Tag: advance review copy

Review: Meeting with my Brother by Yi Mun-yol

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Autobiographical account of the impact on one family of a divided nation

Publisher’s description: A sobering yet hopeful depiction of the volatile relationship between the divided Koreas. Yi, the narrator, is a South Korean university professor searching for his father who defected to the North at the outbreak of war. Instead he finds his half-brother and their tense meeting takes a surprising turn. This semi-autobiographical account upends the West’s assumptions about North Korean life.

My Review

This is my first experience of Korean literature and, although a slim volume, I found it quite a challenging read as it contains a great deal of detail about the history and politics of Korea, notably the separation of North and South Korea and prospects for reunification. There are a lot of allegorical features with characters representing particular aspects of ideological thought, such as Mr Reunification. Similarly the two brothers really represent the two parts of the divided nation. Only a small portion of the book covers the narrator’s meeting with his half-brother and, for me, these were the most successful aspects of the book with some interesting details of Korean tradition and rituals. The other parts I found quite dry. At times I felt the book verged on political essay rather than novel. What does comes across from the two brothers’ sharing of their experiences is that the people of each part of the divided Korea have suffered as a consequence of war, retribution (the law of “guilt by association”) and economic collapse. Ultimately, grief over their father’s death and this commonality of experience brings (albeit limited) reconciliation between the divided families.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of NetGalley and Columbia University Press.

Book facts: Publication date 4th April 2017, translated by Heinz Insu Fenkl with Yoosup Chang

My rating: 3 (out of 5)

In three words: Didactic, autobiographical, informative

About the Author

Yi Mun-yol was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1948 but the outbreak of the Korean War and his father’s defection to North Korea forced his family to move about until they settled in Yeongyang, his family’s ancestral seat.  He has written several novels and more than fifty novellas and short stories.

Book Review: In the Name of the Family by Sarah Dunant

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namefamily Thrilling exploration of the House of Borgia’s doomed years

About the Book

Description (courtesy of Goodreads): `It is better to be feared than loved’ – Niccolo Machiavelli. It is 1502 and Rodrigo Borgia, a self-confessed womaniser and master of political corruption is now on the Papal throne as Alexander VI. His daughter Lucrezia, aged twenty-two, already thrice married and a pawn in her father’s plans, is discovering her own power. And then there is Cesare Borgia: brilliant, ruthless and increasingly unstable; it is his relationship with the diplomat Machiavelli which offers a master class on the dark arts of power and politics. What Machiavelli learns will go on to inform his great work of modern politics, The Prince.  But while the pope rails against old age and his son’s increasing maverick behaviour it is Lucrezia who will become the Borgia survivor: taking on her enemies and creating her own place in history.

Book Facts

  • Format: Hardcover
  • No. of pages: 480
  • Publication date: 2nd March 2017
  • Genre: Historical Fiction

My Review (4 out of 5)

This is the second in Sarah Dunant’s series of book about the Borgias but it works perfectly well as a standalone novel. However, on the strength of this, I will definitely be adding the earlier one, Blood & Beauty, to my TBR pile.

Sarah Dunant injects colour and life into a cast of real life characters who were already pretty colourful.

Rodrigo Borgia, risen to become Pope Alexander VI, despite siring illegitimate children, including Cesare and Lucrezia, with a series of mistresses:

‘For all the bombast and hyperbole about the wonders of Rome, it was Valencia that had made Rodrigo Borgia what he is: a man in love with women, wealth, orange blossom and the taste of sardines.’

Cesare Borgia, the brilliant soldier and tactician who eschews sleep in order to wrong-foot his enemies (and sometimes his allies):

‘This is who he is, who he has always been, pressing onwards, thinking on his feet, delighting in being three steps ahead of the next man. If there is any other way of living then Cesare Borgia does not know it.’

The beautiful Lucrezia Borgia, ‘the family’s prize marriage pawn’, deployed like a weapon in pursuit of the Borgias territorial ambitions:

‘The Pope’s daughter conquering city after city with charm rather than cannon.’

The story of the Borgias has it all: intrigue, murder, betrayal, corruption, power, politics, jealousy, revenge and…a bit more murder for good measure. The author does a good job of guiding the reader through the power struggles, alliances, territorial gains and losses whilst keeping the entertainment level high.  Perfect for lovers of historical fiction, my only reservation with the book is that it ends quite suddenly, skipping forward ten years to a short epilogue. I would have liked to learn in more detail what happened to Lucrezia and Macchiavelli in the intervening years.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Little Brown Group/Virago, in return for an honest review.

In three words: Epic, colourful, well-researched

Try something similar…Blood & Beauty: The Borgias by Sarah Dunant

 dunantAbout the Author

Sarah Dunant is the author of the international bestseller The Birth of Venus, which has received major worldwide acclaim and In the Company of the Courtesan. With the publication of Sacred Hearts, she rounds out a Renaissance trilogy bringing voice to the lives of three different women in three different historical contexts. Sarah Dunant’s tireless research has resulted in vivid reconstructions of womens’ secret histories in the characters of a Florentine Noblewoman, a Venetian Courtesan and with Sacred Hearts the spellbinding and fascinating lives of the Sisters of Santa Caterina. Her earlier novels include three Hannah Wolfe crime thrillers, as well as Snowstorms in a Hot Climate, Transgressions, and Mapping the Edge, all three of which are available as Random House Trade Paperbacks. She has two daughters, and lives in London and Florence.

Author Website

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