England, late 1970s. Forty-something Chris is trapped in a loveless, sexless marriage. Roza, in her twenties, the daughter of one of Tito's partisa...
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Sep 14, 2008
William
rated it: 
Nobody does love and loss like De Bernieres. This is Scheherezade retold but in it, everyone is trying to save themselves in different ways. It's also about the power of storytelling itself.
It starts a bit slowly and initially the characters are not entirely sympathetic, but as the veils come off you are helplessly drawn in.
I don't generally read everything any one author writes but for me, DeBernieres is an exception.
It starts a bit slowly and initially the characters are not entirely sympathetic, but as the veils come off you are helplessly drawn in.
I don't generally read everything any one author writes but for me, DeBernieres is an exception.
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Nov 09, 2008
Linda
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Set in England in the 1970's with alternating chapters and viewpoints we are drawn into the life of middle-aged Chris - bored, lonely and never eager to go home to the "Great White Loaf" and Roza a young Yugoslav immigrant whose father was one of Tito's partisans. Roza is a masterful storyteller who has seized more than her share of moments in life and struggles with love. Sometimes told in the present sometimes in recollection with historical and political touch points a celebration o
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Feb 05, 2011
John
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The variety of styles and historical contexts in de Bernieres' work is quite astonishing. This (by his standards) rather slight novel is based in London, although with strong links to the Balkans and to the wars and regions which have been one area of the author's interests. An enjoyable exploration of the nature of love, with some exploration too of the life of an illegal immigrant. A pleasant, if not memorable read: not one of his best novels like the almost equally recent Birds without Wings
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Mar 12, 2009
Manussawee
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It was an ok book. Nothing great.
The story revolved around Chris, a middle-ager Brit, and Roza, a Yugoslav girl. Chris was in an unhappy marriage with "the Great White Loaf." He was seeking a prostitute when he ran into Roza on the street and mistaken her for one (well, we're not so sure if she was one). They were drawn to each other because Chris was unhappy and Roza was bored. Chris became Roza's audience, while Roza gave Chris something interesting to cling on to. More...
The story revolved around Chris, a middle-ager Brit, and Roza, a Yugoslav girl. Chris was in an unhappy marriage with "the Great White Loaf." He was seeking a prostitute when he ran into Roza on the street and mistaken her for one (well, we're not so sure if she was one). They were drawn to each other because Chris was unhappy and Roza was bored. Chris became Roza's audience, while Roza gave Chris something interesting to cling on to. More...
Nov 26, 2008
Tony
rated it:
Bernieres, Louis de. A PARTISAN’S DAUGHTER. (2008). ****. This is the author’s latest book, and once again demonstrates his skill at carrying the reader along with simple dialog. It is the story of Christopher and Roza. Christopher is a bored pharmaceutical salesman in London who suddenly decides to do something different. He is plagued with a wife at home who has become indifferent to him and to the world. He refers to her as, “a great loaf of white bread.” Now he believes it is time t
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Aug 10, 2011
Paul
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In A Partisan’s Daughter we are presented with two narrators. The first, Christian (Chris for short), seems to be writing now (i.e. in the early 21st century) about his relationship at the end of the Winter of Discontent (i.e. 1978-79) with the eponymous partisan’s daughter, Roza. ‘’I am not the sort of man who goes to prostitutes’’ he begins, and then admits that people would disbelieve it.
Chris describes the loneliness of his life at the time, married to the ‘Great White Loaf’, an i More...
Chris describes the loneliness of his life at the time, married to the ‘Great White Loaf’, an i More...
Jul 28, 2011
Chris a gentleman in his mid forties unhappily married in a loveless marriage meets a woman named Roza dressed up as a prostitute standing on a street corner. He picks her up but the woman tells him that she is an ex prostitute. Chris drives her home and the two share a cup of coffee. From their a platonic relationship develops. Chris is married to a woman he calls the "Great White Loaf" the marriage is sexless and loveless. He makes his living by selling medical equipment to physician
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Dec 04, 2010
Felice
rated it: 
My very pleasant experiences with novelist Louis de Bernières' books have led me to expect engaging, well upholstered stories with unforgettable characters. Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Birds Without Wings, etc. are all novels that dissect a community's history using romance, comedy, tragedy, war and global politics. In A Partisan's Daughter his cast is much smaller, tiny even, but he uses the same emotional touchstones.
Roza is a wily twenty something Yu More...
Roza is a wily twenty something Yu More...
Apr 22, 2009
Alex R
rated it:
To tell the truth, the only reason I bought this book in the first place was because I had a coupon that I was itching to spend, and this was the first book I could find that looked remotely interesting. Afterwards, it sat in my room, gathering dust, until I decided to organize my book collection in my closet into read and to-read. I made a promise to myself that before I buy another book, I must get through all my to-reads and not be wasteful. This was the first book I chose from my "to-re
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Dec 19, 2008
Dale
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A Partisan's Daughter is the latest novel by Louis de Bernieres, the first since Birds Without Wings. It is a very small novel, almost a novella. Set in the late 70s and early 80s, it is the story of a young Serbian woman, Roza, who is living illegally in Britain and Chris, a middle-aged traveling salesman who has become besotted with her. He visits her whenever he can (he's unhappily married) and they drink tea while she tells him stories of her life.
He is a milquetoast, kindly but More...
He is a milquetoast, kindly but More...
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Apr 19, 2009
Deb
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As the star rating indicates, this book was okay. It was interesting. It definitely falls into the category of "literary fiction," as if it were more important, or better than, say, chick lit or YA or fantasy. Sometimes, these books are better than your average bear of a chick lit novel. This one wasn't. Like I said, it was okay. I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own, but my wonderful friend Aimee sent it to me for my bday. And it was interesting enough. I finished it in a fe
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Jul 31, 2011
Connie
rated it:
While many may have expected a war-themed or a similar novel of epic proportions after Mandolin, de Bernieres attempts the whimsical and simple this time. Though readers' disappointment may be expected, it is a commendable effort of a direct change in writing style and how the narrative is told from both the characters' perspectives. The two main (in fact, only) characters here are Roza and Chris, and the story balances both distinct personalities and rides on the strength of character developme
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Dec 07, 2008
Mel
rated it:
I picked this one up because I thought the time - London in the '70s - might be a really provocative look into the pre-punk scene. And there are slivers of insight into how insular it was to be living on the fringes of society in "squats" (before the govt eventually tore down all the relics whose tie to greatness was that folks like Joe Strummer lived in the old buildings once upon a time).
The story is a romance told from both perspectives but looking back. We realize that More...
The story is a romance told from both perspectives but looking back. We realize that More...
Mar 16, 2009
John
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jul 14, 2010
Beejay
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I wish I could give this book three and a half stars. I certainly more than "liked" it, and it was one of those books which you just want to read and read, not put down at all, but it's somehow not quite a four star for me.
The writing is very, very "simple", quite a contrast to my last read, "We Need to Talk About Kevin". The two narrators use simple, straightforward language to express simple, straightforward thoughts. And therein lies the cleverne More...
The writing is very, very "simple", quite a contrast to my last read, "We Need to Talk About Kevin". The two narrators use simple, straightforward language to express simple, straightforward thoughts. And therein lies the cleverne More...
Jun 25, 2010
Jenny
rated it:
I noticed on Amazon that there are very few 5 star reviews of this book. The difference between those who liked it enough to give it 4 stars and who did not seems to be whether or not the reader believed in the characters. I have to say that I am in the non-believer camp.
I found the premise that we are reading the memoirs of an old man who is looking back on the relationship he had with a young woman during a period of midlife crisis in his 40s ordinary. However, the novel did n More...
I found the premise that we are reading the memoirs of an old man who is looking back on the relationship he had with a young woman during a period of midlife crisis in his 40s ordinary. However, the novel did n More...
Jun 18, 2010
Shane
rated it:
This could have been a powerful story if written better. Two damaged people meet in the most unlikely situation - he (an unhappily married Englishman) trying to pick her up thinking she is a hooker, and she (a Yugoslav refugee and a Tito partisan's daughter) pretending to be one. They end up at her place and she tells him a series of harrowing adventures, from childhood to the present, which only results in making him fall in love with her.
The stories are a catharsis for her; they on More...
The stories are a catharsis for her; they on More...
Feb 09, 2010
Zee
rated it:
I was quite surprised at the tone of this book, partly because I have read most of his previous novels and loved the spicy, mediterranean zest that he conveys so well. Contrary to his earlier work, I believe this book is much more subdued.
De Bernieres has the wonderful ability to convey cultures, and people's of those cultures with uncanny accuracy. The era the book is set in, and the countries it looks at (Thatcher-era Britain and the Yugoslavian Tito-era War) is a time plagued wit More...
De Bernieres has the wonderful ability to convey cultures, and people's of those cultures with uncanny accuracy. The era the book is set in, and the countries it looks at (Thatcher-era Britain and the Yugoslavian Tito-era War) is a time plagued wit More...
Mar 09, 2009
Chris is a man in classic midlife crisis. His marriage is loveless, and his salesman job more or less meaningless. At least that's the picture the reader is presented with at the opening of A Partisan's' Daughter. When Chris meets Roza, a woman he mistakes for a prostitute, he falls into a kind of obsession that sees him returning again and again to listen to stories from her past that she uses to keep him coming back. It’s an odd kind of almost virtual love affair predicated on repression and s
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Jan 08, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
rated it:
Though it treads little new ground, this lingering account of a tortured love affaira [gripping] study in frustration, both sexual and romantic (London Times)also meditates on the art and power of storytelling and the myths of East versus West. However, critics observed that de Bernires spends a great deal of time on Rozas Yugoslavian yarns, which are largely irrelevant to the plot, and not enough on Chris and Roza. They also found fault with these relatively unsympathetic characters: sever
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Aug 09, 2010
Rob
rated it:
In the late 1970s in wintry London, fortyish salesman Chris detests his life; he loathes his job and hates his marriage; though widower status gives him some hope to get past the despair of being with the "Great White Loaf" late wife. Discontented with his lot he keeps asking himself is that all there is?
When he spots Yugoslavian expatriate Roza walking, he assumes she is a hooker. He bungles his efforts to hire her services. She corrects his misconception and they begin to More...
When he spots Yugoslavian expatriate Roza walking, he assumes she is a hooker. He bungles his efforts to hire her services. She corrects his misconception and they begin to More...
Sep 17, 2011
Joe
rated it:
This book was nowhere near as good as the others that I've read by this author, he seemed to struggle to really express the inner thoughts and personalities of his two main characters, beyond what was at the surface. This made the book overly simple, slightly less interesting, and not nearly as insightful into the way people think and the world works as the other two I've read: Netherparts and Corelli's Mandolin.
Despite this, it was still enjoyable to read and moderately entertaining. More...
Despite this, it was still enjoyable to read and moderately entertaining. More...
Jun 08, 2010
Susan
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Dec 02, 2009
Donald
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 08, 2009
Meave
rated it:
The second book in this year's ToB set in 1970s England; someone has a thing.
It's all right, but nothing special. Why make it out to be some big fancy mystery when the mystery is totally impertinent to the plot? It's a total waste of tension. Or, would-be tension, there wasn't exactly tons of it here. I mean it was well written and I love histories of Serbia/Slovenia/Albania/Croatia/&c., but for such a brief book there were a lot of pointless details, and then once there was such an More...
It's all right, but nothing special. Why make it out to be some big fancy mystery when the mystery is totally impertinent to the plot? It's a total waste of tension. Or, would-be tension, there wasn't exactly tons of it here. I mean it was well written and I love histories of Serbia/Slovenia/Albania/Croatia/&c., but for such a brief book there were a lot of pointless details, and then once there was such an More...
Jun 11, 2009
Rosa
rated it:
I picked up "A Partisan's Daughter" because I had just read about the Partisans and World War II and I was interested in learning more about them and Yugoslavia. I found this book to be beautifully written. Louis de Bernieres is a great story teller. He did a wonderful job creating the two characters, Christian and Roza, and building them up to be three dimensional. Throughout the novel, Christian and Roza get to know each other by telling each other their life stories. Their love grow
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Apr 11, 2010
Stuart
rated it:
The most recent novel from the author of Corelli's Mandolin can only be described as a love story, but it's a strange, thoughtful, frequently creepy affair. Set in bleak 70's Britain, it's about a sad-sack salesman in a loveless marriage who goes out looking for a prostitute, and finds the title character instead, a mysterious younger woman from Yugoslavia who gets him tangled up in a web of her stories, some obviously false, others possibly true. Along with a satisfying (albeit sad) human story
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Oct 21, 2009
Natasha
rated it:
As depressing as this book got at some moments, I still could not put it down. I must say I grealty enjoyed the ending in the sense that I did not see it coming and when it happened I really liked the way the author ended it. Knowing that part of the world and having lived in it for some time I must say the story rang true to me, although the name of the character did not. I thought the author recreated the time in which these events took place quite well and captured the broken spirit of the pe
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Feb 11, 2009
Matthew
rated it:
I'm a big fan of de Bernieres; his Latin American trilogy was the best magical realism I've read. Corelli's Mandolin turned countless beautiful phrases and swept me up in its gripping narrative. Red Dog was a nice little homage that was fun to read in the same way as a good travel book. Birds without Wings was ambitious and sweeping but also fundamentally depressing.
A Partisan's Daughter had exceptional pacing, great attention to the details of common experience, and credible char More...
A Partisan's Daughter had exceptional pacing, great attention to the details of common experience, and credible char More...
Aug 13, 2011
Derek
rated it:
Chris sits and listens to Roza, who recounts her Yugoslav upbringing. Her tales have an almost mythic quality that de Bernieres captures so well: simple but extreme, the exaggerated blending into the credible. de Bernieres's South American trilogy and his exceptional Birds Without Wings share this quality. The problem, however, with A Partisan's Daughter is that the premise just isn't credible enough to sustain Roza's storytelling: Chris's infatuation brings him back time and again just to liste
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