ELSEWHERE, HOME by Leila Aboulela

Grove Atlantic
Grove Press Black Cat
Literary Fiction
Pub date 22nd of February 2019

#Elsewherehome

#NetGalley

Description

Since her award-winning debut novel,Minaret, Leila Aboulela has been praised by J.M. Coetzee, Ali Smith, Aminatta Forna, and Anthony Marra among others for her rich and nuanced depictions of Islamic spiritual and political life. Her latest collection,Elsewhere, Home, draws us ineluctably into the lives of immigrants at home and abroad as they forge new identities and reshape old ones.

A young woman’s encounter with a former classmate elicits painful reminders of her former life in Khartoum. A wealthy young Sudanese woman studying in Aberdeen begins an unlikely friendship with one of her Scottish classmates. A woman experiences an evolving relationship to her favorite writer, whose portrait of their shared culture both reflects and conflicts with her own sense of identity.

Shuttling between the dusty, sun-baked streets of Khartoum and the university halls and cramped apartments of Aberdeen and London,Elsewhere, Homeexplores, with subtlety and restraint, the profound feelings of yearning, loss, and alienation that come with leaving one’s homeland in pursuit of a different life.

My thoughts coming up soon

CLOCK DANCE by Anne Tyler

5.5
Penguin
First to read
Pub.date July 10, 2018

About
Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life. In 1967, she is a schoolgirl coping with her mother's sudden disappearance. In 1977, she is a college coed considering a marriage proposal. In 1997, she is a young widow trying to piece her life back together. And in 2017, she yearns to be a grandmother but isn't sure she ever will be. Then, one day, Willa receives a startling phone call from a stranger. Without fully understanding why, she flies across the country to Baltimore to look after a young woman she's never met, her nine-year-old daughter, and their dog, Airplane. This impulsive decision will lead Willa into uncharted territory--surrounded by eccentric neighbors who treat each other like family, she finds solace and fulfillment in unexpected places. A bewitching novel of hope, self-discovery, and second chances, Clock Dance gives us Anne Tyler at the height of her powers.

I absolutely love this novel, well done Anne Tyler !

WHILE THE WOMEN ARE SLEEPING by Javier Marias

5.5
Personal copy
About

Mirroring, ghosts, and doubles are all present in these haunting short stories by the celebrated Spanish author Javier Marías.He asks for the reader's kindness towards "The Life and Death of Marcelino Iturriaga" as it was written when he was 14 – but this is disingenuous on his part as it is a wonderful short story about a man talking after his death. Marías's narrators are usually male and experiencing some kind of identity crisis. In the title story, a man films his beautiful young girlfriend every day on the beach, while she preens herself in a mirror; in "Gualta", a man spots his double and instantly loathes him; in "A Kind of Nostalgia Perhaps", an old woman waits for the ghost of a national hero. Superb.I

I loved these short stories 

THE MERE WIFE by Maria Dahvana Headley

FSG
Pub date July 17, 2018



About

New York Times bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley presents a modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf, set in American suburbia as two mothers—a housewife and a battle-hardened veteran—fight to protect those they love in The Mere Wife.

From the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a paradise. Picket fences divide buildings—high and gabled—and the community is entirely self-sustaining. Each house has its own fireplace, each fireplace is fitted with a container of lighter fluid, and outside—in lawns and on playgrounds—wildflowers seed themselves in neat rows. But for those who live surreptitiously along Herot Hall’s periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights.

For Willa, the wife of Roger Herot (heir of Herot Hall), life moves at a charmingly slow pace. She flits between mommy groups, playdates, cocktail hour, and dinner parties, always with her son, Dylan, in tow. Meanwhile, in a cave in the mountains just beyond the limits of Herot Hall lives Gren, short for Grendel, as well as his mother, Dana, a former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. Dana didn’t want Gren, didn’t plan Gren, and doesn’t know how she got Gren, but when she returned from war, there he was. When Gren, unaware of the borders erected to keep him at bay, ventures into Herot Hall and runs off with Dylan, Dana’s and Willa’s worlds collide.

My view
What an engaging read.
I am not particularly familiar with the literary classic Beowulf, although I did look up a synopsis to get a general idea.
This story takes us into modern days. The  protagonists Dana and her son Gren make their home in a cave, while Willa and her son Dylan inhabit the modern gated community Herot Hall. Other characters are Roger, husband  to Willa, father of Dylan.

The story kept me engaged from the very beginning to the very end. As the story progresses, prejudice, hate, delusion takes hold of the characters. Reality becomes blurred, through preconceived ideas which lead to violence, murder.

Who are the villains? Dana a former Marine? Willa the young housewife of Herot Hall? Any one of the many characters?

I highly recommend THE MERE WIFE.
It matters not that you are or not familiar with the classic literary work Beowulf, 
This novel will take you on a wild ride...

Thank you to NetGalley and FSG

KINTU by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

One world
Pages 432
Personal copy

About

The year is 1750. As he makes his way to the capital to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Buganda Kingdom, Kintu Kidda unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. As the centuries pass, the tale moves down the bloodline, exploring the lives of four of Kintu Kidda's descendants. Although the family members all have their own stories and live in very different circumstances, they are united by one thing - the struggle to break free from the curse and escape the burden of their family's past.

Blending Ganda oral tradition, myth, folktale and history, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi has brought to life an extraordinarily colourful cast of characters to produce a powerful epic - a modern classic.