50books_poc | #1-#3 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Amitav Ghosh & Taichi Yamada

Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

It sort of feels as though Chimamanda Adichie has been following me around Europe. Not literally, of course, but I’ve nearly bought one of her books on at least four occasions on my travels. I rather wish I had because she's a wonderful writer and it would have been rather lovely to have been able to sit on a train for 4 hours at a time burrowing through this book. The book's been reviewed previously so I'll try to keep it brief. Oddly enough for a book that is largely about a civil war it isn't a depressing book, there are certainly moments of tragedy and horror, but they are balanced by joy and laughter. The tight focus of the story on the central characters, keeps the story very much a human story, of lives impacted by civil war but not defined by it. I particularly liked the way the twins are written; we never see the story through Kainene's eyes, only ever knowing her feelings from what she tells the other characters, particularly Olanna and Richard, which allows her to remain every bit as much of a mystery to the reader as she does to her sister and her lover. I'll readily admit to knowing very little about Nigeria in the 60s, (There were two history courses at my university for the entire continent of Africa, that they were titled Africa in the 19th Century and Africa in the 20th Century probably tells you everything that was wrong with the courses) so I found the history elements and also the insight into the different strata of Nigerian society, utterly fascinating. Also I would have loved to read either version of The World Was Silent When We Died the little snippets we get were fascinating.

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

I came across this book in the library, I'd been recommended Sea of Poppies but I'm always a little wary of starting a trilogy when the rest of the books aren't out yet, so I looked for other books by the same author. The Hungry Tide is an utterly fascinating book for all that it doesn't have a huge amount of plot going on. I honestly couldn't have given a toss about the potential romance between Piya and Kanai. Piya's research, her exploring the rivers with Horen and Tutul as they follow the paths of the river dolphins, the animals and geography of the Sudurbans, Kanai's uncle's notebook and the hospital his aunt runs were far more interesting to me. The tide country and its people and history were vividly rendered and I could have gone on reading about it and the Dolphins for another 400 pages.

Strangers by Taichi Yamada

I suspect the horror movie industry has ruined Japanese ghost stories for me. I'm used to being scared witless by them and really wasn't by this one. It started of as quite an intriguing mystery and I was genuinely interested in what was going on with the couple who bore a striking resemblance to Harada's parents, but the romance between him and Kei was just a bit dull, sort of unnecessary as though it had been tacked on because the story had to have a romance. I think it would have been better if the book had just focused on one story or the other because neither felt that it had been explored as fully as it could have been.