Reviews

Three Apples Fell from the Sky is set in a small mountaintop Armenian village at an indeterminate period in time—isolated as Maran is, the distant war mentioned could be any one of a number of 20th-century conflicts. Narine Abgaryan tells a series of interlocking, multi-generational and magical realism-tinged stories about the inhabitants of Maran which slide back and forth in time. There are some lovely passages, and I did wonder if there were layers of meaning here that I just wasn't picking up on because I don't have enough knowledge of the social/historical/political contexts and tensions. (Abgaryan is an Armenian living and working in Putin's Russia.) But for me, despite all of the tragedies recounted here, this book was a bit too sentimental. Maybe it doesn't ever quite become what you could technically class as twee, but the ending,

in which a 58-year-old woman's (first?) epic bout of menstruation leads her to conceive and have a child for the first time, with her 70-something husband, all of whose children by his first marriage had died

, toed up to the line for me.

arion's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

sona1i's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

so_tru's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

sarapruc's review against another edition

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funny hopeful

Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

I liked this but got lost a bit with all the different characters and how they're connected cause I listened to it as an audiobook. Also seems to meander quite a bit which makes it hard to keep track of what is important for the overarching story (or if there is one). Nevertheless, enjoyed it!

018040's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

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