A couple of quick book reviews:
The Photograph - Penelope Lively. This is the first book of hers I've read. I wasn't sure in the beginning whether I was going to enjoy it but gradually I did get into it. While going through a cupboard of paperwork Glyn finds a photograph of his dead wife, Kate. She is holding hands with her brother-in-law. Being the analyst he is this becomes a puzzle to solve and first sets up a meeting with Kate's sister (who he briefly went out with before falling for Kate) and drops the bombshell. What follows is each person seeing Kate from their own perspective, how she touched their lives - Nick (the brother-in-law), the sister, their daughter, Oliver (Nick's former business partner) and Mary a friend of Kate's. What comes across is that no one seems to actually know Kate and she seems to be a very lonely person, well I felt sorry for her. Each person has to come to terms with the way they treated Kate and come to terms with their own lives now.
The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway. After 22 people are killed in a queue outside a bakers a cellist who witnesses this from a window opposite decides to play in the street where it happened in memory of each person who died, in other words he would play for 22 consecutive days. The story while loosely based around the cellist also follows three other people living in Sarajevo during the siege - Dragon who's family got out and now he lives with his sister and family. Each day he makes the perilous journey to a bakery where he once worked in order to eat and save his sister having to find bread for him. Kenan also crosses the city, dodging snipers in the hills to collect water for his family and the old lady downstairs. Arrow is a young woman enlisted into the forces to defending the city as a counter-sniper. For a time she watches over the cellist. The story deals with the way these people live with the fear and the daily struggle for basic needs. Each one looks back to better times and slogs through another day. Yet each comes to a new decision on how they will live or die.. I really got into the lives of these people, what was important to them. In the end there is dignity and a real determined streak to do what is right despite everything. A good read.
The Photograph - Penelope Lively. This is the first book of hers I've read. I wasn't sure in the beginning whether I was going to enjoy it but gradually I did get into it. While going through a cupboard of paperwork Glyn finds a photograph of his dead wife, Kate. She is holding hands with her brother-in-law. Being the analyst he is this becomes a puzzle to solve and first sets up a meeting with Kate's sister (who he briefly went out with before falling for Kate) and drops the bombshell. What follows is each person seeing Kate from their own perspective, how she touched their lives - Nick (the brother-in-law), the sister, their daughter, Oliver (Nick's former business partner) and Mary a friend of Kate's. What comes across is that no one seems to actually know Kate and she seems to be a very lonely person, well I felt sorry for her. Each person has to come to terms with the way they treated Kate and come to terms with their own lives now.
The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway. After 22 people are killed in a queue outside a bakers a cellist who witnesses this from a window opposite decides to play in the street where it happened in memory of each person who died, in other words he would play for 22 consecutive days. The story while loosely based around the cellist also follows three other people living in Sarajevo during the siege - Dragon who's family got out and now he lives with his sister and family. Each day he makes the perilous journey to a bakery where he once worked in order to eat and save his sister having to find bread for him. Kenan also crosses the city, dodging snipers in the hills to collect water for his family and the old lady downstairs. Arrow is a young woman enlisted into the forces to defending the city as a counter-sniper. For a time she watches over the cellist. The story deals with the way these people live with the fear and the daily struggle for basic needs. Each one looks back to better times and slogs through another day. Yet each comes to a new decision on how they will live or die.. I really got into the lives of these people, what was important to them. In the end there is dignity and a real determined streak to do what is right despite everything. A good read.
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