pickFrom the 2020 #manbookerinternationalprize shortlist is this novel about German folklore prankster Tyll. A bit of a bleak novel about life during the Middle Ages, specifically the 30 years war in Central Europe, I found this novel a bit difficult at times. The separate storylines didn‘t always seem to relate to each other or be necessary, and I had to look a lot of the historical events mentioned up. Overall it was an enjoyable read though.
My personal shortlist for #MBIP2019 #ManBookerInternationalPrize
My opinion - interesting and diverse longlist, but unfortunately very weak. Worthy candidates for shortlist are only three books (Shape of the Ruins, Four Soldiers and The Years) ... the other three are interesting, worth reading, but not strong enough to be shortlisted.
pickHome is #SoFarAway when you‘re driving with a dead refugee in the trunk of your car from Morroco to the Netherlands. And where is home actually when your parents are Morrocan but you are born and raised in the Netherlands? Neither feels like home. The eternal dilemma of the migrant and the current flow of North Africans crossing the Mediterranean form the core of this novel.
#ATY2019 Set in a Mediterranean country
#ManBookerInternationalPrize
so-soI can‘t tell you why my rating is so-so, because I can‘t figure it out why and what doesn‘t work for me in this story about 2nd generation of migrants - for the first time in Morocco and on the way back to Netherlands experiencing some bad things. The narrator‘s view point on the subject is interesting and quite fresh, but I‘m not sure of everything else ... ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #MBIP2019 #ManBookerInternationalPrize
pickBeautiful captured moments between a group of soldiers who are waiting for the next battle. While the story is plotless, chapters and sentences are short, written in simple prose, the final effect is the opposite of this modesty. Rich in emotions, but without sentimentality, and while this story is set in wartime it is (almost) without battlefield. Elegant and absorbing. #MBIP2019 #ManBookerInternationalPrize ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
so-soAnother short story collection from this year #MBIP2019 and another one for which I feel that the stories, as a collection, are too weak for shortlist. Main thread through them is how to make sense from incomprehensible events. In most of the stories the narrator is child, living a life in a war/conflict zone (we don‘t get information about where and when, except in one story) dealing with devastation, violence, desperation ... All stories are 👇
pickA quite novel about the changing world is set in Seoul, told through alternating chapters between young woman struggling with everyday life, while following her dreams, and architect who grew up in the slum, and now, after successful career he wonders about his responsibilities - to the society and decisions made in his personal life. Interesting concept, and I assume, that this is also very accurate look at life in Seoul now and in the past⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickDark and disturbing short story collection - some are excellent and some aren‘t so good. I liked unusual, eerie elements in them, but sometimes they felt too strange, just in purpose to unsettling the reader and to shocked them. While I do think that this is an interesting collection, with very intense, and at same time very calming prose, I don‘t think that this collection is award winning material ... but I recommend it 👇
so-soGilbert is convinced that his wife has cheated on him,he flees to the Tokyo where he becomes a ‘friend‘ with the young man who wants to commit suicide.Together they explore suitable places, following the path of the poet and traveler Bosho. I‘m in very conflicted situation with this book. Story is in many points, well, pointless and messy ... and if I compare it with the others from longlist - quite weak, but I did enjoyed in prose and its oddity.
so-soStory is set in the Chile after the fall of Pinochet‘s regime and the focus isn‘t on the direct victims of the dictatorship, but on the second generation, children of those who fought against the repression. I think that this was great idea, to tell the story how dark parts of the history doesn‘t end with a single generation. Story is told through two main characters, which are diametrically opposed to each other in perceiving events around ... 👇
