Lakis Fourouklas's Blog, page 9

10 Favorite Books

This is the second list I present in this blog, and hopefully more will follow in the coming weeks. As one can guess from the title this is a list of 10 favorite books, but not The List. I have read thousands of books over the years, some new, some old, and a few ancient, so one list would never do them justice. Below you will find books that I’ve read during the last few years, and which I’d place under the label of Modern Literature. Most probably I’ll compile another couple of lists under the same label, and also, at least, one consisting of classic titles. I know that some of my selections will look strange in your eyes, but every reader is different, and good fiction has many champions out there. Now, where shall I begin? Oh, this will do…













1.    Please Look After Mon by Kyung-sook Shin. I had this book on my eReader for a long time. I knew the story, I’ve read great reviews about it, but somehow I always chose something else over it. That was until that blessed day came when I started reading and everything changed, as I found myself in reader’s heaven. If you love stories with a heart, you’ll love this book. Read my review here.







 2.    The Secret Scripture and On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry. I know that I’m cheating by placing two books by the same author in the list, but Barry is such a good writer that I don’t have too much of a choice. I remember that when I’ve first read The Secret Scripture I kept thinking, ‘No, I’m not a writer,’ since if I were to compare myself to Mr. Barry, well… You can see my review in Greek (yeah, I know, this sucks) for the latter here, while you can read about On Canaan’s Side in English right here.








 3.    Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. This is the book that made me fall in love with Japanese Literature. It consists of two novellas, the eponymous Kitchen and Moonlight Shadow. Yoshimoto is one of those writers that can easily find their ways into a reader’s heart. All her books, with the exception of Amrita, are quite short, but while reading them you always find yourself traveling into another world; a world full of thoughts, emotions, dreams, and magic. I apologize again but I don’t have a review in English. You can find one in Greek here, while you can read what I had to say about her latest book The Lake, if you follow this link.







 4.    Ocean Sea and Silk by Alessandro Baricco. Here I go cheating again. I am so so sorry. No, I am not. The truth is that I couldn’t choose between these books. The first I’ve read 14 years ago while staying at the island of Karpathos in Greece, and it got stuck in my head ever since. The second I’ve only read a couple of years ago and it rekindled my interest in Baricco’s work. Here we have an Italian author that is a master of emotions and one of the best storytellers to walk the shores of his land in the last century or so.







 5.    A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. A friend suggested Mr. Martin’s work to me a few years ago, and since I started reading him I never looked back. He is one of the finest storytellers of our times. His prose is beautiful and fluid, his action sequences are amazing, his plots are quite intriguing, while I also enjoy his sense of humor. I don’t think that many writers could produce a thick volume like A Feast for Crows, which is something like a link connecting two parts of the great story, and get away with it... in one piece. Anyway, if fantasy (and popular) fiction can be as good as this, then I say that I’m faithful fan of the genre(s).







 6.    Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle. Well, it’s always good if someone laughs every now and then, and if you read this book you’ll laugh a lot. Roddy Doyle is a great author, who’s not always at his best, but Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is considered by some as a modern classic and I totally agree with them. Perhaps I should add a book or two as companion reads, but there’s plenty of time to do that in the future.







 7.    Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I can’t explain why but this is my favorite Murakami novel. Everyone else is talking about Norwegian Wood or the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle but for me the author has reached the peak of his creativity with the book at hand. There’s no need to expand on it since you can read my review here.







 8.    No one belongs here more than you by Miranda July. Wow! What the fuck! Amazing! Yes, yes, yes! These are just a few of the expressions I’ve used while reading this great collection of short stories by the multitalented Miranda July. As I was going through her stories I felt as if she was talking directly to me, and I kept thinking that I should have been the author of most of them. As it seems Mrs. July lives in my head (and that’s not a good place to be; honestly).






9.    Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo. Rulfo writes a lot, but he writes small books. He believes that he can tell a story in a hundred pages, more or less, and I totally agree with him. Pedro Páramo is one of those books that I call ballads; a novella that talks about people and their troubles, their everyday lives, their hopes and their fears, and about love. And much more. How much can you say in a few pages? Too much actually, if you know how to say it.









10.    The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaňo. The late author was as good as they get. His knowledge was wide, his technique absolutely stunning, and his prose, at moments, simply breathtaking. The Savage Detectives is a book in love with books, but it’s also a journey, into the wilderness of a land and an era, into the joy and failures of youth, and into the abyss of the human soul. If you ever asked yourself, what is that special thing that makes literature great, all you have to do is read this novel and to get your answer.

Book Review: Deadly Heat by Richard Castle

I really loved the Heat series, until now. No, I’m not saying that all of a sudden I’ve stopped enjoying the books; I’m only saying that Deadly Heat is so predictable that it just makes no sense.

It was the suspense and the mystery that kept the pages turning in the previous novels, and these two elements seem to have gone missing from the latest installment. What’s not missing is the humor, but is that enough to keep the reader going?

My first thought, as I finished reading, was that in here we have the same heroes, more or less the same storyline, but a different author, one that’s somehow clumsy, as they give away too many clues about most of the villains, and as a result, the expected reading pleasure is nowhere to be found – perhaps Heat can look for it.

When the readers embark on a journey with the words of an author as a vehicle, they expect to be thrilled, or feel simply excited, to get to know inside out the souls of the characters, good or bad, to seek and find all the hidden clues that may or may not lead them to solving the various riddles. Well, that doesn’t exactly happen here, and that’s a shame.

I don’t want to give away any clues because that could ruin the fun for some people but, I will say though, that if the answers are going to be so obvious in almost every single question, then one shouldn’t even bother posing any questions at all.

But of course, not all is black. I’ve already said the humor is quite good and the interactions between Rook and Heat are great too; their chemistry is pretty much alive. They could do with a breath of fresh air though, something that will turn the spark into a flame again. As for the action, that’s good too, but it seems to me as though the first couple of episodes of the Castle TV Series would emerge as the big winners in a possible Mexican standoff.

I give the book three stars out of five, because no matter how hard I try I can’t say that it’s a bad book; it’s just bad if compared to the its predecessors. I hope the next one will be better and thus able to restore my faith in the power of team ‘Heat and Rook’ to impress.


Reviews of other book by same author:



Frozen Heat

A Bloody Storm

A Brewing Storm

A Raging Storm

Book Review: One More Day by Fabio Volo

I’ve always been a fan of Italian literature. But, I don’t really know what it is that makes me like books by Italian authors so much. Perhaps it’s the way they write; like good old storytellers. Perhaps it’s the subjects they occupy themselves with; like love and remembrance. Or perhaps they seem familiar to me because I also come from a country that’s washed by the Mediterranean Sea. Whatever the reason, Italian books make me feel good, and the one at hand does that better than most.

One More Day is the story of two seemingly different people that cross paths time and again. At the beginning that happens by pure luck, but as time goes by they start trying to steal glimpses of each other at any given chance. He’s Giacomo and she’s Michela, and their story is a story of love and loss, of failure and new beginnings.

As we follow the heroes from Italy to New York, and finally to Paris, we get to know them very well; and we get to like them. They are very human, full of weaknesses and fear, full of hopes and dreams. I guess one could say that the whole story revolves around dreams. The dream of getting away from everything and everyone that keeps you trapped in a cage; the dream of starting anew in a different land; the impossible dream of learning to love all over again by playing a game.

That’s what Giacomo and Michela do, they play the game of love, time and again, but not for very long. Win or lose, at first that doesn’t seem to matter to them. What matters is to get to know each other well, and to get to enjoy what each of them has to offer. They meet, they talk, they drink, they listen to great music and they make love, and the words flow like a serene stream on the page: “I wanted to become a hunter of emotions and memories,” he says. “We have been kicked outside of ourselves,” she states. “She was the door I had the courage to open,” he thinks and smiles.

I could keep writing quotes for a long time, but I won’t do it, since some of the magic of this book can be found in them, and I wouldn’t like to take that pleasure away from you.

I will tell you though, that if you are someone who enjoyed movies like Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight (yes, that great Paris trilogy), you will love this book. The prose is exquisite, the plot is simple and yet intriguing, and the feelings are as real as one could ever find in the pages of a novel. The author seems to inhabit the bodies and the souls of his characters and thus manages to give us a story that’s hard to forget. This novel is a must-read for me.

It has taken me a long time to finish this novel, but that was only because I was so enthralled by its heroes and their world that I wished it could go on and on. Of course, there are other books, as there are other stories; stories that remind us about the most important things in life; like how much it matters to be our own selves and chase our own impossible dreams. Just like Giacomo and Michela did.

Samuel Johnson Prize 2013 Shortlist

We are well into Award Season now, so yet another shortlist of books nominated for a prize has just been announced; the one for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize, which is very special in a way, since it doesn't include any fiction titles among the contenders. The winner will be revealed on November the 4th. You can see the shortlisted books below:



David Crane - Empires of the Dead
William Dalrymple - Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan
Dave Goulson - A Sting in the Tale
Charlotte Higgins - Under Another Sky
Lucy Hughes-Hallett - The Pike
Charles Moore - Margaret Thatcher

Book Review: Psychos: Serial Killers, Depraved Madmen, and the Criminally Insane by John Skipp

Do you love crime stories? How much do you enjoy tales of horror? Do the storytellers of old still fascinate you? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you’ll definitely like Psychos.

Serial killers, psychologically disturbed people, fundamentalists of sorts and other deranged souls are the heroes, or rather the villains and some of the victims, in these stories; stories that take us back and forth in time, and which talk about witch hunts, possessed bodies and souls, ruthless killers, pedophiles and the workings of some of the most twisted brains literature, or the real world even, had ever seen.

It’s not easy to pick a favorite story here. What you can do is just steal moments from here and there, enjoy a turn of phrase or another, and stop to think about what is it that makes the minds of the villains turn. Do they seek pleasure, or redemption? Do they fully comprehend the consequences of their actions? What their lives would be like if they’d grown up under different circumstances?

There are no easy answers to these questions, but reading through these stories we do get to know better how a criminal mind works. To borrow the words of John Skipp, this is:

A staggering thirty-eight-course banquet of literary mania and mayhem, served up by some of the most amazingly astute, deeply disturbing, immensely entertaining chronicles of crazy ever to grace the printed page.

We have Edgar Allan Poe telling us the story of the Hop-Frog, a king’s fool or jester, who:

…was so inventing in the way of getting up pageants, suggesting novel characters, and arranging costumes, for masked balls, that nothing could be done, it seems, without his assistance.

Of course that is to change dramatically in the future, since that’s how things work in literature, and the jester will turn avenger, spreading mayhem and terror all over the land.

The people in these stories are simple souls or adventurers, men with honor or without, fearless sometimes, but mostly scared of everyone and everything, especially their surroundings.

´This place has an evil name among seafaring men, sir.’ Then he said to me, very gravely, ´Don’t you feel anything?’—as if the air about as was actually poisonous. Now, you mustn’t laugh when I tell you this—I did feel something like a sudden chill.

That happens in The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, while Laura Lee Bahr narrates the story of Ruby, The Liar. Instead of telling you something about her story I’ll let her do the honors:

I know there is a darkness in people who pretend to be light. I know there is blood behind the smiles. I know there is evil cloaked in good. I know people think I am bad, and perhaps I am. But perhaps they prefer to think me bad and to call me that, than to see that I am a mirror of their hypocrisy. They call me a liar, but they are the liars… I want them to hurt.

Ruby really knows what she wants, doesn’t she? And she does sound scary as hell. Murder for Beginners by Mercedes M. Yardley has some unconventional heroes too, and with a weird sense of humor.

“Aw, Jaye, you never let me have any fun.”
“Hey, I let you go at it for a while, didn’t I? You can’t say I’m not gracious.” This spoken from a woman holding a bloody shovel over a dead man.
“True,” Dawn agreed, “Very gracious.”
They grinned at each other.

And the journey continues. Next stop: Laurence Block and In for a Penny, the story of Paul who:

…was like an acrophobe edging along a precipitous path, scared to look down, afraid of losing his balance and falling accidentally, afraid too of the impulse that might lead him to plunge purposefully into the void.

Neil Gaiman, one of the great storytellers of our times, has something to say about Feminine Endings. This story, of a man obsessed with a woman, is in the form of a letter.

Shall I write about you?

About me?

First you.

I love your hair, long and red. The first time I saw you I believed you to be a dancer and I still believe you have a dancer’s body. The legs, and the posture, head up and back. It was your smile that told me you were a foreigner, before ever I heard you speak… I see you as a code to be broken, or as a puzzle to be cracked… I love you, and it is my love for you that drives me to know all about you… Soon, I hope, you will know this for yourself.

There are so many good stories in here that it would take ten articles this size to mention or quote them all. So, I’ll just close this piece by saying that if you are going to buy a short story collection this year let it be this. It’s definitely worth the money and it promises to give you many hours of pleasurable reads and plenty of thrills.

10 Favorite Movies

This is in no way a definitive list. I’ve watched too many good movies over the years and as you can very well understand it’s next to impossible to include them all in a list. I could include them in many lists though and that’s exactly what I plan to do.

Movies have changed a lot in the last few years, especially the ones made in the US. We live in a technology and effects driven universe, where the magical word is an acronym, CGI. But, we also live in a world in which some of the best story-telling takes place on TV. So, it would be a mistake not to create a list consisting of favorite TV shows as well; a mistake I do not intend to make. But, for the time being, that will have to wait.



Here’s my list of ten favorite movies, part 1:







1.    The Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended version). When I think about these movies only one word comes to mind: outstanding. Peter Jackson did an amazing job with the material, while some of the actors gave some of their best performances on the big screen. The sets, the music and the cinematography were simply brilliant and they really did the book justice. Perhaps I’ll write a separate article about these films in the near future.



Links: IMDB, Wikipedia







2.    Face/Off. The greatest action film ever made, at least according to me. From the scenario to the directing, from the acting to the action sequences this was truly an amazing piece of work. Both John Travolta and Nicolas Cage where amazing, their Mexican standoff carried the term to a new level, and the scene with the boy listening to “Wonderful World”, with bullets flying all around is one that sticks to mind. John Woo has brought action magic to the west.



Links: IMDB, Wikipedia









3.    Old Boy. It took me a long time to watch this movie and when I finally did (while waiting for my connecting flight at an airport) I came to realize why everyone I’ve ever met said good things about it. In this movie there’s a little bit of everything: great drama, a few laughs, lots of action, some sex and truly damaged characters. If this was written by someone in the west a happy ending would be hard to avoid. But, I’m afraid that, despite the Forrest Gump wisdom, life is not a box of chocolates.



Links: IMDB, Wikipedia







4.    Midnight in Paris. Woody Allen is one of my favorite cinematographers. He’s clever and funny and when he was younger he could really act well. In this movie he doesn’t act, he just writes and directs and he does a great job. Part nostalgic and part romantic this story is all about Paris. But it’s also about authors and literature, and about someone following his dreams in life. Owen Wilson gives a quiet, convincing performance that’s miles away from his other roles. He seems to feel very comfortable in his Woody Allen shoes, and that’s good for him.



Links: IMDB, Wikipedia







5.    Shinjuku Incident. I know that the selection of this movie will come as a surprise to many, but the truth is that in my eyes Jackie Chan is one of the best actors that ever walked the face of earth. He’s good at action, great at comedy and simply incredible when it comes to drama. He can act with his whole body, and as someone who doesn’t need the help of stuntmen to pull off a trick or take part in an action scene, he’s way better than any actor in the west. The movie at hand is a drama, but his performance is a wonder.



Links: IMDB, Wikipedia









6.    All About My Mother. Pedro Almodóvar is one of those directors that are more interested in telling a story than impressing the viewer. Some of these stories are hilarious, and some are bound to make you cry. But, stories they are; with a beginning, a middle and an ending. This is a tender tale that’s even managed to impress the members of the Academy and thus became an Oscar winner. Watch and feel.



Links: IMDB, Wikipedia







7.    Ghost in the Shell. An animated movie from Japan that will take your breath away. If you liked watching the Matrix probably you’ll love this predecessor. The Wachowskis’ definitely borrowed things from this amazing movie, that’s full of action and philosophy, and which when it comes to sci-fi is one of its greatest gems. I am certain that once you watch this film, your perception about action films and animation in the western world will change, though not in a good way. And what’s even better is that there is a sequel to feed your hunger; Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, as well as some episodes from an animated TV series.



Links: IMDB, Wikipedia







8.    Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Vampires have gone mainstream these days. They are everywhere; on TV, in lots and lots of books and of course on the big screen. Vampires sell, but today’s versions of them are somewhat mellowed, or the actors that are playing them are not up to the task. In Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola gave us one of his best movies. In here there’s the perfect mix of drama, action, humor, sound and cinematography, while the performances are absolutely brilliant.



Links: IMDB, Wikipedia









9.    Benny & Joon. Now, this a movie that not many people would expect to see in this list, and yet here it is. Johnny Depp gives one of the best performances of his career in a movie that’s quiet and deeply human. Here the world’s favorite pirate acts with his whole body, as a Buster Keaton of the modern age, and his character gives the heroine an invaluable gift; the gift of love.



Links: IMDB, Wikipedia











10.    Avatar. I have to be one of the few people in the world that think that the Titanic is a mediocre movie. However, when it comes to Avatar I think it’s one of the best I have ever seen. And it’s not only the animation that excites me; it’s the whole concept. This is one of those movies that make you dream; that take away all your troubles and for a little while let you inhabit a different, magical world. Great images, amazing story, a movie for the ages and for all ages.



Links: IMDB, Wikipedia

The 2013 National Book Award Longlists

The 2013 National Book Award Longlists were announced yesterday. Below you'll find the selected titles in the fiction category. If you want to view the full lists you can visit the official site. The shortlist is expected to be revealed by October 16 and the winners on November 20.



Tom Drury - Pacific
Elizabeth Graver - The End of the Point
Rachel Kushner - The Flamethrowers
Jhumpa Lahiri - The Lowland
Anthony Marra - A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
James McBride - The Good Lord Bird
Alice McDermott - Someone
Thomas Pynchon - Bleeding Edge
George Saunders - Tenth of December
Joan Silber - Fools

Book Review: Atticus Claw Breaks the Law by Jennifer Gray

Atticus Claw Breaks the Law by Jennifer Gray is a story about a couple of criminal masterminds that belong to the animal world, a cop who’s desperate to get a promotion and a couple of kids who would do anything to shed light on a mystery.

The first thought that crossed my mind when I saw this book was: this sounds fun. And it is fun. But, it’s also thought provoking, deeply human and, unavoidably, feline.

Meet Atticus Grammaticus Cattypuss Claw, a cat unlike any other. Atticus is a thief and a cosmopolitan, somebody who likes to live as a prince. At the beginning of the story we find him living the big life in Monte Carlo, but before that he’s been to Moscow and Milan, Montreal, Miami and Madrid. He’s been all over the world.

He doesn’t need anyone, but apparently someone needs him. Thus he receives a message delivered by a pigeon that summons him to the little English town of Littleton-on-Sea, for a job. As he reads the message with one eye he watches the messenger with the other:

The pigeon shivered. He blinked at Atticus. He had been told to deliver the note to a brown-and-black-striped tabby with a chewed ear, four white socks and a red handkerchief with its name embroidered on it tied around its neck. He was sure he’d got the right cat. It looked a nasty piece of work; but then most cats did as far as he was concerned.

Yep, the pigeon got it right. But it didn’t know what else to say to the cat, apart from what was on the message, and it was that last line that caught Atticus’ eye: It will be worth your while.

So he shoos the pigeon away and then hops on a train that takes him to the northern coasts of France from where he sails to England. He hitches another couple of rides and to Littleton-on-Sea he arrives, where he meets the customers, a gang of magpies. Jimmy is the leader of the pack.

Atticus thought about walking away. He’d never worked for a bird before. People: often; dogs: sometimes; cats: occasionally, and once a pig who paid him to steal every truffle in Italy — but never a bird! A cat working for a magpie? The idea was ridiculous. And yet… Atticus’s curiosity got the better of him again.

But it’s not just his curiosity that makes him take the deal, it’s the reward as well: six sardines for each item he steals. What more can a cat ask for? A home, of course. So he sets off to find a family to adopt. And soon enough he finds his targets; a couple of kids, a boy and a girl, walking with their nanny home.

What he doesn’t know though is that they are the Cheddars, the kids of a police inspector. When he finds out though he’s more than happy to remain exactly where he is, since he thinks: “…where better to hide from the law than right under its nose?”

Sooner rather than later he gets to work. And the first job is way too easy for someone as talented as him: “Humans would call it a piece of cake. He called it a piece of stake.”

Well, Atticus feels happy at first in his new home, as well as with the working conditions. The kids and their mom love him, and so does the nanny; the inspector not so much but that’s okay. And the sleepy little town is not that boring after all. The people are kind of strange, but so what? People are strange everywhere.

Soon enough though things will begin to change, as he’ll start to have feelings for the kids, and he’ll also meet a lovely lady that will bring his romantic self to life. And at the same time he’ll start having trouble with his employers. They simply make him mad. And they’re stupid. Well, most of them are, apart from Jimmy; he’s not only clever but also dangerous; he can smell it.

But what is a cat to do? The truth is that he can, and he’ll do a lot, and then some more; and he’ll have the biggest adventure of his life, during which quite a few things will change in his psyche.

In this book we have all the ingredients of a great story: stupid cops and brilliant villains; feelings of pure love and deep hatred; many twists and turns and a grand finale that can take the cat’s, (sorry, I mean the reader’s), breath away.

Book Review: Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King

Garment of Shadows is the 12th novel in a series starring Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes.

In a strange room in Morocco, Mary Russell is trying to solve a pressing mystery: Who am I? She has awakened with shadows in her mind, blood on her hands, and soldiers pounding on the door. Out in the hive like streets, she discovers herself strangely adept in the skills of the underworld, escaping through alleys and rooftops, picking pockets and locks. She is clothed like a man, and armed only with her wits and a scrap of paper containing a mysterious Arabic phrase. Overhead, warplanes pass ominously north.

Meanwhile, Holmes is pulled by two old friends and a distant relation into the growing war between France, Spain, and the Rif Revolt led by Emir Abd el-Krim-who may be a Robin Hood or a power mad tribesman.

And thus the action begins. I need to admit that this is the first novel of the series that I’ve read and I just have to point out that I really enjoyed it. The author doesn’t only seem to know her subject well, but is also quite capable of creating a compelling background for the story. As for her eye for detail, well, I’ll let the writing do the talking:

I lifted a hand to shade my eyes, and squinted at the view: a dirty, cobbled lane far too narrow for any motorcar. One could have passed an object between opposing windows—had there been windows. I saw only one, higher even than mine, tiny and tightly shuttered. I could see two entranceways off this diminutive alley: One had been painted with brightly colored arabesques, long ago, and comprised a small door inside a larger one, as if the carpenter had learned his craft on castles and cathedrals. The door across from it was a single rectangle, black wood heavily studded with rusty iron circles the size of my thumb-nail. Around them, grubby whitewash, a fringe of grass on the rooflines, chunks of plaster flaking from walls that bulged and slumped.

But, even though Mary Russell can observe her surroundings, she seems unable to see the overall picture of the place:

The knowledge of where was just beyond my grasp, like an elusive name on the tip of one’s tongue. Similarly, how I came to be here. And what had been so urgent it drove me to my feet. Or why I had blood on my hands.

The mystery of where will not take too long to be solved, she’s in the Moroccan city of Fez, but the answers to the rest of her questions will not come easily.

I paused to survey the city before me, nestled in the lap of the hills. Fez was a hortus conclusus writ large, a garden walled around by hills, set about with a myriad of the fountains and streams that define luxury to a desert-dwelling people. Fez was a closed garden composed of ten thousand closed gardens, a mosaic of rooftops built out of a million mosaics, a place complex and hidden, layer upon layer of hidden life.

Despite the breathtaking scenery Mary knows she’s on the run, but from whom and why she knows not. Her memory is failing her, probably that nasty wound on the head has something to do with it, however her intellect is alive and kicking and that’s exactly what will keep her going until she finds the truths she deserves.

But while she tries to find out her hows and whys her husband, Sherlock, is trying to discover her whereabouts. He’s just got back to Rabat, where Mary was supposed to be taking part in the shooting of a movie, only to find out that she went missing. According to the witnesses, while in the desert, a young boy visited her with a message, and, she just got up left, leaving behind nothing but a note that said that she was going to Fez. Who was the boy? What did he say to make her give up everything and follow him? And who was it that sent him to her?

Well, the famous detective has no other choice but follow the only lead that’s come to his attention. So he travels to Fez in search of his ex-apprentice and current wife, a woman who in his own eyes looks more formidable than himself.

His journey will lead him to some old friends and create for him a few new enemies; but at the same time it will provide the reader with the opportunity to learn a little bit about the history of the country (the events take place in 1924), and it will also teach him a couple of things about the famous divide and conquer rule of the European countries, that would plague the Arab and the African world for years to come.

Russell and Holmes, as they like to call each other, make a great couple of fighters and investigators, but in my eyes the most important elements in this story are the historical background and the location. There’s plenty of action and quite a few twists and turns, but it is Morocco, with all its beauty and its harshness that makes this story such a pleasure to read.

As for the rest of the characters: The boy, the rebels, the colonizers, the bandits, they all have something to offer to the plot. And when they turn from guest stars into central figures the action really explodes.

After reading this book I couldn’t help but wonder about what this amazing heroine has been up to in the past. If time allows it I will travel back and find out.

The Man Booker Shortlist 2013

The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize has been announced today. According to the bookies the favorite book to win is Jim Crace's Harvest. One way or another the winner, who will receive £50,000, will be announced on the 15th of October. Here's the shortlist:




The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Harvest by Jim Crace

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín (read my review here)