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Tremain's writing sweeps you off like a soft stroll through fall leaves. It is completely effortless, and you are completely immersed in her world from the first page. The characters, many of whom come from different cultures and backgrounds, are real people. They just are, and you never question it. The story, although interesting, isn't the big draw here. Rather, it's Tremain's way of immediately drawing you in from the first, and somehow churning you out when she's finished, leaving you with
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I'd been wanting to read Rose Tremain for a while - an extract from one of her books was used for an unseen passage in the O-level, and I found the prose quite hypnotic (the passage was about a girl having to pick up stones for her farmer father). But this was quite a let-down. Lev, the Eastern European immigrant, is quite an unlikeable character - (view spoiler)
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Lev hat in seiner osteuropäischen Heimat keine Zukunft mehr. Seine Frau ist gestorben und es gibt für ihn dort keine Arbeit mehr. Also wagt er den Sprung ins kalte Wasser, fährt nach London, um dort den Lebensunterhalt für sich, seine Mutter und seine Tochter zu verdienen. Am Anfang ist es für ihn alles andere als leicht, da er die Sprache nicht gut spricht und sich auch sonst nur schwer zurecht findet. Doch langsam findet er seinen Weg und baut sich ein neues Leben auf, als eine andere Katastro
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Lovely, Lovely, Lovely! Thank you Melissa for having it on your shelf, because that's why I read it! It made me smell, feel, and taste London. So timely and real as it follows the immigrant journey of an Eastern European man trying to make his way in London. A book about the immigrant experience moreso the perseverence of the human spirit and the power of a dream. You will laugh. Lev will feel like a friend. And you'll wish you could go for a ride in Rudi's big American "tchevi"! To those friend
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Oct 29, 2008
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