Incontro in Egitto

2nd prize Favourite books 2021 I never seem to learn that I should not leave too much time between the moment I finish a novel and the moment I write my review. I would avoid staring at the computer without any idea about what to write. Now I will end up with: I loved this book so much, I do not know Leggi tutto

[U]nless I am a part of everything I am nothing. We are like waves in a vast ocean moving forward to break upon the shore and vanish, yet the ocean remains. Each wave has it’s own narrative, each person a starring role in the story of their own lives, yet all of us are a collective ocean of minor and Leggi tutto

“The voice of history, of course, is composite. Many voices; all the voices that have managed to get themselves heard. Some louder than others, naturally. My story is tangled with the stories of others – Mother, Gordon, Jasper, Lisa, and one other person above all; their voices must be heard also, t Leggi tutto

The narrator announces this is to be a history of the world. What she means, we soon learn, is that it will be a history of the world as experienced by her. We have all been exposed at certain times of our life to moments of history which mysteriously remain an essential part of who we are. Perhaps

A very personal take on history If I ever met Ms. Penelope Lively, it'd go one of two ways: I'd embarrass myself, falling over her with syrupy praise, thanking her with babbling, awkward effusiveness for creating such a masterpiece OR I'd tell her with the bitterness of a withered crone that read

I liked this when it wasn't posturing. But I felt it postured a lot. And largely fell short of its admirable ambitions. I generally felt Lively is probably a more conservative novelist at heart and this was her attempt at pushing back her boundaries, the literary equivalent of an habitually conventi Leggi tutto

Utterly compelling historical novel that plays with time and perspective in fascinating ways. Claudia Hampton sets out to tell the history of the world. And she does exactly that. Only it's her own private world she describes, with all its secrets. Lively does a masterful job of shifting perspective Leggi tutto

Claudia Hampton speaks to me of wars fought in distant lands, of the ever-persistent forward march of humanity in the quest for collective betterment, of stories unknowingly buried forever in the catacombs of time and never unearthed, of the people we carry in our hearts wherever we go, of the histo Leggi tutto

5★I’m writing a history of the world,’ she says. And the hands of the nurse are arrested for a moment; she looks down at this old woman, this old ill woman. ‘Well, my goodness,’ the nurse says. ‘That’s quite a thing to be doing, isn’t it?’ And then she becomes busy again, she heaves and tucks and sm Leggi tutto

I am verklempt. I am besotted. I've come undone.