LILLI DE JONG by Janet Benton

Print Length: 352 pages

• Publisher: Nan A. Talese (May 16, 2017)
• Publication Date: May 16, 2017

5/5
A young woman finds the most powerful love of her life when she gives birth at an institution for unwed mothers in 1883 Philadelphia. She is told she must give up her daughter to avoid a life of poverty and shame. But she chooses to keep her.

Pregnant, abandoned by her lover, and banished from her Quaker home and teaching position, Lilli de Jong enters a charity for wronged women to deliver her child. She is stunned at how much her infant needs her and at how quickly their bond overpowers her heart. Mothers in her position have no sensible alternative to giving up their children, but Lilli can’t bear such an outcome. Determined to chart a path toward an independent life, Lilli braves moral condemnation and financial ruin in a quest to keep herself and her baby alive. 

    Confiding their story to her diary as it unfolds, Lilli takes readers from an impoverished charity to a wealthy family's home to the perilous streets of a burgeoning American city. Lilli de Jong is at once a historical saga, an intimate romance, and a lasting testament to the work of mothers. "So little is permissible for a woman," writes Lilli, “yet on her back every human climbs to adulthood.”

Review coming soon

THE MOUNTAIN by Paul Yoon

• 

Simon & Schuster
Publishing Date August 15, 2017
Stories
Literary
5/5
Synopsis;
In The Mountain, Paul Yoon displays his subtle, ethereal, and strikingly observant style with six thematically linked stories, taking place across several continents and time periods and populated with characters who are connected by their traumatic pasts, newly vagrant lives, and quests for solace in their futures. Though they exist in their own distinct worlds (from a sanatorium in the Hudson Valley to an inn in the Russian far east) they are united by the struggle to reconcile their traumatic pasts in the wake of violence, big and small, spiritual and corporeal. A morphine-addicted nurse wanders through the decimated French countryside in search of purpose; a dissatisfied wife sporadically takes a train across Spain with a much younger man in the wake of a building explosion; a lost young woman emigrates from Korea to Shanghai, where she aimlessly works in a camera sweat shop, trying fruitlessly to outrun the ghosts of her past.

My view

Paul Yoon's short stories are exceptionally beautiful. His is a poetic soul at work which reflects upon each character, short story after short story.
I went out and purchased his two previous short story books, I so not wanted " THE MOUNTAIN " to end. 

Paul Moon's first novel

Paul Moon's second novel

Highly recommended
Thank you NetGalley for this exceptional ARC.

THE END WE START FROM by Megan Hunter

                   


 5/5

Grove Atlantic
Publishing date November 17, 2017

Synopsis:

As London is submerged below flood waters, a woman gives birth to her first child, Z. Days later, she and her baby are forced to leave their home in search of safety. They head north through a newly dangerous country seeking refuge from place to place, shelter to shelter, to a desolate island and back again. The story traces fear and wonder, as the baby’s small fists grasp at the first colors he sees, as he grows and stretches, thriving and content against all the odds.

My thoughts;

Highly praised by literary critics, a movie in the making, THE END WE START FROM by Megan Hunter a success before it's release to the public.
Some have qualified the novel as a sci-fi others a literary novel.
Nowhere did I feel I was reading a sci-fi novel. It is centered around three people, a mother, a baby, a husband in London. Yes there is a flood and all that follows a natural disaster of great proportion.
I like to mention the beautiful poetic narrative. A real pleasure to read. 

My hope is for Megan Hunter to continue writing. This is her first novel, a mere 140 pages.
I highly recommend this novel.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this advance copy.

FEVER DREAM by Samantha Schweblin / Argentina

OneWorld Publishing
Publishing Date March 11, 2017
Literature/Horror

4.5

Synopsis:
A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She’s not his mother. He’s not her child.

The two seem anxious and, at David’s ever more insistent prompting, Amanda recounts a series of events from the apparently recent past. As David pushes her to recall whatever trauma has landed her in her terminal state, he unwittingly opens a chest of horrors, and suddenly the terrifying nature of their reality is brought into shocking focus.

One of the freshest new voices to come out of the Spanish language, Samanta Schweblin creates an aura of strange and deeply unsettling psychological menace in this cautionary tale of maternal love, broken souls and the power and desperation of family.

Review:

1. Coming soon

THE WHITE CITY by Karolina Ramqvist / Sweden

Grove Atlantic
Publishing Date January 17, 2017
Literature

5.5

Synopsis:
Karolina Ramqvist has been hailed as “one of Sweden’s truly interesting young writers” (Dagens Nyheter) with “a great talent for creating imagery and building atmosphere” (Dagbladet) and she’s a powerful literary voice on contemporary issues of sexuality, commercialization, isolation, and belonging. An immediate bestseller upon publication, The White City is an arresting and intimate novel of betrayal and empowerment from a bold, fearless writer.


My View:
Karin, a beautiful young woman who's dad rejects her finds solace with John who offers Karin what she needs most, affection and promises of a secure lifestyle...not just any lifestyle, he buys her a $15.000.000 mansion, a car, jewelry, the sky is the limit. 

He has one request, a child...which Karin does not want...can Karin refuse? Her need for love and security, such an unfulfilled need? Soon Dream is born.  Also Karin knows John is most likely a charismatic crook, living the high life, she enjoys the love and promises John offers.

Until the fatal day when reality comes knocking at her door. The mansion will be repossessed along with her car, and all her possessions. Karin finds herself alone with her daughter Dream, nowhere to go. Friends closing their doors to her.

Karolina Ramqvist immerses us into Karin's life, we get to know her intimately, I was unable to put this novel down. I love her writing style and will look for her next novel.

1. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic ( Black Cat )