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Title: Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue

Subtitle: A Novel of Pastry, Guilt, and Music

Author: Mark Kurlansky

Narrator: George Guidall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-01-05

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 13 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The booming 1980s have arrived, and in Manhattan's Lower East Side, that means the yuppies have arrived, too. Gentrification has begun! Amidst the hubbub, Nathan Seltzer pursues an affair with the sexy daughter of the local German bakers and fights to protect his little photocopy shop from the predatory advances of the Kopy Katz chain. And all the while, a murderous maniac is terrorizing the neighborhood.

Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue presents an exhiliarating menagerie of peoples and customs while vividly capturing a colorful period of American cultural history.

Critic Reviews:

"A definitive portrait of an era that's all the better for not really trying to be one." (Kirkus Reviews)

Members Reviews:

Quality.

Good quality CD set and fun story as recommended.

A very funny poignant novel about the changing Lower East Side

A very funny poignant novel about the changing Lower East Side. The plot is well constructed with all themes resolved. This book should receive a wide appreciative audience.

is that a way to talk?

a book for New Yorkers - if you're from there, currently living there, once lived there, you will recognize the territory. Otherwise it will all be Greek to you (pastries aside)

the writing is uneven, sometimes annoying, at times poignant. needed more time in the oven.

A jumbled, unorganized mess

Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue is a novel that focuses on pastry, guilt, and greed on Manhattanâs lower east side. It is non-fiction writerâs Mark Kurlanksyâs debut novel. The story takes place on the lower east side in New York, a place where diversity flourishes. It follows a number of characters of different ethnic backgrounds from the Reagan era but the main one being Nathan Seltzer, a jew who adores his young daughter and is torn on whether to sell his business to a corporation for her future. Social issues such as racism are present, highlighting the hatred between Dominicans and Puerto Ricans.

The story is choppy, broken up into parts that follow separate characters throughout the book, sometimes bringing in new characters over half way through the book to follow. It can be very confusing to follow and pretty easy to get lost. The beginning is slowwwwww and I know slow doesnât have that many wâs but it was a drag. The first 75 pages or so consisted of introducing all these characters, introducing Jews, Latinos, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans trying to be Puerto Ricans, Italians, drug dealers, suspected Naziâs, and it goes on. It has a jumble of different storylines that you can easily lose track of. After the majority of characters got introduced the story picked up a bit, and Kurlanksyâs writing style really came through. He has a quirky, nonchalant attitude in his writing that make it fun, not to mention the mouth watering descriptions of delicious pastry.

I feel like the character development suffered from the amount of semi-main characters in book. I think certain characters definitely plateaued in their development and I think itâs Kurlanskyâs fault for taking on such a long list of characters. It also doesnât help that some characters are way more interesting than others. Reading this book a chore at times, reading about a character that doesnât really have a whole lot going on in their life isnât that thrilling.

Overall Iâd give this book a 6 out of 10.

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Titre: Jonathan Livingston le Goéland

Auteur: Richard Bach

Narrateur: Patrice Laffont, Dorothée Berryman, Cédric Noël, Vincent Davy

Format: Original Recording

Durée: 58 mins

Langue: Français

Date de publication: 03-21-05

Éditeur: Coffragants

Evaluation: 4.5 sur 5 sur 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Résumé de l'éditeur:

Décidément, Jonathan Livingston n'est pas un goéland comme les autres. Sa passion : voler toujours plus haut et plus vite pour être libre. Mais ce marginal qui ne se contente pas de voler pour se nourrir ne plaît guère à la communauté de goélands. Condamné par les siens à vivre le reste de ses jours au-delà des falaises en solitaire, Jonathan Livingston le Goéland découvre non seulement la bonté et l'amour des amis, mais aussi comment dominer ses peurs et connaître ses limites.

Ce grand classique, écrit par Richard Bach, a déjà obtenu un franc succès dans le monde entier.

© Coffragants inc. 1999

© Flammarion 1976

© Simon & Schuster 1975

Avis des membres:

je ait connue cette histoir depuis long temp

Mai, maintenant, que je la lis en francois pour me instruir a la langue il me semble plus intéressant d'avantage.

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Title: Joy Comes in the Morning

Author: Jonathan Rosen

Narrator: Lorna Raver

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-06-04

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 27 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Deborah Green is a woman of passionate contradictions: a rabbi who craves faith and goodness while wrestling with her own doubts and desires. Her life changes when she visits the hospital room of Henry Friedman, an older man who has attempted suicide. His parents were murdered in the Holocaust when he was a child, and all his life he has struggled with painful questions. Can happiness come after such loss or does the very wish profane the dead? Can religious promises ever be fulfilled?

Deborah's encounter with Henry draws her into his world: his wife, Helen, a photographer fiercely devoted to her husband but frightened by him, too; his son, Lev, a science reporter who left his fiancee at the altar; and Lev's best friend from childhood, Neal, whose life fell apart after a psychotic break.

Joy Comes in the Morning has the amplitude of a 19th-century novel but with a distinctly modern sensibility.

Critic Reviews:

"Welcoming and intelligent." (Publishers Weekly) "Rosen has created a marvelously accessible and touching novel that is at once profoundly philosophical and simply radiant." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

My kind of book

I like complex characters and symbolism and the weaving together of various lives into a plot. This story is rich in character. I find the humanity and spiritual aspirations of the main character endearing - she has the imperfection of a spiritual leader - striving for "perfection" but failing (and able to look at her failings with good humor). Funny moments and redeeming ones. Good read!

Watching Paint Dry

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

After listening to about 4 hours of the book, there was still no plot that I could detect. The never ending descriptions of details of the characters and their lives got to be mor than I could endure.

What was most disappointing about Jonathan Rosens story?

The lack of a plot make this book most dissapointing.

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

A nonredemptive novel.

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Title: The Laments

Author: George Hagen

Narrator: Clare Higgins

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-09-04

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Howard, an engineer, dreams of irrigating the Sahara and lives by the motto "Laments move!" His wife Julia is a fiery spirit who must balance her husband's oddly peripatetic nature with unexpected aspirations of her own. Will is the "waif with a paper-thin heart" who is given to Howard and Julia in return for their own child who has been lost in a bizarre maternity ward mishap. As Will grows up in a family that careens from continent to continent, one wonders where the Laments will ever belong.

In Bahrain, Howard works at an oil company and Will makes his first friend. But in short order he is wrenched off to another land, his mother's complicated friendship with American siren Trixie Howitzer causing the family to bolt. In Northern Rhodesia, during its last days as a white colony, the twin enfants terribles Marcus and Julius are born, and Will falls for the gardener's daughter, a girl so vain that she admires her image in the lid of a biscuit tin. Soon the family's life is upturned again, this time by their neighbor Major Buck Quinn, with his suburban tirades against black self-rule. Envisioning a more civilized life on "the sceptered isle," the Laments head to England. Alas, poor Will is greeted by the tribal ferocity of his schoolmates and a society fixated on the Blitz. No sooner has he succumbed to British pop culture in the guise of mop-top Sally Byrd and her stacks of 45s, than the Laments uproot themselves once again, and it's off to New Jersey, where life deals crisis and opportunity in equal measure.

Undeniably eccentric, the Laments are also universal. Every family moves on in life. Children grow up, things are left behind; there is always something to lament. Through the Laments' restlessness and unwieldy love for one another, George Hagen gives us a portrait of every family that is funny, tragic, and improbably true.

Critic Reviews:

"A family story on speed, with a jolt of black comedy that makes it a close relative to that greatest of all American family stories, The Simpsons." (The New York Times Book Review)

"A funny, touching novel about the meaning of family." (Publishers Weekly)

"Mr. Hagen has shaped an affectionate family portrait in which the characters come vividly to life, no matter how adrift they may be." (The New York Times)

Members Reviews:

3 1/2 stars

This book had many elements I enjoy...travel, human nature, new family issues...but I felt like some of the events that take place were pointless and only there for shock appeal for lack of a better phrase. There were so many good kernels of potential directions the story could go but the lack of depth in any of them made me want more. I did enjoy the story but I would have rather borrowed a copy of the book rather than use my credit. The narratar has difficulty with female voices and American accents but it's a little entertaining.

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Title: Double Vision

Author: Pat Barker

Narrator: Johanna Ward

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-11-04

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 19 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Double Vision follows Kate, a sculptor whose photojournalist husband is killed in Afghanistan, and Stephen, a journalist who, after covering September 11 with Kate's husband and then being betrayed by his wife, has determined to retire to a small town and write a book about violence. When the two meet, the coincidence of their lives, one of which involves Kate's disturbing new studio assistant, and sinister events force Stephen to act instinctively, violently, and to face painful revelations about himself.

©2003 Pat Barker

Critic Reviews:

"Seen small, it's one hell of a nail-biter. Seen large, it's an uncomfortably accurate picture of the escalating climate of violence and madness in our post-9/11 world." (Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly) "Johanna Ward adds even more layers to this book with extraordinary performance of the materal....Ward's performance is more than just a recitation of words. She embraces Barker's prose, coaxes more meaning from it, and makes us understand it more fully." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

Great!

As always, Barker has written a wonderful book.

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Title: Twelve Times Blessed

Author: Jacquelyn Mitchard

Narrator: Robin Miles

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-18-04

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 45 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

It's been eight years since the death of her husband, leaving her to raise their son on her own. Both her son and her small business are thriving, and True's life is full. Coming up on 43 makes True realize that there is an empty space in her life that friends and family cannot fill. She feels her youth and beauty slipping away, and the possibility for romance has never seemed more remote.

But everything changes the moment True and her beloved assistant, Isabelle, slide into a snow-filled ditch on the drive home. Saved by a young man she met earlier at the restaurant, True comes face to face with the opportunity to let love back into her life, that is, if she can overcome her own fears, and if these two spirits can find a way to tame each other's wild hearts and curb each other's supremely independent natures.

Critic Reviews:

"Mitchard's characters are appealing." (Booklist)

"Narrator Robin Miles delivers the story in straightforward fashion and creates various voices and accents from Cape Cod to New Orleans to color the dialogue." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

Character Flaws

This is a compelling book that packs more living into twelve months than most people experience in a lifetime. The author creatively winds the story through a complex tapestry of characters and cultures while tackling the issues of age differences and the tensions between male/female priorities in life -- quite a challenge and for the most part, successfully handled. Character development is a real strength of this author and it was delight to hear all the details she chose to paint a continually evolving picture of the major characters.

Perhaps it was the strength of the character development that led to my significant disappointment with the last quarter of this novel. When faced with their biggest challenges, the protagonists that had been so deftly created to be bigger than life suddenly seemed to diminish like a deflating balloon. The rationale for their actions and their final decisions were trite and immature; the resolution to their dilemma (very predictable) seemed very out of sync with the supposed maturing of the characters. A canvas created for a spectacular climax was completely wasted on a wimpy ending.

Three-quarters of the way through I was certain this was a 5-star book and I was making a list of the people I wanted to share it with. I'll give three stars for the quality of writing, the creativity of the story and the characters that are truly brought to life. But I'd recommend reading it only three-quarters of the way and then imagining your own ending.

GREAT Listen

Although the beginning was hard to follow, overall this was a great book. It moved along with its twists and turns of everyday life. The end could have been done with more of a plot ....... it just lagged.

Couldn't get through this one

I really wanted to like this book, but I did not enjoy it at all.

The book seemed to plod along and about half way through I just stopped being interested in what was going to happen next.

The narration seemed to make True, the main character, even more whingy and annoying than I imagine she appears in the written form.

Power Struggle

If the quality of a book is determined by its ability to emotionally engage the reader/listener, then this is a good book.

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Title: A Disorder Peculiar to the Country

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Ken Kalfus

Narrator: James Boles

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-15-07

Publisher: Audio Evolution

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 30 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

She misses her flight and he's late for work, but on that grim day, in a devastated city, among millions seized by fear and grief, each thinks the other is dead, and each is secretly, shamefully, gloriously happy. As their bitter divorce is further complicated by anthrax scares, suicide bombs, foreign wars, and the stock-market collapse, they suffer, in ways unexpectedly personal and increasingly ludicrous, the many strange ravages of our time.

In this astonishing black comedy, Kalfus suggests how our nation's public calamities have encroached upon our most private illusions.

Critic Reviews:

"My inner idealist hopes Kalfus' novel joins the ranks of Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 on the required reading lists." (Philadelphia Magazine)

"Kalfus' new novel [is] like a fever dream of recent events....Through the interbleeding of public and private story lines and his lampooning approach, Kalfus [is] freeing the way we think about September 11....If hyperbole can be weaponized anywhere in literature, it is here." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Divorce: 9/11 Style

Kalfus weaves a darkly hilarious tale of a dying marriage set post 9/11 against the backdrop of Ground Zero. I enjoyed the deliberate reading by James Boles, which sometimes added to the author's wry humor. The story of Marshall and Joyce's divorce strives for analogy, to depict a microcosm of the paranoid, intolerant, inept, and violent new order of the reawoken world. In many ways it succeeds, and in one scene in which a loosey-goosey house party morphs into an eerily creepy parody evocative of the terrible high jinks uncovered at Abu Graib Prison, it is jarringly affective. I recommend this audio book to any fans of say George Saunders, T. C. Boyle, et. al., who enjoy a hearty laugh at the expense of some serious material.

stunning surprise

This is a stunning book. I purchased it on the blurb alone, knowing virtually nothing about the author. It is a very poignant, messy tale of a couple in disarray, in the middle of a great divorce, and a country that is about to be torn apart by terrorism. The manner in which the author melds these two themes and makes us care for his characters, who sometimes do despicable things, is nothing short of brilliant.

not funny

This book is classed as a black comedy due to laziness in the book-blurb industry--a vestigial reference to the tragedy-tragicomedy-comedy spectrum that no longer scans for today's book-jacket shopper.

Any book with unique or singular situations that make you uncomfortable becomes a black comedy, and 'hilarious' ends up in its reviews and blurbs.

Does it find its audience? Personally I shop in this genre for a laugh. Are there readers who look here for dark, depressing books that will reinforce their sense that life is hard and useless? I doubt it.

I am writing this not to knock the book, but to provide fair warning to black-comedy fans. There are far too many books lumped into the black comedy genre, that are not funny at all, but with more care in promotion, would find a willing and appreciative audience. This is such a book.

This is a masterful book for people who enjoy the intake of profoundly numbing grief and disappointment in your fellow-man.

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Title: The Haunting of Hip Hop

Author: Bertice Berry

Narrator: J. D. Jackson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-24-08

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Blackboard best-selling author Bertice Berry delivers an entertaining cautionary tale. Everything hip-hop music producer "Freedom" Hudson touches turns to gold. But when he buys a haunted brownstone in Harlem, he gets an earful from a group of ghosts. One of the spirits, an African drummer whose life was destroyed by slavery, has a warning for Freedom: We've passed the drum to you - now use it to send the right message.

©2001 Bertice Berry; (P)2003 Recorded Books LLC

Members Reviews:

Fun and easy read.

I have absolutely fallen in love with this author. She gives a clear perception of the connection between the ancestors, spirits and present day earthly bodies. Such an easy read. A lot of fun and filled with love and understanding.

Nothing short of the best

I loved Ms.Berry's last work "Redemption Song", and now I am reading this latest work. Not even through yet, but I have to say that this time I am definitely backing up my five stars. This is nothing less than the best. We tend to despise hip hop and rap and say it is no good. But, like it or not, it is a part of us. Let's just say that the right message is not coming out of it, and that is what this book is trying to convey. Let me also say that Ms. Berry's works will reach back in time with our history. I like that. Perhaps, the message within this book can be read and conveyed. I also recommend Redemption Song as well. Both of these books should be read as many African Americans as possible.

If I Could Give This Book 4.5 stars, I Would!

The Haunting of Hip Hop is a small but powerful little fictional book that reads like non-fiction.

Harry "Freedom" Hudson has the Midas touch and creates hip-hop success with every collaboration and production. One day he decides that he must have a certain house in an old Harlem neighborhood...although the house is old and run-down it seems to be calling his name. There are rumors that the house is haunted, however, Freedom isn't fazed and he requests that his lawyer, Ava Vercher, do research to purchase the house. Ava has heard about the house being haunted as well, so she decides to enlist the help of her childhood friend, Charles to go and check out the house. When Ava and Charles enter the house, they are unprepared for the group that meets them. Lo and behold, the house is truly haunted and ...these "spirit memories" include Ngozi, an African drummer whose life was brutally interrupted by slavery; Bella, a singer murdered by her white gangster lover; and Johnny, a boy who was killed by his father. Ngozi wants to pass down his beat--which contains the love that has gone out of rap music--to Freedom, while Bella just wants revenge. However, all of the spirits are waiting for Freedom to arrive so that they can take him under their wings.

The Haunting of Hip Hop was a fascinated and intriguing read. I sat down with this book on a rainy afternoon and became so engrossed by it that I was finished in a few hours. I enjoyed the symbolism of the drum and the tie to rap music. I liked how there was an ancestral tie to the present, and how the materialism and exploitive spirit of Rap was being haunted by the past. However, I was a little disappointed that after Freedom entered the house the pace of the story slowed down and sort of fizzled out.

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Title: Summary of Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler | Includes Analysis

Author: Instaread

Narrator: Tamara Ryan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-04-16

Publisher: Instaread

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Summary of Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler | Includes Analysis

Preview:

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler is a coming-of-age story set in New York City. Over the course of a year, 22-year-old Tess, a girl straight out of small-town middle America, arrives in New York City, creates a niche for herself in the glitzy, fast-paced Manhattan restaurant scene, falls in love, and has her heart broken.

Smart, pretty Tess arrives in her car in New York in June 2006, leaving behind her lonely childhood and conservative small town. She rents a room in Williamsburg and sets out to find a job in Manhattan. Tess gets an interview at one of the most renowned restaurants in the city, located in Union Square. In the interview, her honesty, frankness, and good looks charm Howard, the general manager. So Tess gets a job as a backwaiter, or a food and drink runner and table busser.

Please note: This is summary and analysis of the book and not the original book.

Inside this Instaread summary of Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler:

About the Author

With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Members Reviews:

Living the life of a Millennial in NYC

"Sweetbitter" by Stephanie Danler is a coming-of-age story set in New York City. Over the course of a year, 22-year-old Tess, a girl straight out of small-town middle America, arrives in New York City, creates a niche for herself in the glitzy, fast-paced Manhattan restaurant scene, falls in love, and has her heart broken.

This abridged form of "Sweetbitter" not only analyzes but extrapolates on the elements of the book. It condenses the plot, explores the characters and their messy relationships, and expounds upon the themes of the story. Each section builds upon each other, giving you as a reader the foundation you need to better understand this NYT bestselling novel. I especially liked Instaread's insights on the theme of becoming a 51 percenter, or having taste. I was given a copy of this book to write an honest review.

SOON TO BE A 'CHICK-FLIC' ... COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU ;-)

This is an overview of the actual book âSWEETBITTER.â Kind of like an abbreviated âCliff's Notesâ for the FULL book. It provides a potential reader enough information regarding the bookâs content to determine if we want to invest the extra money and time to actually buy and read the entire book. This is a 'coming-of-age' novel about a young woman from a small-conservative, Mid-west town, who moves to NYC to begin a new life. At .99 cents, this summary is a good value, which is one of the reasons I have personally found âInstareadâ to be a useful service.

Coming of age in the big city

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler is about Tess, a girl from a small town in the Midwest who comes to New York City in order to expand her personal world. Tess finds work in a restaurant, and encounters a number of diverse personalities, leading her into a whirlwind of partying, drugs and sex. In the process, she gets her heart broken, and learns that in order to mature and achieve freedom, she must step away.

Summary of Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler by Instaread explores this novel, discussing its characters, relationships, and main themes.

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Title: Empire of the Sun

Author: J. G. Ballard

Narrator: Steven Pacey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-09-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Winner of the Guardian fiction prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

From the master of dystopia, comes his heartrending story of a British boys four-year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. Based on J. G. Ballards own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boys life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai - a mesmerising, hypnotically compelling novel of war, of starvation and survival, of internment camps and death marches. It blends searing honesty with an almost hallucinatory vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint. Rooted as it is in the authors own disturbing experience of war in our time, it is one of a handful of novels by which the 20th century will be not only remembered but judged.

J. G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, he and his family returned to England in 1946. He published his first novel, The Drowned World, in 1961. His 1984 best seller, Empire of the Sun, won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His memoir Miracles of Life was published in 2008. J. G. Ballard died in 2009.

Critic Reviews:

An extraordinary achievement (Angela Carter)

A remarkable journey into the mind of a growing boy horror and humanity are blended into a unique and unforgettable fiction (Sunday Times)

Remarkable form, content and style fuse with complete success one of the great war novels of the 20th century (William Boyd)

Gripping and remarkable I have never read a novel which gave me a stronger sense of the blind helplessness of war unforgettable (Observer)

A brilliant fusion of history, autobiography and imaginative speculation. An incredible literary achievement and almost intolerably moving (Anthony Burgess)

An immensely powerful novel in a class of its own for sheer imaginative force. (Daily Telegraph)

Gripping and remarkable I have never read a novel which gave me a stronger sense of the blind helplessness of war unforgettable. (Observer)

Ranks with the greatest British writing on the Second World War. (The Times)

Members Reviews:

Quietly absorbing

Quite unlike anything I've read or listened to before. The characterisation is brilliant. Thematically powerful in an understated way. The tone of the narrator is ideally suited to the text.

Fantastic performance.

A brilliant book that takes you on a ( sometimes harrowing) journey through China during ww2.

My own knowledge of the war was somewhat Eurocentric, this book has widened my perspective particularly in relation to Japanese Pow's and their experiences. When you hear people say, oh he never really 'came back' from the Japanese camps, ' he/ she was never the same after' this book gives us detailed insight into why this is so often the case.

Narration is absolutely spot on, it would have been spoiled by 'sentimental'reading which would have been an easy trap to fall into.

As it's written from a child's perspective it is matter of fact despite the traumatic experiences.

The sort of book ideal for long drives as you can drift in and out of the story and don't need to be constantly focussed!

Stark and vivid.

This was not as I had expected - and not my usual choice. It is a stark and very vivid story of war time experience from a child's point of view.