Wednesday 28 December 2011

Book 60, Country 66 - Republic of Kiribati

The Sex Lives of Cannibals - J Maarten Troost - first published 2004

The author and his girlfriend Sylvia, who works for an aid organisation, spend 2 years living on the island of Tarawa, which is part of the Republic of Kirbati (pronounced Kiri-bas), formerly the Gilbert Islands, in the South Pacific.  Far from being a tropical paradise, Tarawa is a small overpopulated, drought-striken island with no formal sewage or rubbish disposal system - it all ends up on the surrounding reef, which smells lovely when the tide goes out.  Maarten Troost tells the story of their life on Tarawa humorously and portrays the I-Kiribati people in an honest but sympathetic way.  However it won't do much for Kirbati's tourism industry!  The only cannibals in the book are the local dogs.  It really is a dog eat dog world!  It is a shame that there are no photos in the book, as I couldn't find many online.  I look forward to reading the author's book Getting Stoned with Savages on my next Around the World in 80 Books tour.  8/10

26th December 2011

Book 59, Country 65 - New Zealand

Tu by Patricia Grace - first published 2004

I thought this novel was going to be set in New Zealand.  However in the opening chapter Tu, youngest of 3 Maori brothers, joins the army and sets off for Italy in 1943.  Half of the book is set in Italy, including the battle to capture Monte Cassino (in gory detail) but the other half is the story of Tu and his brothers Rangi and Pita's childhood, first in an unnamed place and then in Wellington after the death of their father.  The book offers an insight into Maori culture and traditions.  I was unaware that Maoris had fought for the Allies in the Second World War.  The story was a bit laboured in places but overall it was ok.  This was the only book of my journey so far that I haven't been able to borrow from my local library.  6/10

20th December 2011

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Book 58, Country 64 - Australia

The Broken Shore by Peter Temple – first published 2005


Detective Joe Cashin is recovering from a recent trauma and has therefore been sent to the quiet small South Australian town where he grew up to recover his confidence.  However a rich local man is attacked in his own home and later dies and Cashin leads the investigation.  Most of the characters in the book, including the police officers seem to spend most of their time swearing, which may be realistic but was a bit off-putting.  The storyline is okay but not exceptional and it wouldn’t make you want to go to South Australia on holiday.  Presumably the story is set in winter, as it always seems to be raining and/or cold - I thought it was only the British who were always talking about the weather! 5/10

24th November 2011

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Book 57, Country 63 - Indonesia

Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw - first published in Britain in 2009

I didn't enjoy this book very much - it is readable but not very exciting.  It is about 2 brothers, who were separated as young children when they were living in an orphanage and were adopted by different people.  Johan, the elder brother was taken to live a life of luxury in Malaysia while Adam stayed in Indonesia and was adopted by a Dutch man called Karl, who led an unconventional life but was very kind to him.  In the 1960s when Adam is 16, Karl is arrested by President Sukarno's soldiers who are trying to rid Indonesia of its colonial past.  Adam sets off to Jakarta to find him and meets up with Margaret, an old friend of Karl's.  However he also unwittingly gets involved in anti-government protests.  He does eventually find Karl but is never re-united with his brother.  There was lots of detail about life in Jakarta in the 1960s but no clear explanation of the background history.  Maybe I should have known this and I know I could have looked it up online but I would have found it useful if there had been a timeline of historic events or a page summarising the 20th century history of Indonesia at the front or back of the book.    3/10

2nd November 2011

Monday 10 October 2011

Book 56 - Country 62 - The Philippines

The Tesseract by Alex Garland - first published 1998

This book is quite a gripping read but I wouldn't say that I enjoyed it, as it includes several sudden violent deaths.  There are 3 seemingly unrelated stories, which come together in a violent conclusion.   The main action takes place over a few hours one evening in Manila.  The first part is about an Englishman called Sean, who is waiting in a run-down hotel for a gangster boss and his henchmen to arrive and kill him.  Why you would hang around if you knew someone was coming to shoot you, I have no idea.  The second part is about a lady called Rosa and her family, who live in a more prosperous part of the city and the third part is about 2 homeless teenage boys, who are friends.  The author explains at the back that a tesseract is a hypercube unravelled.  That meant nothing to me, so I looked it up and the definitions I found say it is a 4 dimensional cube. That doesn't mean anything to me either!  and I don't really see the relevance to the book. 5/10

October 9th 2011

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Book 55 - Country 61 - Singapore

Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint - first published in Great Britain in 2009

I suppose the title should have made me aware that not all this book was set in Singapore!  In fact only the very beginning and ending are set there.  The rest of the story takes place around Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.  Middle aged and overweight sikh police inspector Singh is sent to Malaysia to investigate the murder of businessman Alan Lee because the chief suspect - Mr Lee's wife Chelsea Liew - is a Singapore citizen.   The book is an easy read but the story is engaging with several twists and it does touch on the important environmental issue of illegal logging of forests in Borneo and sharia law regarding the custody of children following divorce.  It also gives an insight into everyday life and the culture of Malaysia and how it contrasts to its more prosperous but constrained neighbour, Singapore.  7/10

1st October 2011

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Book 54, Country 60 - Malaysia

The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw - first published in GB 2005

I'm not sure quite why it has taken me 4 months to finish this book.  I think I needed a rest from my world tour and summer is always a time when there is more going on.  Anyway I am now back on track.  This wasn't the greatest book  I have ever read but it got better once I got passed the first section.  The book is about the life of a man Chinese textile merchant called Johnny Lim and is told in 3 parts, first by his son, secondly by his wife Snow and thirdly by his friend Englishman Peter Wormwood.  They all see him from a different angle.  His son hates him but we begin to see other sides to his character when Snow and Peter take up the story.    Snow's story centres around the belated honeymoon, which she takes with Johnny, Peter, a Japanese professor Mamoru Kunichika and another Englishman Frederick Honey in 1941 just before the Japanese invasion of Malaya.  They travel in an old fishing boat to visit the mysterious islands known as the Seven Maidens.  At first it seems like they have discovered paradise but then it all starts to go disasterously wrong.  This bit reminded me of Alex Garland's  novel The Beach.     6/10

Friday 3 June 2011

Book 53, Country 59 - Thailand

Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap - first published in 2004

I have never had any desire to visit Thailand and wasn't looking forward to my literary journey there.  However I was pleasantly surprised by this book.  I don't normally like short stories but I enjoyed nearly all of them.  They are mainly about family life in present day Thailand.  The last one, which is about cockfighting, was much longer than the others and not so pleasant, mainly because of the subject matter.  7/10

28th May 2011

Monday 23 May 2011

Book 52, Country 58 - Cambodia

A Model American by Elsie Burch Donald – first published 2007

In 1970 an American couple fly to Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat.  On their return journey to Phnom Penh their plane runs out of fuel and they are forced to land in a clearing in the Cambodian jungle.  They and their companions – the American pilot, an English guide and a Frenchman who has spent most of his life in Cambodia – are rescued from dying of thirst by friendly local tribes people, who take them back to their village and provide them with food and accommodation.  They cannot leave until the rainy season, which is several months away, increases the flow in the river, which is used as a highway to the regional capital.    However the Vietnam War is in progress and the violence in beginning to spill over into Cambodia as the Khmer Rouge becomes more powerful.  The book is a bit lightweight but with enough details about the country to paint an impressionistic picture of life in rural Cambodia.   7/10

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Book 51, Country 57 - Laos

The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill - first published 2004

Dr Siri Paiboun was hoping to retire but in 1976 after the Communists take over Laos, he is appointed state coroner.  Despite a lack of training for this role and almost no equipment, with the help of some friends in the government and police he manages to solve the murder of the wife of a party leader and that of 3 Vietnamese soldiers.  There is a supernatural element to the story – in his dreams Siri is visited by the spirits of various dead people, including the murder victims and when he visits a remote part of the country to perform an autopsy the local tribe are convinced that he is an 1000 year old shaman.  I got lost at one of two of the twists and turns in the story, partly because my knowledge of the history of Laos is non-existent but overall it was enjoyable and Dr Siri is a very likeable character.   This is the first in a series of crime novels featuring Dr Siri.  6/10

2nd May 2011

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Book 50, Country 56 - Vietnam

Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh - translated from Vietnamese and first published in 1991


At last I have finished this book!  It has taken me over a month even though it only has just over 200 pages.  It is about a man called Kien, a North Vietnamese soldier and his experiences just before, during and after the Vietnam War.  It is a nonlinear narrative and has no chapters, which I found very confusing, as even within a page it leaps around from one time period to another.  Nearly all his comrades die in front of him in various horrible ways, which are described quite graphically.  Kien feels both survivor guilt and guilt for having killed people.    There isn’t a happy ending.  I admit I would have got more out of it if I had known more about the circumstances of the Vietnam War.  There isn't any explanation of the reasons for the war given in the novel.  4/10

Monday 7 March 2011

Book 49 - Country 55 - China

Hungry Ghosts by Anne Berry - first published 2009

In 1942 during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, a young Chinese girl called Lin Shui is raped and murdered by a Japanese soldier.   In 1962 Ralph Safford is offered a job in Hong Kong working for the government and his family join him.  Alice is the 3rd and youngest daughter.  Her older sisters Nicola and Jillian don’t like her and neither does her mother.  When she is 11 years old the ghost of Lin Shi joins her (possesses is too strong a word) and accompanies her everywhere from then on.   A few years later Lin Shui is joined by some other ghosts – lost souls from Alice’s life.  The ghosts cause trouble for Alice but they are more mischievous than malevolent. I think the story of Alice is good enough to stand on its own without the ghost element of the story.  I couldn’t quite work out whether Alice was aware of the presence of the ghosts or not.  6/10

5th March 2011

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Book 48, Country 54 - Burma

Burma Boy by Biyi Bandele – first published in 2007

14 year old Nigerian Ali Banana lies about his age in order to join the British Army in 1944 to fight the Japanese as a Chindit in the Burmese jungle.  One by one his comrades are killed in skirmishes with the Japanese.  A quick and compelling read but the author doesn’t spare us the gory details.  It could have done with a glossary of terms used by the Nigerian soldiers e.g. Kingi Joji = King George VI.  7/10

20th February 2011

Book 47, Country 54 - Bangladesh


Faker by Katy Gardner – first published 2009

Sarah meets and falls in love with Ed while doing voluntary work in Bangladesh.  They move to a coastal village to start a community school. Ed soon gets involved in a campaign to stop a multi-national oil company from compulsorily purchasing land nearby but his efforts are not appreciated by everyone.  Then there is a typhoon, Ed disappears and their village is destroyed.  Everyone except Sarah thinks he is dead.  She returns to London to stay with Ed’s sister and learns that he wasn’t the man she thought he was.    This book is billed as a psychological thriller but I thought the plot line was thin and the tension sadly lacking.  However it was a quick read and it gave a good description of village life in Bangladesh.  6/10

16th February 2011

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Book 46, Country 53 - India

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

Mr Ali has recently retired and is looking for some extra income and for something to fill his time, so he decides to set up a marriage bureau in his house in the city of Vizag in Southern India.  At last a light hearted book after all the trouble and strife in Africa and the Middle East.  It is very similar in many ways to the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.  7/10

Book 45, Countries 51 & 52 - Afghanistan and Pakistan

Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples – first published 2006

Najmah lives with her parents and her elder brother Nur, who farm in a remote village in the Kunduz Hills in North Afghanistan.  The family is torn apart  in 2001 when her father and Nur are taken away by the Taliban and then her mother and newly born brother are killed in an American bombing raid.  Najmah sets off with some other refugees from the same village to walk across the mountains to Peshawar in Pakistan in search of her father and brother.  In Peshawar she is cared for by Nusrat, an American Muslim who is waiting anxiously for her Afghan doctor husband to return from working in Afghanistan.  In the meantime she has set up a school for refugee children in her garden.  Don’t expect a happy ending because there isn’t one.   The book is written for teenagers and is a worthwhile and informative read.   7/10

30th January 2010

Friday 28 January 2011

Book 44, Country 50 - Iran

The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer - first published 2007

Set in the early 1980s shortly after the Iranian Revolution.  Jewish gem dealer Isaac Amin is arrested and wrongly accused of being an Israeli spy, although his family have lived and worked in Iran for several generations.  He is imprisoned for many months and endures torture and solitary confinement.  Many of his fellow prisoners are executed.  The book is about how he copes in prison and how his wife Farnaz and daughter Shirin in Tehran do their best to help him and how his son  Parviz, who has already been sent to study in New York, makes a life for himself there without his family.  Not a cheerful book but there is a happy ending for the family.  I would also recommend the excellent graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which has several parallels with this story for people wanting to read another book about the consequences of the Islamic Revolution for ordinary Iranians.  7/10

26th January 2011

Monday 24 January 2011

Book 43, Country 49 - Iraq

Kiss the Dust by Elizabeth Laird - first published 1991

This novel was written for teenagers and is seen through the eyes of 13 year old Tara, whose family are Kurds.  It is 1984 and Tara is living with her parents, younger sister and older brother in a spacious modern house in Sulaimaniya, Iraq.  Then one day the secret police come to their house to arrest her father because they think he is involved with the pesh murgas (Kurish freedom fighters).  The family flee initially to their ancestral village where they live for a few months in a one room house.  However all the villages in the area are bombed by Iraqi planes and Tara and her family flee by night on horseback over the Zagros Mountains into Iran.  At this time Iran is at war with Iraq and they are treated with suspicion and kept locked up in refugee camps where the conditions are very unsanitary and basic.  After a few months they fly to England where they claim political asylum.  This book brings to life very vividly the plight of the Kurdish people in Iraq under Saddam Hussein's rule.  8/10

20th January 2010

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Book 42, Country 48 - Jordan

My Name is Salma by Fadia Faqir


Nowhere in this book does it say that it is set in Jordan – the country is referred to as the Levant, which could be anywhere in the Eastern Mediterranean.  The reason for this could be because of the subject matter – ‘honour’ killings.  However the author is Jordanian by birth and the country is definitely not Lebanon but is a country to the SE of Lebanon. 

Teenage Salma lives in a remote village.  She is seduced by Hamdan, who disowns her when he finds out she is pregnant.  Salma is taken into prison for her own protection, as her older brother has vowed to kill her.  She gives birth to a daughter, who is taken away immediately.  8 years later she is released from prison into the care of some Lebanese nuns.  However she has to flee from Lebanon when her brother learns she has been released from prison.  She flees to England with a nun and lives initially with a Quaker in Branscombe in Devon.  After a year she moves first to a hostel in Exeter and then to lodge with an alcoholic landlady.  She makes a few friends and gets a job in a tailoring company.  9 years later, despite having married an English lecturer and given birth to a son, she decides to return to Jordan to find her daughter.  Don’t expect a happy ending because there isn’t one.  Exeter is one of my favourite cities but Salma doesn’t like or its residents much and spends most of her time feeling sorry for herself.  I felt she could have been more grateful to the Lebanese nuns and the Quaker who rescued her and cared for her out of the kindness of their hearts.  6/10

16th January 2011

Friday 14 January 2011

Book 41, Country 47 - Syria

The Lives of Shadows: An Illustrated Novel by Barbara Hodgson - first published in 2004

Books set in Syria proved very hard to find and when this one arrived and I saw it had been circulated round 4 libraries but had only been issued 5 times in 6 years I wasn't very optimistic.  However I was pleasantly surprised.  The book has the appearance of a personal journal and that is the story really.  Julian Beaufort visits Damascus in Syria while on a tour of the Middle East in 1914.  He falls in love with a house called Bait Katib and the owners sell it to him.  He agrees to buy it and says he is happy for them to remain living in the house.  However he has to return to England to raise the funds to buy it and then the First World War breaks out and he is forced to enlist in the army.  In 1917 he is badly injured and it takes him until 1925 to recover sufficiently to return to Damascus by which time the previous owner and his wife have died.  He arrives during the French shelling of the city to quell a revolt by the Druze.   Bait Katib survives the bombing but no one knows what has happened to Asilah, the daughter of the previous owners.  However it turns out she was shot dead during the revolt and that her ghost is living in the house.  Fast forward to 1945 and a distant relative of Asilah is trying  to gain possession of the house.  Asilah writes entries in Julian's journal to support his claim to the house.  These are included in the book but they are all in Arabic!  There are also lots of plans, cuttings from newspapers and photos but these are all in French or not labelled at all, so although they add to the book visually, they do not add to the story.  I thought the story was as listed above until the very last page, which throws the whole story into doubt!    6/10

12th January 2011

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Book 40, Country 46 - Lebanon

Dreams of Water by Nada Awar Jarrar - first published in 2007

Set in Beirut and London and spanning the period of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90) to the present day.  After Aneesha's brother Bassam is taken from his home by rebels and never seen again, she moves to London to start a new life.  She becomes friends with Salah, who is also Lebanese and was persuaded to move to London by his son Samir after the death of his wife.  After a few years in London and the end of the Civil War, Aneesha decides to return to Beirut to support her mother who volunteers at an orphanage and has become convinced that a boy called Ramzi, who was born on the same day Bassam disappeared, is actually Bassam reincarnated.  Salah dies in London and Samir returns to Beirut to sort out his parents flat.  He falls in love with Aneesha but just as everything in the story is coming together, it all falls apart.  The book is a very smooth and easy read even though it constantly jumps backwards and forwards in time and place without letting the reader know when and where they are.  It gives a flavour of life in Beirut but it is like looking at the city through a fine mist, as there aren't many details.  It would have been good to have had a glossary of Lebanese terms for food, musical instruments, areas of Beirut and terms of endearment.  6/10

10th January 2011

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Book 39, Country 45 - Israel

The Attack by Yasmina Khadra – translated from French and first published in English in 2006

Dr Amin Jaafie, an Arab Israeli doctor is told that his wife Sihem had ended her life by blowing herself up in a crowded Tel Aviv restaurant, killing 19 other people as well.  At first he cannot believe that she would have done such a thing but then he receives a letter from her and realises it is true.  He travels to Bethlehem and Jenin to find out why and how she came to become a suicide bomber.  It is a surprisingly compelling read and I could see a film of it playing in my mind’s eye.  Don’t expect a happy ending because there isn’t one.  In fact the beginning of the story is also the end.    Yasmina Khadra is the pseudonym of an ex-Algerian army officer.  I have also read his Swallows of Kabul, which is equally harrowing but well worth reading.  7/10

2nd January 2011

Out of Africa

At last I have finished Africa and just in time to start a new continent for the New Year.  I’m almost halfway through my reading journey and my enthusiasm hasn’t waned.    However I am glad to have finished my travels through Africa, which, with a few exceptions, wasn’t a happy place – genocide, AIDS, female circumcision, civil war, landmines, corruption, slavery and poverty were the main themes covered.  I’ve never wanted to travel to Africa but the 20 books I have read have given me a new insight into life there both now and in the past.  On to the Middle East next but I don’t expect that to be a happy place either!

Book 38, Country 44 - Egypt

The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany - translated from Arabic and first published in English in 2004

There is no plot as such to this novel.  It is about a selection of people who live in the Yacoubian Building in Cairo in around 1990.  The rich ones live and work in the apartments in the building while the poor live in tiny rooms on the roof and their lives partly intertwine.  It isn't a jolly book - several of the characters die and most of them aren't very nice people.  The book tackles the subjects of religious fanaticism, homosexuality and the sexual exploitation of women and describes the realities of life in modern Cairo very well.  6/10

30th December 2010