A review by holyshark
Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke

4.0

What a book! It’s like a fiction that doesn’t read like a fiction — it feels as if all the stories are true. The longest stories were the “best”, in my opinion, because they gave me a chance to know the characters better. The stories were written so powerfully — especially The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa. The language, the tone, the seamless transition between what Asanka was seeing and what was happening, it was all just so well done. I also liked The Sukiyaki Book Club, because this was the first one where I saw symbolism. I'm not much of a person who reads and notices things like that, but this one made me happy / hopeful.

Whilst reading the first short story I’d already decided that I’d read a short story a day instead of all in one go, or as I felt. This was a highly uncomfortable read, not because of the content but because the stories were very moving, and allowed me to compare my own life experience to these characters.