Scan barcode
blundershelf's review
4.0
I originally purchased this novel for my mum for Christmas years ago. I'd seen a customer special order it in and it sounded like the sort of strange she often goes for, namely Eastern European. She complained the entire time she was reading it that it was just too fucking weird. I thought she was being dramatic - turns out she was right. This shit is odd. Only someone raised in a deeply convoluted culture and time could write a fairy tale like this. I'd be hard-pressed to recommend it to anyone in particular, yet I did enjoy my reading! Don't think I understood even half the prose bits but then I've never been all that interested in understanding literature.
jlmn's review against another edition
I didn’t really like the beginning of the writing style but I’d try the audiobook because of the slow narration.
butzjenna's review
Switching between English and Scots within same paragraphs and even the same sentence was too confusing for me. I kept getting lost, and the glossary needed more of the Scots words. I’d like to try it again at some point though.
biblioteca_dani's review against another edition
I’ve been reading this book for months, or rather trying to. I just could not get a hang of the switch between dialects and it has taken me so long to make so little progress
halibut's review against another edition
3.0
I largely struggled through this book, the translation into mixtures of Scots and English is an interesting format, perhaps as the translators mention the only possible approach. The story has a feeling of floating between real and fantastic for most of it's length, never quite discerning the boundary; for me the translation meant it felt like it was similarly contextually unmoored, somewhere between it's Belarusian original ("confined to endnotes") and "the Scots dimension", in a way which felt more difficult than like a fruitful tension. I felt the poems interspersed in the text we underglossed for me, I did struggle to get the meaning of lines and found the glossary no help (though I am poor at poetry anyway).
I did like the story though, it gave the feeling of an uncanny fariry tale, characters constantly encounter familiar but shifted scenes. It reminded me of The Taiga Syndrome by Christina Rivera Garza, but where that was slight and allusive this is full of sensory detail, an approach I much preferred.
I did like the story though, it gave the feeling of an uncanny fariry tale, characters constantly encounter familiar but shifted scenes. It reminded me of The Taiga Syndrome by Christina Rivera Garza, but where that was slight and allusive this is full of sensory detail, an approach I much preferred.
nata_lee's review against another edition
Sadly very sadly a dnf for me. Can’t even tell you how good or bad I find this book because the problem lies in that I can’t even understand what I’m reading. The premise sounds very interesting to me and I believe this is indeed a good book, but my efforts put into trying to understand the Scottish were unsuccessful. So yeah, the language barrier is the only reason I’m putting this book down, but will be given to someone who might actually understand the contents of it :)
michellelouise's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
duncanjm's review against another edition
2.0
DNF! Sorry! I thought I could hack it bc I have an ear for the Scots but it was too heavy + sound/location mismatch + too many epigraphs + doing fantasy stuff took me out of it.
alisonburnis's review
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Alicia and Avi have been sent to the Camp, in order to be treated for their use of the Leid (Belarusian) and not the Lingo (Russian), which is the language they’re required to speak in public. Escaping through a hole cut into the fence by their father, they escape from him and his lover Kenzy, and go off into the woods themselves. A modern retelling of Hansel and Gretel set in Belarus, this is a critique of the Russian subjugation of Belarus, and an exploration of language and culture.
This is a really fascinating translation, with the act of translation being key to how the work is understood. Bacharevič originally wrote this in Russian and Belarusian, and in what is an impressive and thoughtful treatment of it in English, the Russian parts were translated to English, while the Belarusian parts were translated to Scots. There are footnotes translating some of the trickier Scots terms. English has also sought to crush Gaelic, and later Scots, and so this gave the novel a really rich layer, to me. It’s a strange fairy tale, but one with a lot to say.
This is a really fascinating translation, with the act of translation being key to how the work is understood. Bacharevič originally wrote this in Russian and Belarusian, and in what is an impressive and thoughtful treatment of it in English, the Russian parts were translated to English, while the Belarusian parts were translated to Scots. There are footnotes translating some of the trickier Scots terms. English has also sought to crush Gaelic, and later Scots, and so this gave the novel a really rich layer, to me. It’s a strange fairy tale, but one with a lot to say.
joellie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75