We are plunged into a multifaceted family intrigue that seems to have rather too many coincidences at first. As the plot thickens, we are drawn in on the excitement and left guessing time and again. The main characters are well-developed and the storyline thought-provoking.
A deep childhood wound plagues Carl’s conscience but the discipline and drive instilled in him by his severe and – as it turns out – hypocritical father nevertheless enables him to succeed in his business venture. Sadly, this is at the cost of failing to show true love for his wife and family and succumbing…
I took advantage of my bedridden state to remedy one of my childhood lapses – and quite enjoyed it. Exciting, silly, rather harmless and quite preposterous adventures. The insight into white hypocrisy – preaching love and conducting a bloody feud at the same time – and racial injustice, whereby Blacks are treated little better than…
Vogler seems to know all about my novel, Aquila! Or is he saying that all stories are basically the same, whether it’s The Wizard Of Oz, Star Wars or Titanic? Then how can anyone write anything new? [But that would be like arguing that since most sentences consist of a subject, a verb and an…
My wife and I used this book for our weekly devotions over an extended year. We found it both challenging and at the same time reassuring. Each time it led is into an extended time of prayer for friends, family, neighbours and the world in general. Each chapter starts with several Bible passages, which I…
Gilead – Deep but a bit tedious This is a very unusual book in that it doesn’t follow any recognised structure. This makes sense when one realises it’s an old preacher man jotting down his reminiscences about significant events and minor incidents, while trying to impart wisdom to his young son in a letter he intends him…
This book is captivating from the start and very well written. We feel we get to know unfathomable Lila in spite of her contradictory character and also Lenù, the narrator. We feel their strife, their longings, their first attempts at love, the inevitable rivalries. But there are too many characters to keep track of and…
This very sensitively written book brilliantly captures the character and emotional struggles of the main players through a series of parallel cameos. Through the eyes of blind but bright Marie-Laure, we feel the desperate plight of the Parisians who flee from the advancing Germans, their struggle to survive in occupied Saint-Malo, their fifth column acts…
A very personal, sensitively written account of a naive young Englishman’s encounters with ordinary people as he spends a year walking the length of Spain. We gain a vivid insight into the harsh realities of life in Spain in the 30s, as the author faces poor but kind natives, coupled with blatant immorality, seething unrest…
This book is amazing in terms of its complexity and vivid action. The main characters are very well developed and the action scenes are captivating, even if somewhat incredible at times. As the first of a series, it builds up a huge cast of players in multiple locations, the relationships between which become quite a…
How is it that a story, in which hardly anything happens except for Harold nursing his blisters, can be so captivating, so thought-provoking, so moving? Rachel Joyce has an unusual knack for interweaving past incidents and memories into the current narrative, while cunningly maintaining our suspense by concealing what really happened twenty years earlier until…
Set in Napoleon’s heyday, this is a seemingly endless series of battles – often recounted in gory detail – interspersed with reckless carousing. Peter and Raoul always come out victorious and, if they do happen to get injured, they’re well again in no time. Bonaparte and his troops manage with next to no sleep, advancing from…