Moving along the shelves of my unread books, I’ve arrived at the letter I. The three books I’m featuring this week are actually the only three I own where the author’s name begins with that letter. By coincidence they all seem to be set in countries with troubled histories.
Let’s see whether these are books I want to keep or move along to a more receptive home.
Abyssinian Chronicles.by Moses Isegawa
This was one of the first books I bought when I embarked on my project to read more broadly around the world. It was described as the “Great Ugandan Novel”, a an epic blending the history of a nation with that of an individual. Parallels were made between Isegawa and Rushdie and Marquez as the voice of a nation.
The narrative relates the experience of a young man who moves from rural Uganda to the capital city of Kampala. He survives the atrocities of the Amin era, lives through the Aids crisis and guerilla wars and survives poverty. So there’s a lot going on in this book.
But I’ve just read the first 50 pages and the style is off putting. It’s lively but seems over-written. Some reviewers on Goodreads commented that they found it heavy going, overwritten and relying too much on similies. I don’t think I can cope with 500 or so pages of that.
The Verdict: Abandon. I shall find a different Ugandan author.
A River In Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa
Ishikawa was born in Japan but when he was 13 years old, his family moved to North Korea. His father, a Korean national, was lured by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. The reality was very different. As Japanese nationals, they were labelled as “hostiles”, which meant they were considered at the bottom of the social order. Their home was a shack without electricity or running water. Ishikawa was eventually repatriated but only after enduring 36 years in one of most brutal and secretive of totalitarian regimes.
The Verdict: Keep. It will be interesting to compare this with the memoir In Order To Live by Yeonmi Park which relates her experiences before she escaped from North Korea
The Girl in the Tree by Şebnem İşigüzel
This is a coming of age tale set against violent unrest in Turkey between 2013/14. A17-year old girl is so disillusioned with her life that she decides to seek refuge in the tallest tree in Istanbul’s central park. She plans to live out the rest of her days perched in an abandoned stork’s nest. Into her sanctuary comes a worker from a nearby hotel. The pair connect amid feelings of loss and anxiety about the future of their country.
The Verdict: Keep. It’s an odd idea. Whether it works is going to come down to the quality of the writing. I just hope its not too sentimental,
Sample Sunday is when I take a look at all the unread books on my shelves and decide which to keep and which to let free. The goal isn’t to shrink the TBR as such, but rather it’s about making sure my shelves have only books I do want to read.What do you think of the decisions I’ve reached? If you’ve read any of these books I’d love to hear from you.