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David McK (3425 KP) rated Hearts of Stone in Books

Feb 9, 2022  
Hearts of Stone
Hearts of Stone
Simon Scarrow | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
6
5.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Not quite what the blurb makes out
Whilst I do associate Simon Scarrow with the genre of historical fiction, these tend to be set further back in history: mainly around the time of the Roman Empire; there or thereabouts.

Until recently, I've tended to avoid his few works that are more contemporary in nature, only recently (towards the end of last year) reading Blackout as I felt they were 'too close' (if that makes sense) for comfort for me in that there are still people alive who lived through the setting.

I must admit, I did quite enjoy Blackout so thought I would also give this a go, due to the roughly the same (WW2) setting.

This novel flits back and forth between then and 'now' (of 2013), as the descendants of the main 1940s settings character start to discover more about their ancestors - in particular, as history teacher Anna uncovers the story of her maternal grandmother Eleni, who participated in the Greek resistance on the island of Lefkas during 1943.

The whole had-a-German-friend in 1939 thing almost seems incidental to the story (he's not), until roughly about the final third.

And yes, I did pick up on the arguments in favour of teaching history (a subject I did, mostly, enjoy in school) passages.
  
40x40

ClareR (5726 KP) rated Cloud Cuckoo Land in Books

Oct 29, 2021  
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Cloud Cuckoo Land will be VERY high in my favourite books of the year, I have no doubt whatsoever. It grabbed my attention from the first page, and wouldn’t let go - and frankly, I didn’t want it to.

There are three main timelines, four characters, and an ancient text that connects them all.

Anna lives in Constantinople just before the Ottomans bring down the wall and claim it as their own. Omeir is one of those Ottomans, a reluctant cog in their war machine.

We go forward 500 years to a hostage situation in a US town library, where a disillusioned teenager, has planted a bomb on the bookshelves. An old man, an ex-soldier who has taught himself Ancient Greek, has translated a very old book and turned it into a play. He is upstairs in the same library.

Then, on to the future where a girl, her family and a number of other scientists, explorers and volunteers, are all on a spaceship at the start of a long voyage that they know they’ll never see the end of. And disaster strikes.

I didn’t want this book to end. I had a huge book hangover when this ended, and I’m very certain that I will need to read this again. It’s perfection.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this.