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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I will rate this later when I get over it not being The Historian, because it was well-written and fascinating and doesn't have to be The Historian.
I really enjoyed this, coming to it with no expectations, as I have never read The Historian (although now I will!).
Set in Bulgaria, a country I know nothing about, I found it rather fairy tale like. Once you suspend the disbelief and go with the flow, everything falls into place beautifully. Alexandra has travelled to Sofia as a sort of tribute to her lost brother. He disappeared on a family hiking trip, and always planned to visit. A chance meeting with a funeral party at a hotel leaves her accidentally holding an urn full of ashes, and she sets about trying to return it with the help of an erudite taxi driver and an ever growing collection of marvellously spritely old people. Fairy and folk tales are referenced constantly in this story and there is a definite allegorical air about it, as the urn turns out to be a real box of secrets.
The book gets darker when the history of the deceased takes centre stage. It's quite hard to read in parts, and I was ashamed that I knew nothing about this period of history. I had a similar response to Isabel Allende's A Long Petal of the Sea, and I think if you enjoyed that you might enjoy this too.
Set in Bulgaria, a country I know nothing about, I found it rather fairy tale like. Once you suspend the disbelief and go with the flow, everything falls into place beautifully. Alexandra has travelled to Sofia as a sort of tribute to her lost brother. He disappeared on a family hiking trip, and always planned to visit. A chance meeting with a funeral party at a hotel leaves her accidentally holding an urn full of ashes, and she sets about trying to return it with the help of an erudite taxi driver and an ever growing collection of marvellously spritely old people. Fairy and folk tales are referenced constantly in this story and there is a definite allegorical air about it, as the urn turns out to be a real box of secrets.
The book gets darker when the history of the deceased takes centre stage. It's quite hard to read in parts, and I was ashamed that I knew nothing about this period of history. I had a similar response to Isabel Allende's A Long Petal of the Sea, and I think if you enjoyed that you might enjoy this too.
I'm not in the right mood for this right now, I'll have to try again another time.
This story begins with a young American woman who travels to Bulgaria in 2008 to escape the grief she is experiencing after the death of her brother. In Sofia, she accidentally takes a satchel containing the ashes of a man named Stoyan Lazarov, a violinist. Aided by a somewhat mysterious taxi driver named Bobby, she sets off to try to return the man's remains to his family. The story jumps around in time and is told in pieces by various side characters and, eventually, Stoyan's journal. It takes quite some time to come to the point, which is that Stoyan was imprisoned in a Communist labor camp in the 1950s. The entire book has an air of melancholy, relieved by the caring relationships between the characters and punctuated by the horrors of the labor camp. I did find the jumping around both in time and geography to be somewhat jarring and distracting. Alexandra is a little unbelievable but Bobby was a very likeable and intriguing character.
The premise was intriguing, and she writes well. But goodness, someone edit this! It's way to long, and therefore very slow. I spent the whole book waiting for some action, and was never really satisfied. It was an easy read and actually ended well just took forever to get there.
2 1/2 stars. I had a similar problem with The Historian, so I should have guessed I might here. While I was intrigued by the mystery, there is some narrative throat-clearing that drags the action down and kills momentum. Good, if you're a slightly more patient reader.
Another beautifully written and mesmerizing story from Kostova. It was hard to put down. I learned a whole lot about Bulgaria, too, and much of it broke my heart.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No