Ana Imagined

by Perrin Ireland

Perrin Ireland's debut novel yells the story of two women brought together by the galvanizing forces of war and imagination.

Anne is a privileged writer living in Cambridge and still tormented by a brutal act from her past. Ana is a cosmopolitan Muslim poet living in Sarajevo and enjoying a comfortable middle-class existence. Both are irrevocably changed when the peace of Sarajevo is shattered by snipers' bullets. Anne glimpses Ana's battered face on an evening newscast and begins to wonder how she can possibly respond to this distant suffering.

Ana becomes the story that Anne is compelled to tell. The novel she undertakes-- Ana Imagined -- is a fast-moving, vivid account of Ana's everyday life, transformed overnight by war into a struggle for all that was once taken for food, a night's sleep, an open window, a trip out for ice cream. But what begins as a wrenching tale of survival evolves into a haunting journey of discovery as Ana reveals a secret of her own. In an evocative exploration of the boundaries of compassion and love, we are left mesmerized by the fragility, and resilience, imbedded in the lives of these two women.

Genres: Fiction

216 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting structure and some well-crafted writing. The main character’s teachers and advisors were right, as is everyone who knows that you should write what you know. The human (feminine) condition is universal, that’s true, but the story of a Muslim woman as written by a White woman from New England doesn’t ring true.

“… why are you still digging? The trench is already eight feet deep. And the man said, if I find oil, the Americans will come.”

“Craig had a first wife, but Anne wasn’t threatened because the woman began letters with, ‘Spring is in the air.’”

“We know God exists because we miss him.”

[Stephanie A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in college, a random pull off the library shelf because the title, setting and cover intrigued me. It was one of the better adult books I'd read at the time -- which is to say it was better than 2 stars; I was at least interested all the way to the end -- but I can't remember a damned thing about it except a reference to being irritated if she "rolled in the wet spot" in bed, a whole new horrifying aspect to sex I hadn't even considered and a phrase that, 15 years later, I still cannot erase from my brain.

[kristan martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an interesting read, not sure that I would recommend it. I came highly recommended but for some reason, I didn't find it all that compelling.