ashramblings

Book Review : The Wildings - Part 1: The Wildings and Part 2: The Hundred Names of Darkness by Nilanjana Roy , narrated by Tania Rodrigues

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 17:46:00 +0100

The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy
4 of 5 stars

Utterly marvellous tale of a colony of cats in Old Delhi. For story lovers of all ages. Highly recommended.

Linguistic note - the squirrels are named Ao and Jao - Come and Go.
The birds are called sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni - the 7 notes (swara) in Hindustani classical music.

The Hundred Names of Darkness by Nilanjana Roy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

No sequel disappointment herein! The adventures of the Nizamuddin cats continues as they struggle through hard times.
Marvelous section telling of the love between the two eagles,Tooth and Claw.
The author's choice of names for all the animal characters is great, and the tone of voice captures their individual characters so well.
Both books are so very well narrated by Tania Rodrigues.

I can't recommend these enough!

View all my reviews

Book Review: Blackwater by Nilanajana Roy

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 17:49:00 +0100

Black River by Nilanjana Roy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although the plot is a bit predictable in the sense that I guessed the murderer really early on, that didn't detract from a good read - the main characters' back stories are the best part eg Chand's time working in Delhi and living on the back waters with Rabia and her husband. What is also very strong is the representation within the story of the societal issues in India - Hindi v Muslim, city growth and expansion, climate and environment issues, corruption, police violence and the difficulties that woman in particular face.

The author has fairly recently started writing for the FT and is on the panel selecting 2026 International Booker. This is her first adult novel, so a really good debut in my opinion. She has previously written two children's books. Additionally, I'm dipping in and out of her book of essays The Girl Who Ate Books: Adventures in Reading

View all my reviews

Book Review: Fireborne by Rosaria Munda - The Aurelian Cycle, Book 1

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 17:31:00 +0100

My rating:4 of 5 stars

I flew through this piece of pure escapism fantasy. Thoroughly enjoyed the storyline. It is a YA book with all the usual themes of dragons, a young dragon rider finding there place in the hierarchy and the world. It could be compared to Game of Thrones, Untethered Sky, Red Rising and even to Harry Potter and probably others , but I liked the twist in that here our two young heros - Annie and Lee - come from opposite sides of a now overthrown previous regime. Both have suffered trauma, both have their friendship tested and the new society is rife with politics which they have to handle - power corrupts etc etc . Enjoyed it enough to order the second and third parts of this trilogy from my local library.

कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती - My attempt at a translation of this Hindi poem

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Tue, 4 Feb 2025 22:25:00 GMT

Here’s my attempt at translating this Hindi poem.

कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती ।

(Koshish karne walon kee haar nahin hotee)

You can watch on YouTube the lovely narration by Amitabh Bachchan.

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

नन्हीं चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है
चढ़ती दीवारों पर, सौ बार फिसलती है
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है
चढ़कर गिरना, गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है
आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है
जा जाकर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है
मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में
बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में
मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

असफलता एक चुनौती है, स्वीकार करो
क्या कमी रह गई, देखो और सुधार करो
जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम
संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़ मत भागो तुम
कुछ किये बिना ही जय जयकार नहीं होती
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती

Lahrõ se darkar naukā par nahī̃ hotī,

Koshish karne walõ ki hār nahī̃ hotī.

Nanhī chīntī jab dānā lekar chaltī hai,
Chadhtī dīwarõ par, sau bar phisaltī hai.
Man ka vishwas ragõ mẽ sāhas bhartā hai,
Chadhkar girnā, girkar chadhnā na akhartā hai.
Akhir uski mehnat bekār nahī̃ hotī,
Koshish karne walõ ki hār nahī̃ hotī.

Dubkiyā̃ sindhu mẽ gotakhor lagātā hai,
Ja ja kar khalī hāth lautkar ātā hai
Milte nahī̃ sahaj hī motī gehre panī mẽ,
Badhtā dugnā utsah isī hairanī mẽ.
Muthī uskīi khalī har bar nahī̃ hotī,
Koshish karne walõ kī hār nahī̃ hotī.

Asafltā ek chunautī hai, ise swīkar karo,
Kya kamī reh gaī, dekho aur sudhār karo.

Jab tak na safal ho, nīnd chain ko tyāgo tum,
Sangharsh ka maidān chhodkar mat bhāgo tum.
Kuch kiye binā hī jai jaikar nahī̃ hotī,
Koshish karne walõ kī hār nahī̃ hotī.

A translation by Sheila Ash

Those who try never fail

A boat afraid of the waves will not cross the sea
Those who try never fail.

The tiny ant carrying a small grain up a wall
May climb and slip a hundred times
Yet self-belief still fills its veins with courage to climb
Falling down again is but an annoyance
Ultimately its hard work is not in vain
Those who try never fail.

The diver takes a plunge into the Indus
Going and returning empty handed
Pearls are not readily found in deep water
Excitement doubles in surprise
Every time his fist is not empty
Those who try never fail.

Failure is a challenge so accept it
See what came up short and fix it
Forego the peace of sleep until you succeed
Don’t run away from the battlefield
Acclaim doesn’t come without effort
Those who try never fail.

© Translation by Sheila Ash , 2025

My loneliness and I by Sheila Ash ( original by Jagit Singh)

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Sat, 3 Feb 2024 11:55:00 GMT

A language buddy sent a link to a Hindi poem used as a song in the Indian movie Silsila.
You can see a clip here on YouTube. The Hindi is

Main Aur Meri Tanhai (मैं और मेरी तन्हाई) Song by Jagjit Singh

आवारा हैं गलियों में मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
जाएँ तो कहाँ जाएँ
जाएँ तो कहाँ जाएँ
हर मोड़ पे रुस्वाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तनहाई

ये फूल से चेहरे हैं हँसते हुए गुलदस्ते
कोई भी नहीं अपना बेगाने हैं सब रस्ते
राहें हैं तमाशाई राही भी तमाशाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तनहाई

अरमान सुलगते हैं सीने में चिता जैसे
क़ातिल नज़र आती है दुनिया की हवा जैसे
रोती है मेरे दिल पर बजती हुई शहनाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तनहाई

आकाश के माथे पर तारों का चराग़ां है
पहलू में मगर मेरे ज़ख्मों का गुलिस्तां है
आँखों से लहू टपका दामन में बहार आई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई
मैं और मेरी तन्हाई

This inspired me to adapt its words and sentiments into my own poem -

Where should we go my loneliness and I?
fated now to wander street after street
where faces smile as if handing a bouquet of flowers in welcome.
But this is not our home , everything and everyone feels a stranger looking at us in judgement
while the mournful cries of my heart are like a piper's funeral lament.
Stars may dance on in the sky
but my loneliness flowers as wounds as bloodied tears stain my face.

chromakinetic By Comdr-Ferox

Our Stars

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 13:14:00 GMT

Hiding close the southern horizon but both visible facing due south on 25 Oct 20023.

We always shone brightly together, RIP N, Always loved, S

Book Review: The Wall by John Lanchester

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 15:13:00 GMT

The Wall by John Lanchester
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first heard part of this book abridged on BBC R4 and only recently managed to sit down and start it in earnest. Dystopian fiction, a world after what is only known as The Change, after which sea levels have risen dramatically and Britain was built a defensive perimeter Wall round all its shoreline to keep out the Others. Lanchester creates well his bleak world where people man the wall as sentries for years at a time,where the Others try to scale it, those who succeed are chipped and put to work as Help, those that don't die, the sentries on duty when there is a breach are sentenced and put to sea. Kavanagh is our narrator as he begins his two year stint on the Wall.
This an addictive read, with good world building and a steadily building up storyline. The compelling book was longlisted for the 2019 Booker and deservedly so.

Book Review: Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Sat, 9 Dec 2023 12:34:00 GMT

Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this collection . Afterwards some stories resided in my mind better and longer than others, but what isn't diminished is the strength of Keegan's writing, her keen eye for the timelessness of the situations people find themselves in.

See this 2022 review of her writing https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/05/bo...

(1) The Long and Painful Death - I wondered if this would be a story about someone dying gruesomely or from a lingering disease. I considered missing this first story in the collection but I dived in and urge you to do the same. A young writer has just arrived in residence at Henrich Boll's house, her first day is interrupted by the arrival of a German professor wishing to see the house. Only after he leaves can she write.
(On the edge of the village of Dugort, on Achill Island, on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, is Heinrich Böll Cottage (http://heinrichboellcottage.com/) . Once belonging to Nobel Prize-winning novelist Heinrich Böll, the cottage offers fortnightly residencies to writers and artists, providing time and space for you to work. https://halekatie.com/2021/10/24/resi... )

(2) The Parting Gift - young woman leaves abusive family.

(3) Walk the Blue Fields - a story of weddings - a young woman's ( with doubts about the future success of this bond) , a priest's with God ( this bond is struggling) , a Chineseman's with healing massage ( the successful bond), and a bond between two of them broken because of another bond - "two people hardly ever want the same thing at any given point in life. It is sometimes the hardest part of being human".

I really liked this story, it is one of those short stories with many layers and much depth that can successfully translate to the big screen, like Proulx's Brokeback Mountain did.

(4) Dark Horses - In the bar in rural Ireland they drown their sorrows and place their bets. It may be Norris who has "drunk two farms" but it is Brady who is the dark horse. He is a man who Leyden, who needs help shoeing his own horses, "didn't think you had it in you" and whose dreams are filled with their presence and their owner "the finest woman (who) ever came around these parts" whom he lost over his drunken behaviour.
Keegan once again masterfully creates ber characters, their lives and situations. Her dialog is spot on.

(5) The Forester's Daughter - Story of a farming family, the Devlins, the father "with his 'three teenagers, the milking and the mortgage", the daughter's heartbreak over a dog, the mother's over how her life turned out. Long buried secrets emerge one evening as the mother tells her neighbours a less than adequately disguised story.
The longest story in this collection it feels well rounded, complete and once again would make a terrific movie drama.

(6) Close to the Water's Edge - This story is not based in Ireland, instead we are with a young man, a student, celebrating his 21st with his mother and her millionaire husband. We know little or the young man other than what happens that evening, we are told his mother's mother's back story but the story leaves so much unsaid, untold. It leaves us readers to decipher both the gaps and the ending. Was this Keegan's intention? There is a poignant motif that is repeated like the tides in the story.
The grandmother who needed her first sight of the sea before settling down yet she "with only an hour to spend (on the coast) , would not get into the water, even though she was a strong river swimmer " because "she had no idea how deep it was" instead "she jumped into the road and stopped (her husband's) car. Then she climbed in and spent the rest of her life with a man who would have gone home without her"
How is his experience swimming in the sea going to effect his life? Will he change his flight and leave? Or will he confront the bigoted millionaire? The story does not tell.

(7) Surrender (after McGahern) The afternote in Keegan's book says this story was inspired by an incident recollected in John McGahern's Memoir concerning his father who sat on a bench in Galway and ate 24 oranges before he married. Keegan transposes this onto a police sergeant .

(8) Night of the Quicken Trees - back to the folk, folklore and superstitions of rural Ireland, this time in a highly comical story of mid-life singleton Margaret Flusk and her bachelor neighbour, whom we only know as Stack. There's the usual child out of wedlock, the fortune teller, the gossips rooted in the place, in the land, steeped in traditional ways , superstitions , faith and its consequences. But there is also a deft comic touch in the language,the dialog and scenes. Josephine the goat "who had the run of the house" is just hilarious. It is a mixture of the mundane aspects of life, the dreams fired by folklore, and all the way things can pivot, whether that is between love and faith, between hope and despair, between healing and hatred. All perhaps with Josephine having the last laugh. What a way to end a collection. Brilliant.

Book Review: Chess Story (alt title is The Royal Game) by Stefan Zweig

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 13:25:00 GMT

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not a writer that was known to me and I've forgotten how it got onto my TBR list.
The narrator is aboard a passenger ship heading to Buenos Aires when he realises a Chess Champion and child prodigy, Mirko Czentovic, is as well. He organises amateur games with the aim of drawing the champion out of his detachment, and with the aid of a fee paid by a chess loving traveling businessman, he succeeds in doing so. As the passenger lose game after game , another man, Dr B, lends them some advice. This changes their game. This man's back story explains his incarceration by the Gestapo in WW2 and why he now no longer plays himself and why now he is persuaded to take on the champion.
You do not have to understand chess in great detail to enjoy this novel as it is the nature of the game and the psychological aspects of gameplay that are critical as Dr B's madness boils up until he has to withdraw from the game.

View all my reviews

Devastating beauty by Sheila Ash

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Hidden seeds flowered by desert rains
Memories of you watered by grief
Both flower with devastating beauty.

Audio Book Review: The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 21:31:00 GMT

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a first novel and as such was quite impressive. Historical setting, tinges of steampunk - clockmakers, spies, incarceration in a Sultans palace, a son's search for his father, Dickens like characters - Mrs Morley was excellent and very well characterized and read on the audio by actress Clare Corbett (https://voicecall-online.co.uk/female...) , Tom Spurrell, clockmakers assistant extraordinaire, with the male characters by Bert Seymour (https://www.voicebanklondon.co.uk/art...) . I thought the story well crafted. An enjoyable read. Will be keeping an eye open for his next novel.

View all my reviews

Ghost Waves by Sheila Ash

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Mon, 6 Nov 2023 13:17:00 GMT

Ghost waves

Sea waves seen distant on approach
A choice to be made – run away or dive in?
The waves of grief are but ghosts
Stealth predators, creeping, silent stalkers
Snaring unawares.
They unbalance, deliver tsunamis of memories,
Splinter hearts into a thousand tears,
Then just as suddenly pass.

Always loved, RIP N 25th Oct 2023

The Beautiful Dawn by Sheila Ash - the rewrite - in memoria for N

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Thu, 2 Nov 2023 21:38:00 GMT

I first wrote this in 2018 for the most important person in my life in my life.
Following his death last week, I've revisited it and tweaked it.
For all our dreams unrealised and for those "beautiful moments" shared.
RIP N ❤️ Always loved, S

The Beautiful Dawn the rewrite - in memoria for N

Once I dreamt of her, The Beautiful Dawn,
while softly humming James Blunt
and watching you sleep.
white voiles breezing in the open windows
caressing the morning’s silent entrance
the sun stirring as you should be.
coral sands and blue waters calling
the sail is up, the wind astern
outward to the ocean
that endless horizon of dreams
we set sail.

Note:It is of course a reference to James Blunt song
and the dream of a boat to be called The Beautiful Dawn

"Beautiful dawn,
lights up the shore for me
There is nothing else in this world
I'd rather wake up and see
with you"

Book Review: Butcher’s Crossing By John Williams, narrated by Anthony Heald

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 12:09:00 +0100

Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great characters - Miller, Charley - really felt in the landscape, some very well written atmospheric sections - the snow storm, the river crossing, the fire. Good storytelling. Fine read.

View all my reviews

Book Review: This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Fri, 1 Sep 2023 10:18:00 +0100

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this a challenging book to get into but by then end felt it might deserve a reread.
It is an unusual story, scifi, speculating a world of warring fractions each trying to control the time line to ensure their supremacy. But the book is no space opera, instead an intimate story of love told in epistolary form between two opposing agent provocateurs, as they navigate the time threads.

I can see why it won awards, but for me it lacked something mais je ne sais quoi .

Footnote: According to Wikepedia (2023_10_18)

It won BSFA Award for Best Shorter Fiction,
Nebula Award for Best Novella of 2019,
2020 Locus Award for Best Novella,
2020 Hugo Award for Best Novella,
2020 Prix Aurora Award for short fiction,
and was a finalist for the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award in the Novella category
a finalist for the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction at the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes,
a finalist for the 2019 Kitschies in the Novel category,
and second place in the 2020 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

View all my reviews

Book Review: Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 11:06:00 +0100

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author has created a world that is immediately recognizably set in history yet is has a fantastical thread running through it. It feels a bit like a modern day Harry Potter meets His Dark Materials with its Institute of Translators in Oxford, its magical multilingual runes written on silver to power a steampunk world, all overlaid with imperial colonialism, systemic racism and exploitation overtones of the East India Company's ruthless commerce. An author to watch and read more of.

View all my reviews

Review: Sonu's Adventures: Sonu's Adventures

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Wed, 2 Aug 2023 16:31:00 +0100

Sonu's Adventures: Sonu's Adventures by Dinesh Verma
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Learning Hindi through children's stories specifically crafted for vocabulary and grammar points

View all my reviews

Review: Small Things Like These

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 12:39:00 +0100

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Book Review: Greek Lessons By Han Kang tarnslated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 16:22:00 +0100

Greek Lessons by Han Kang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not as accessible as her The Vegetarian, but a wonderful story of a going blind man and a non speaking woman and certainly worth a read. The audio really helps with two voices, I suspect a text only read might prove harder to follow. The author is an amazingly innovative writer.

View all my reviews

Book Review: The Ten Loves of Mr. Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami , translated by Allison Markin Powell

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 16:18:00 +0100

The Ten Loves of Mr. Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For me this novel was not as good as Strange Weather in Tokyo but I still enjoyed the read. Like Strange Weather it address the difficulties of modern relationships. 10 women give their story of their relationship with Nishino at different stages of his life. These are not rendered chronologically . We never really hear him, his voice and in many ways we and many /all? of the women never really knew him , nor understood him. They all break away from him even though he would appear to be a 'catch'. They say he doesn't want commitment, but perhaps it is the women who are commitment phobes?, some are only after sex, some are not really interested in Nishino the person, but he does leave his mark on them all.
I like Kawakami's writing style, sparse, simple, deep, thought provoking. Her stories stay with me.
Another of her short story collections is appearing in translation later this year Dragon Palace

View all my reviews

Review: Mona: Let's Learn and Read: Hindi-English

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Sat, 27 May 2023 15:44:00 +0100

Mona: Let's Learn and Read: Hindi-English by unknown author
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

According to the book the author is S K Sahota.
I borrowed this from my local library. I'm learning hindi and this is a basic level reader, with parallel or triple way text - Devanagari, phonetic transliteration and English. Simple story about a girl and her family but is has good repetition of some words, short comprehensible sentences for a beginner. and a good range of vocabulary for a beginners starting to read book. No complex conjuncts, no complex grammatical construction.

View all my reviews

Review: Mona: Let's Learn and Read: Hindi-English

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Sat, 27 May 2023 15:41:00 +0100

Mona: Let's Learn and Read: Hindi-English by unknown author
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Review: The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Tue, 16 May 2023 21:03:00 +0100

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Audio Book Review: The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer, translated by Howard Curtis, narrated by Greg Lockett, Stephanie Dufrense, Todd Kramer.

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 15:37:00 GMT

The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer by Joël Dicker
Translated by Howard Curtis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm on a roll. This is the second book I have read by this author. I now realise I'm reading them in the reverse order to which he wrote them, but not that the books are in any way connected. The Enigma of Room 622 and The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer are both thoroughly engaging thrillers.

This one is set in the USA, in the Hamptons and is a detective driven crime novel. Once again Dicker has the reader unwrapping the onion, layer by layer as she encounters all his twists and revelations in this compelling read. Once again I couldn't put it down. Once again Dicker plays with timelines.

Here we have the sleepy resort town of Orfea in 1994 and in 2014. In 2014 amateur actors are putting on the lead play in the town's literary festival. In 1994 during its opening festival the town mayor, wife, his son, and a jogger are gunned down during the first play. Dicker twists with the play on parallels, dipping back and forth between the two time periods. His back stories to his character are well fleshed out creating people who would come alive on any screen dramatisation. The audio version I listened to likewise had a suit of narrators - Greg Lockett, Stephanie Dufrense, Todd Kramer.

Book Review: The Enigma of Room 622 by Joël Dicker, Translated by The Enigma of Room 622 narrated by Chris Harper

noreply@blogger.com (ashramblings) — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 16:06:00 GMT

The Enigma of Room 622 by Joël Dicker
Translated by Robert Bononno
Narrated by Chris Harper

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just the tonic! I needed a riveting, engaging book. This is a murder mystery written within the framing story of a writer writing a novel about solving an unsolved murder mystery whilst coping with having been left by his girlfriend. The murder is solved by unwrapping the case as if a writer was about to write a book about it, as each layer is unwrapped the clues are there to help the reader, but of course the plot seems to twist and turn.

I will not say anything about the plot twists as that would absolutely spoil the book. Suffice to say the way the book is written swings back and back quite freely on different timelines within the story and I now some folks don't like that but it didn't cause any issue for me keeping up with when we were. I read this almost 600 pg book in 4 sittings, and would have done it in 3 if I'd been more organized about other things.

I'd never come across this author before I read this review in World Literature Today (WLT). Its very pleasingly narration meant I enjoyed the book so much I've ordered two of his others books from my local library The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair and The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer