Books on the Menu

Earth and Ashes. Atiq Rahimi. Afghanistan

@brittarnhild

 

With the devastating daily news from Aleppo and Mosul, I sat down to get an encounter with Afghanistan, some years ago. A grandfather, his little grandson now deaf by the bombs, his son deep down in the mines somewhere, the rest of his family, wife, pregnant daughter in law, youngest son with all his family, killed when their villages was bombed. A standstill. A morning with the old man and his grief. Earth and ashes. A short book, 77 pages, But a book which will not be fast forgotten.

Atiq Rahimi was born in 1962 in Kabul. Fled to Pakistan when the Russians invided Afghanistan, and later continued to France where he got a political asylum.

We need voices like Atiq Rahimi´s

 

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The photo is one I took though a bus window in Syria, while driving from Aleppo to Damaskus just before the war started.

The Briefcae

@brittarnhild

Quiet here doesn´t mean that I don´t read. It might even be the contrary. I do read quite a lot, but the last few weeks no new country has been "visited". We have recently visited The Republic of Georgia, and my reading list has mostly contained books from and about this very interesting country. We have been back home for a few days now. I still continue with my Georgian books, but slowly I am turning my eyes to other litterature as well. Like The Briefcase. In a couple of weeks my reading group will meet again, and the book we will discuss then is Hiromi Lawakami´s The Briefcase.

I have already visited Japan on my Visiting the World Through Books - project, so I can´t add it to the books from the world´s countries list, but this does not prevent me from blogging about it here of course :-)

The Briefcase, such a beautiful, sweet and at the same time sad love story. 38 years old Tsukiko, sitting alone in a bar, drinking sake. One night her old teacher, 30 years her senior, comes into the bar. They start to talk, and a dire friendship slowly starts to develop. Tsukiko´s loneliness is the main palette of the book. The loneliness, and the difficulties, she, we, humans, have to talk about what really matters. Through sake, through food, through the seasons and finally through Tsukiko and Sensei´s dates, we are drawn into the most beautiful and bittersweet love story.

All seen through Tsukiko´s eyes.

 

 

The Sound of Waves, Yukio Mishima. Japan

@brittarnhild

My oldest son loves Japan and Japanese literature. For my Japanese reading he gave me The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki- A book which is said to be the greatest classic in Japanese literature. Written almost a thousand years ago and almost 1200 pages, I started fresh, but had to give up. The book gave no meaning to me. My son then gave me for my birthday The Sound of Waves by Yukoi Mishima. A beautiful love story written back in 1954.

In a remote fishing willage, on a small island, the young fisherman Shinji falls in love with Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the richest manon the island. A love story, a marriage between Shinji and Hatsue seem to be impossible, but when Shinji proves his love by risking his life.......well, the 180 pages of the book are beautiful all through. Read it, and enjoy :-)

 

By the way, if you are interested in Japan (and/or) travelling, and in books and reading, my son´s travel blog is the thing for you. You find it here:
www.traveltorgeir.com

And here is a special section - reading about Japan

 

 

A Friend in a Thousand

@brittarnhild

Back in April I spent a couple of weeks in Nepal. I travelled around, and at some place I spent the night with two ladies, a Norwegian/Swedish senior missionary and a Nepalese young writer. As we had dinner together, the young writer, Pratibha S. Manaen, told me about her writing and about the book she had written. A Friend in a Thousand, about the almost impossible life of girls and women in the Nepalese countryside.

"Is your book in English?" I asked. "Can I buy it?" To my disappointment Prathiba told me the first edition was sold out. But she continued "a second edition will be coming, and it might be available at the annual missionary meeting in Norway in a few months"

I was unable to go to the missionary meeting here in Norway in July, but some time later I came over the book, almost by chance. When I bought it I was too busy reading about Ethiopia, so it had to wait. But tonight, a dark autumn night, a night perfect for a glass of red wine, some crackers, cheese......and of course a book, I am transported, not to Ethiopia, as I have been for some time now. But back to the amazing little country in the Himalayas, to Nepal.

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A Friend in a Thousand is not available on amazon. Even though amazon is my main resource to search for and buy books, again and again I have to tell myself - the world is so much more!