The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness

Every so often I stumble across a new author whom I feel I should have known about. Laxness won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955 for "for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland" and his books have been translated into English by author and TV presenter Magnus Magnusson.

Alfgrimur, an orphan, grows up in Reykjavik, Iceland at the turn of the 20th century with a couple he calls grandfather and grandmother but who are not.  This is a classic bildungsroman type novel about an artist finding his own voice at a time when the old world was on the brink of the modern era. As he grows up Alfgrimur find his once safe and secure small child’s world is changing, just as Iceland is undergoing change, just as fishing is changing from subsistence fishing into mass trawling. The diverse community of people who board with his grandparents represent all strands of a society with a strong oral tradition. Uneducated in the formal tradition, poor in economic terms they nonetheless provide the boy with his education, life skills and moral stance. The book is a gem. It tells a great story deft touches of ironic humour especially made manifest in the character of Gardur Holme the supposedly world renowned, Icelandic opera singer and irony and raises real questions about worth, value, globalisation, greed, self worth and self respect.

ashramblings 4* A little gem of a find , I’ve already ordered another of Halldór Laxness’s books, Paradise Reclaimed from the library.

The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness, Translated by Magnus Magnusson

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi

When I read Persepolis The story of a Childhood, I hadn't realised there was a second volume. Volume 1 left me wondering just what it was like for Marjane after she left Iran. Since then I found out that some editions are one volume, some two and others split the story into 4 parts. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return follows on immediately after Marjane leaves Iran for Austria and follows her through her teenage there, her struggle to fit in and to survive on a low allowance, through her return to Iran, her student years and her readjustment to the repressive society she finds back home. She paints a relationship with her parents and grandmother which most youngsters would crave for and although portrayed idyllically they were clearly a huge influence on her personal development.

When my local library indicated the book had arrived for me I rushed out at 3PM to collect it and had finished it by 5PM. I can't recall ever having awaited a second volume with such enthusiasm.

ashramblings verdict 4* A great depiction of the normal struggles of growing up, compounded by the not so normal struggles of first living alone in a foreign country, and then coping with returning as a stranger in your own homeland.

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
by Marjane Satrapi

Bundu by Chris Barnard

 

Bundu

by Chris Barnard

This book was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2013 and was translated from the Afrikaans by South African, Michiel Heyns

Brandt de la Rey is a biologist working in a disputed, remote and uninhabited border region between South Africa and Mozambique.  In the third year of drought, as the growing trickle of hungry and dying refugees in search of food arriving at the nearest convent clinic threatens to overwhelm their ability to cope, Brandt hatches a plan to get them out of the area to somewhere better before all their food runs out.

What Chris Barnard has achieved is a compelling, sometimes humorous, story set around the awful turmoil of a few people at the mission trying to cope with famine and flood, with hunger, illness and death on a scale that just shouldn’t happen. All the characters  - Jock Mills, the mad, drunken pilot; Strydom the eccentric prospector; Malume, the baboon; Vukile, the doctor; Julia, the nurse, and Sister Roma – have their own reasons for being in such a remote place, everyone has his and her own story. He shows the stresses and strains taking their toll  as people face making difficult choices because to do nothing is unthinakable.

Told in the first person this story shows how basic humanity transcends linguistic and cultural differences, when there is no verbal communication, no common tongue, care and respect for fellow human beings presents the only common rallying cry.

ashramblings 4* Although a difficult topic to read about, it is written with sensitivity and awareness. The English translation is fluid and certainly helps in this respect. I couldn’t put it down – an unexpected page turner!