And I'm back. From London to Brighton to Pompey to Vancouver in just four short days, well, travelling both shortens and lengthens days.Thursday I came back from Brighton, Friday, Austen took me to the station at seven and by midday I was sitting on a plane. The weather was crazy, freezing, beating rain as I left, bright and sunny as I arrived here.
I have read two great books whilst I was away. I have already mentioned 'The Bookseller of Kabul' by Asne Seierstad. Although this is written as the story of one Afghan family, whose patriarch is the eponymous bookseller, it is not fiction. The author spent months living with this family and documenting their stories and details of their lives. As a westerner she was accorded privileges that Afghan women are not, and she moved freely between the male and female worlds of this suffocating expression of Islam.
The other book has equally had me gripped, and it too is a true hostory wrapped up by a master storyteller, in this case, Julian Barnes.
'Arthur and George' is about a cause célèbre at the end of the nineteenth, beginning of the twentieth centuries, and the actual involvement of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a one time resident of Pompey - which gets ample mention.
Both books have been mightily difficult to put down.
2 comments:
I'm going to give Arthur and George a go.
Glad you are back home safe.
It was great to see you.
Ta, sorry I missed out on seeing you, Sassy and the TP.
That book was such a gripping read. It seemed to keep my eyeballs glued to the page somehow.
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