con un padre preso, la fragilidad de sus días y la incertidumbre que los rodea.

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Exit West (Mohsin Hamid)

Exit West

Mohsin Hamid

"the whole planet was on the move...

without borders nations appeared to be becoming somewhat illusionary, 

and people were questioning what role they had to play"

This novel narrates the story of Saeed and Nadia, two people that, like many others, have to leave their country which is destroyed by war.

Although Nadia wears a full-lenght black dress, she rides a motorcycle and lives alone, something that is not very common in her Muslim country. Saeed meets her in a class in university and they start going out together.

However, rebels are getting stronger and taking big areas of the cities. Electricity, food and water become scarce and they see themselves forced not to leave Saeed's house.

Soon, the legend of doors that travel in space and enable people to leave their homes and become materialise in another ones, Saeed and Nadia decide to try one of the door and their lives as refugees start.

Hamid writes that

"To flee for ever is beyond the capacity of most: at some point even a hunted animal will stop, exhausted, and wait its fate, if only for a while."

The author deals with current issues such as the rights of the refugees to have  better lives, the reaction of the natives of the countries in which the people fleeing arrive and the notion of love, loyalty and courage.

An important record of the times we are living, the fate of these characters stays with readers even after they finish the book.

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The Noise of Time (Julian Barnes)

The Noise of Time

Julian Barnes

This novel tells the life of Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich during the Soviet era.

The story starts with the image of a man waiting outside the door of his flat at night, fully dressed and with a suitcase beside him, while his family is sleeping inside. He is waiting for the KGB officers, to take him to interrogation, to the labour camps in Siberia, to death.

The fear the protagonist Dimitri feels never disappears in the whole narration.Stalin has been in the theatre to evaluate his opera and he has gone before it finishes. Dimitri sees this as a bad omen and decides to be ready and not to give the officers the possibility to humilliate him by taking him away in front of the neighbours in pyjamas.

The novel reflexes the ideas of this composore in a time when old comrades vanish from historical records, burocrats decide over music and art, and children denounce their own parents.

A study on time, Barnes writes that 

' What could be put up against the noise of time? Only that music which is inside ourselves - the music of our being - which is transformed by some into real music. Which, over the decades, if it is strong and true and pure enough to drown out the noise of time, is transformed into the whisper of history.

This was what he held to.'

With the analysis of the protagonist's emotions and thoughts, Barnes is able to face the essential questions people ask to themselves about being a coward or a brave person in moments of terror, when power determines what is art and what is not, making it a good, but above all, the time we have to fullfil our fate or totally avoid it.

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Vincent (Barbara Stok)

Vincent

Barbara Stok

Narrating the life of Vincent Van Gogh in Arlés and his days in the asylum in Saint-Rémy, this graphic novel stand as a new way to become aquainted with this master painter. 

The story begins with Vincent leaving Paris after feeling overwhelmed by the city. His brother Theo is with him. Theo is Vincent's most loyal supporter, emotionally and financially, allowing him to concentrate on his art.

Arriving to Arlés, Vincent enjoys the colours of the countryside, painting trees and fields, explaining that they resemble the sea and the endless horizon over the waves.

With his new friend, the postman Roulin, he spends his time in the tavern, having relationship with a prostitute. However, his strong temperament makes him uninvited with the locals.

His desire to create a house for an asociation of painters becomes real when Gauguin, a painter that Vincent admires, arrives to Arlés. However, Vincent's mental health starts deteriorating rapidly, and with it, his relationship with Gauguin. When the latter anounces his idea to return to Martinica, Vincent's famously described event with his hear happens.

Consequently, he decides to recluse himself in an asylum in Saint-Rémy, where he paints such colossal paintings such as "Starry Night".

A gorgeous path to Vincent Van Gogh's troubled heart, this graphic novel leads the readers to a moment in time when the world of art changes forever.

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An elephant in the Garden (Michael Morpurgo)

An elephant in the Garden

Michael Morpurgo

The story happens in Germany in 1945. The war is ending and the terrifying Red Army is coming closer and closer to Dresden, the city where Elizabeth, the protagonist, lives. She shares her home with her mum Mutti, her dad Papi and her little brother Karli.

Papi is sent to the front and the family has to survive in a time when food becomes scarce. Mutti works in the zoo and her favourite animal is Marlene, a young elephant, named after the singer Marlene Dietrich,  When the bombs of the Allies start falling in the city, Mutti decides to escape to the countryside with Marlene and her children. As Karli suffers of asthma, he rides Marlene most of the journey.

When they get to their uncle and aunt's farm, a surprise that will endanger their lives is waiting for them,

A powerful telling of the lives of the Germans living through the catastrophic ending of the war, escaping the horror the Red Army is inflicting on civilians and trying to survive thinking about their relatives who are fighting in the front.

Abook for middle-school kids, Elizabeth's voice hepls readers to connect with the destiny of this family and the elepanth Marlene, a symbol of the desire to live, even in the darkest day of History.

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Home Fire (Kamila Shamsie)

Home Fire

Kamila Shamsie

This narration is a retelling of the Greek myth of Antigones. If you have read the myth, you would recognise several elements present in this book.

Isma is the eldest sibling in a English family of islamic beliefs. She lost her father when she was very young as he was being conducted to Guantamano as a prisoner.  Her siblings, the twins Aneeka and Parvaiz didn´t even meet him. They only way they knew this father was a silence surrounded by the questions of policemen and agents, trying to find out if the members of the family were connected to extremists in a way or another.

Now Isma is free and is in America to continue her studies. She meet Eamonn, the son of a powerful British Muslim politician, and apparently, she feels contradictory emotions towards him.

However, Eamonn travels back to England and meets Aneeka. They soon start a loving afair.

The problem is Parvaiz. He has been having connections with jihadist fighters and apparently has taken the struggle of the Muslims in the world in his own hands.

This narration shows a family dealing with their positions in the world as Muslims and British, how people perceive them and the preconceptions they have of them.

A very current novel, it is a good entrance to the debate going on in the world at the moment while enjoying beautiful writing, powerful characters and an evolving plot that would engulf the reader up to the end.

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Oración, Carta a Vicki y otras elegías políticas (María Moreno)

Oración

Carta a Vicki y otras elegías políticas

María Moreno

Vicki Walsh y sus compañeros se encontraban durmiendo en una casa a fines de 1977 cuando el ejército los acorrala y les exige que se entreguen. Vicki deja a su pequeña hija de apenas un año en la cuna y sube a la terraza, desde dónde se defiende disparando contra los soldados que los cercan.

Al verse vencidos, sabiendo lo que les espera a los que caen en manos del ejército, deciden suicidarse, gritando "ustedes no nos matan, nosotros elegimos morir",

Así lo explica Rodolfo Walsh, padre de Vicki, rememorándola como toda una luchadora.

La autora toma la muerte de Vicki como el comienzo del análisis de las acciones y propósitos de Montoneros, el rol de las mujeres que sobreviven a la tortura en los campos de concentración, la parte que las H.I.J.A.S juegan en el reconocimiento de sus padres desaparecidos.

Un libro destinado para los que están interesados en la temática. No es para todos, ya que considera la lucha Montonera como heroica, situándose en el lado de la izquierda de los eventos durante la dictadura militar.

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