aishaayoosh's reviews
127 reviews

Took a little while to read this book, but it is one to be devoured slowly and relished. It’s definitely the only way to read a Sembene Ousmane novel. Originally written in French and translated into English in 1962, it’s a golden oldie

“Envy is the religion of the mediocre. It comforts them, it soothes their worries, and finally it rots their souls, allowing them to justify their meanness and their greed until they believe these to be virtues.

Such people are convinced that the doors of heaven will be opened only to poor wretches like themselves who go through life without leaving any trace but their threadbare attempts to belittle others and to exclude - and destroy if possible - those who, by the simple fact of their existence, show up their own poorness of spirit, mind, and guts.

Blessed be the one at whom the fools bark, because his soul will never belong to them.”

“I don't belong to any side. What's more, I think flags are nothing but painted rags that represent rancid emotions.

Just seeing someone wrapped up in one of them, spewing out hymns, badges and speeches, gives me the runs.

I've always thought that anyone who needs to join a herd so badly must be a bit of a sheep himself.”

I’m into the whole family drama …but if you’re expecting something to jump out of you and “happen” …not in this book.

It skims the life of two siblings as they go through losing a parent, finding them later, getting thrown out of their home, going through school, marriage etc etc. A bit mundane for my liking

Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak tackles many different topics including religion, or rather the meaning of God in one’s life, how cultural and political circumstances shape lives of the individuals and the position of women in Eastern and Western societies.

Different opinions on religiosity, God and culture cause constant quarrelling between young women, the protagonist’s parents and at a dinner party.

Despite all the chaos, people with opposing views still manage to develop close relationships such as friendship and even romantic relationships.
Shafak shows us that finding similarities between each other rather than focusing on differences can lead to building a more stable and peaceful community.

Until recently, most conversations about the European colonial presence in Africa have excluded Germany.

Established in the late 19th century, the German empire on the continent included colonies in present-day Namibia, Cameroon, Togo, parts of Tanzania and Kenya, and eventually claimed the kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi.

German colonial rule was brutal, as colonial enterprises were; in an arena known for its oppression and violence, it is Germany that perpetrated the first genocide of the 20th century in the 1904 extermination campaign to quell the Herero and Nama uprising in Namibia.

Across the continent in East Africa, or Deutsch-Ostafrika, Germany’s military tactics were equally deadly.

Abdulrazak Gurnah’s sprawling yet intimate novel Afterlives is set against the backdrop of these atrocities. Unfolding in what was then Tanganyika, now mainland Tanzania.

What a magnificent book and one of my favourites. I had read De Berniere’s Birds without wings and could not wait to read his other books. This has definitely wowed me!

De Berniere’s use of language and vocabulary is to be enjoyed and devoured slowly. Take your time and really savour this book.

It’s a novel based around a love story of a Greek and Italian in the time of the Second World War when Cephallonia was being torn apart by the Germans and then the Greek rebel groups that emerged after they left.

It’s a book that leaves you longing and hankering for a good ending because there is so much heart ache and tragedy in the second half of it.

And as I wished and coveted...Louis De Bernier delivered a fitting end ...I shed a few happy tears and now I can sleep :) #BookClosed