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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Definitely something I normally would not have picked up, but i am so glad I did. We follow a boy who is a refugee from Georgia in England. His father returns to Georgia and goes missing, and Saba, the main character, decides to return to his old home to find him.
Despite being a fiction novel, I did find this book to be informative on the history of Georgia as I am not familiar with it.
Overall, I did like the book, but there were parts that I struggled to read because i just felt a bit lost. Even with going back to reread parts, I still struggled. Despite that, i did manage to push through, and the book did deliver an informative but emotional story. I definitely would recommend if it sounds interesting to you. Do research triggers if needed.
Despite being a fiction novel, I did find this book to be informative on the history of Georgia as I am not familiar with it.
Overall, I did like the book, but there were parts that I struggled to read because i just felt a bit lost. Even with going back to reread parts, I still struggled. Despite that, i did manage to push through, and the book did deliver an informative but emotional story. I definitely would recommend if it sounds interesting to you. Do research triggers if needed.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-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:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
reflective
A painfully lovely book, poetic and tragic and bleakly funny. A book about war, and the lives that war obliterates; a book about home, and family, and history, and nationhood, and the miracle and absurdity of survival in the face of horror.
I was strongly reminded, when reading this, of another book I read and re-read as a teenager and have carried around in my memory ever since: Mohammed Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes. That book was set in Pakistan under military dictatorship - this one in post-Soviet Georgia. Very different cultures, different contexts, characters worlds apart. But both authors have a similar wry humour in their approach to devastation, a lightness and empathy that illuminates their narrative's darkness without diminishing it. Look, evil is ordinary, they seem to say. Evil is human. But so is laughter. So are many things.
Not a bad thing to remember, really.
I was strongly reminded, when reading this, of another book I read and re-read as a teenager and have carried around in my memory ever since: Mohammed Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes. That book was set in Pakistan under military dictatorship - this one in post-Soviet Georgia. Very different cultures, different contexts, characters worlds apart. But both authors have a similar wry humour in their approach to devastation, a lightness and empathy that illuminates their narrative's darkness without diminishing it. Look, evil is ordinary, they seem to say. Evil is human. But so is laughter. So are many things.
Not a bad thing to remember, really.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Death of parent
Moderate: Police brutality
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes