Welcome to Litsy!

“And that‘s Manie, her much-younger brother, who looks to her eyes like an owl, a baby owl she‘d picked up and kept once as a child.” #owlchild
#booklink #coinky-dink When a book reminds you of another! #Chouette #TOB202LongList #TOB #TOB2022 #BookerPrize2021

I do like the basic story/idea, some passages are just simple beautiful, but the story about the grieving father with the very/over-sensitive son living in the world where wild animals are disappearing every day, quickly becomes didactic and preachy. Powers is trying too hard to make the statement/message and to provoke reader‘s emotions about our f….up world, for my taste. 🤷🏻‍♀️ While I really didn‘t liked overall sentiment of the story … 👇

Reading the longlist was interesting journey whose motto could be - something for every taste. From Booker nominees I expect challenging, exceptional, different, thought provoking stories, and some on this list are and some are just average. I have on my #BookerPrize2021 shortlist only five books, because Bewilderment by R.Powers has not yet been published, however, I expect to like it 🤞🤷🏻‍♀️

The historical novel has two timelines - part of the story is set in the 20th century where Marian and the early days of aviation are at the forefront, and part of the story is from the present, where the main character is Hadley - a famous film actress. Of course, those two stories, Mariana and Hadley are connected. And that, I think, is also the weakest point of the story. In places, these connections work, but most of the time, they‘re just …👇

In the span of four days, we get to know the claustrophobic world of Samuel, who works as a lighthouse keeper in an unnamed African country on an unnamed island, where he finds a corpse every now and then ... until one day he finds a barely alive refugee on the shore and that triggers in Samuel various memories from his past. The basic thread of the story is the legacy of colonialism, where the now ‘free‘ state is falling from one extreme … 👇

Mahmood is a Somali seaman who lives in Wales, he is married to a white woman, has three children, struggles through racial prejudice, tries to provide for his family, lives his life as best he can ... until he is convicted of a murder. Most remarkable in this book is depiction of Mahmood's naivety, his trust in the judiciary - the truth always wins, and the strongest point of this narrative, seems to me, is clash between Mahmood as he … 👇

A story about growing up, dying, family, regrets ... in short, a story about life and correcting mistakes. Readable, gentle, simple and, unfortunately, unremarkable. 🤷🏻‍♀️ #BookerPrize2021

A book where the complexity of the story (in the foreground is the white family in South Africa, in the background all the political and social changes in the country) is extremely enriched with a very thoughtful and dynamic structure, sometimes unusual narration (jumps from first to third person) and comprehensive characterization with a full spectrum of people from outspoken racists to white savior, it is a book/story with an extremely … 👇

It's a book I have very mixed feelings and thoughts. While the basic story is simple - Krishan is on a train, going north to attend his grandmother's caregiver funeral. When he observes landscape, his thoughts are in the past, he thinks about love, losses, desire, death, politics, war, violence, trauma - the execution is a little more complex. The first person narration is coloured very philosophically and with its long sentences … 👇

The perception of the individual is what shapes our personal/intimate reality and, of course, the problem arises when our reality/expectations do not match the perception of another individual. For me, this clash/relation between expectations is the main thread, which author spread out to the various spheres of life - partnership relations, maternity, and, above all, art and creativity. The whole story is based on the self-reflection of the … 👇