Thoughts on “City of Thieves” by David Benioff (Audiobook)

City of Thieves by David Benioff (cover)Several months ago, my brother picked up City of Thieves by David Benioff. When I asked him how it was, he replied that he’d stayed up until 4am just to see how it ended. That was enough of a recommendation for me, so I picked up a copy. Like so many of my other books, it’s been waiting patiently on my shelf for its turn on the nightstand.

Recently, browsing my library’s selection of downloadable audiobooks, I noticed that City of Thieves was available. In two days, I listened to the whole thing.

Set during the Siege of Leningrad during World War II, the novel is told from the perspective of Lev Benioff, the author’s (fictional?) grandfather. Spanning only a few days, it is nonetheless replete with gripping action and memorable characters. Arrested for looting the corpse of a German soldier and for being out past curfew, Lev finds himself thrown together with Kolya, who turns out to be quite a colorful character, quite the foil to the more reserved Lev. They are brought before the Russian colonel, who takes their ration cards and gives them a task.

Their assignment is simple: they must procure a dozen eggs for colonel’s daughter’s wedding cake by the following week. Should they fail, they will either be killed by the colonel’s men or starve without their ration cards. What follows is their search for this precious commodity, which brings them face-to-face with unspeakable atrocities and unforgettable people.

I second my brother’s recommendation. Pick this book up in written or audio form and it’s sure to hold you spellbound from beginning to end.

Thoughts on “The Tale of Halcyon Crane” by Wendy Webb

The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb (cover)An isolated island, an enormous drafty house, a dark and secret past: these are the makings of a perfect Victorian-esque ghost story. They also comprise the setting for The Tale of Halcyon Crane, coming at the end of March from Wendy Webb.

The Tale of Halcyon Crane is the sort of book you reach for when you want to settle down with a cup of tea and be transported. Raised by her father and believing her mother to be long dead, Hallie James has accepted that her past went up in smoke when her family’s home caught fire early in her childhood. Then she receives a letter from a woman–deceased since writing to Hallie–who claims to be Hallie’s mother. Recently orphaned by the death of her father, Hallie crosses the continent to follow the trail of clues to uncover her true past.

Hallie stays first in a quaint bed and breakfast, then moves into her mother’s house, and befriends the young, handsome lawyer who handled her mother’s affairs. As she hunts for the history she knows is connected to the magnificent, isolated house, Hallie begins to understand who she is and how she fits into her family.

Wendy Webb throws the reader right into Hallie’s saga so that every person, place, and story comes alive. After reading for a while and closing the book, it always took me a moment to blink at my couch and my living room and realign myself with my own ordinary world. Pick this debut novel up when you have a long evening ahead of you and curl into Hallie’s tale.

Thoughts on “Half Life” by Roopa Farooki

Half Life by Roopa Farooki (cover)I just finished the most beautiful book. I picked up Half Life by Roopa Farooki because it was compared, on the back of the galley, to Jhumpa Lahiri and Slumdog Millionaire. But after reading the book, I don’t think it’s quite fair to hang its success on its similarities to other famous Indian authors; this new novel can definitely stand on its own.

Half Life tells, in alternating chapters, the stories of Aruna, Jazz, and Hassan. Aruna has been living in England with her new husband. Jazz has climbed the ladder of literary success and is one of Singapore’s most famous pop authors. And the great poet Hassan is wasting away in a hospital bed. When Aruna walks out of her London life and returns to Singapore, the lives of these three collide after years apart.

Though the book covers only a few days of action, a plethora of well done flashbacks fill in the story so that, by the time the book concludes, you know all three characters: their loves, their demons, their motivations, their relationships to the other characters. The story unfurls in such precise and clever prose that I often found myself reading a sentence over just to consider again a particular turn of phrase. And Farooki’s characterizations are exquisite — so complete, yet free from extraneous details.

I loved this book. For the writing, the plot, the characters, the observations, and everything else. I will be watching for more from Roopa Farooki.

Thoughts on Sandra Gulland’s “Josephine” Books

Well, my slow journey through Sandra Gulland’s trilogy of novels about Josephine Bonaparte has finally come to an end. What a lovely journey it was! They are the epitome of great historical fiction: engaging, rich with true details, full of familiar figures brought to life. They were so good I ordered a biography of Josephine from the library; I must know more!

Josephine Trilogy

The trilogy is comprised (as you may guess) of three books: The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe, and The Last Great Dance on Earth. They are written in first person, as Josephine’s diaries, beginning when she is a girl on the island (then) of Martinico and concluding with her death in France, years later. Each book picks up where the previous left off. Throughout, Gulland inserts footnotes that clarify French phrases, odd practices, and historical tidbits. It’s rare that footnotes don’t drive me nuts, but in this case they’re quite helpful and interesting.

I often forget how much I enjoy hearing from the great females of history. In school, we hear about this battle and that, King such-and-such and the Point A-Point B War. It’s easy to forget — or difficult to imagine in the first place — that the people you read about were real. I think one of the great abilities of historical fiction is that it can bring the past to life in a way that nonfiction, with its necessary focus on what happened, cannot. Fiction allows us to create the inner lives of the people whose exterior lives we see in the history books.

If you like historical fiction, Napoleon & Josephine, fictional diaries, or strong female characters, I would absolutely recommend picking up a copy of this fantastic trilogy!

Thoughts on “Suite Francaise” by Irene Nemirovsky (Audiobook)

Well, I bit the bullet and finished Suite Francaise on audio today. When I’d stopped the day before, I had a feeling that something terrible was about to happen, and I just couldn’t bear more suffering to be inflicted on the poor characters. It did not go the way I feared. On the contrary, I felt Nemirovsky wrapped the story up well.

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (cover)Divided into two parts, Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky tells the story of French citizens during the German invasion and the subsequent occupation. The first half, “Storm in June,” roams around France following several Parisians who must decide what to do faced with the threat of an imminent German invasion. As a pair of bank employees, a wealthy family, an artist, a priest, and several others struggle to flee the city, their stories unfold and entwine just enough.

The second part, “Dolce,” remains settled in a remote French village, where the occupants have been forced to take in German soldiers. Subtler yet equally affecting, this half of the story traces what happens when conqueror and conquered must figure out how to live side by side. A few loose tendrils reach out from the latter half to the first to hold the book together as a whole.

The book was supposed to have five parts; however, she died in the Auschwitz infirmary before she could complete the final three. I learned this backstory after I finished the book and had no idea there was meant to have been more; the novel stands alone as it is.

The audio version was well done; I definitely liked “Dolce” better, but I am partial to Barbara Rosenblat’s performances after having listened to The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Daniel Oreskes does a fine job reading “Storm in June,” but to me it’s rare to find a male reader who does female voices in a way that doesn’t make me want to giggle. Maybe I’m immature. Either way, listening to a book so steeped in a foreign language as opposed to reading it is a huge help for me, since it frustrates me to not know how words are properly pronounced.

Overall, a lovely audiobook.