I'd like to strongly recommend two books I read over the holidays:
THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak
An unsettling story of death's bemusement with a young girl.
The narrator: Death.
Not as harrowing as one might think at first glance.
Beautifully written and soul stirring.
The place: just outside Munich.
The time: The blossoming of Nazi Germany.
The protagonist: a young girl given to filtching books meant for
burning, under the noses of the Nazis.
When the time comes that a Jewish man must be hidden in the family's basement,
events take on an even more life threatening cast.
I loved this book.
Everyone to whom I've recommended it to has also loved it.
This is a book that reminds you why you read fiction in the first place.
BY A SLOW RIVER by Phillipe Claudel
In a small village in France towards the end of WWI, two deaths, one a suicide
and one a murder, take place within weeks of each other.
Years later they continue to plague the retired town policeman in charge of
the two investigations. He is a pragmatic sort who, might be forgiven for
being distracted at the time, since he was also dealing with the death of
his wife in child labor.
Years later, he looks back and tells us the story.
His and the town's, both entwined with truly terrible
secrets.
This books seems well translated from the French and yes, it has doom and
gloom, but it is SO well written, I didn't mind. It is one of those books that
springs fully into your mind in varying shades of gray, black and dark, dark,
red. The secret at the end is unspeakable.
