Tag: historical fiction

#BlogTour #BookReview Storytellers by Bjørn Larssen

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

StorytellersWelcome to the opening day of the blog tour for Storytellers by Bjørn Larssen. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy.

StorytellersAbout the Book

Would you murder your brothers to keep them from telling the truth about themselves?

On a long, cold Icelandic night in March 1920, Gunnar, a hermit blacksmith, finds himself with an unwanted lodger – Sigurd, an injured stranger who offers a story from the past. But some stories, even those of an old man who can barely walk, are too dangerous to hear. They alter the listeners’ lives forever… by ending them.

Others are keen on changing Gunnar’s life as well. Depending on who gets to tell his story, it might lead towards an unwanted marriage, an intervention, rejoining the Church, letting the elf drive him insane, or succumbing to the demons in his mind. Will he manage to write his own last chapter?

Bjørn Larssen’s award-winning, Amazon #1 best selling novel is an otherworldly, emotive Icelandic saga – a story of love and loneliness, relief and suffering, hatred… and hope.

Format: Paperback (292 pages)       Publisher: josephtailor
Publication date: 28th March 2019 Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

Find Storytellers on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

There are shades of One Thousand and One Nights with Sigurd as a latter day Scheherazade trying to eke out his story in order to give him time to execute a plan, hints of which very gradually emerge. Sigurd’s story is in the tradition of Icelandic sagas told around the fireside. I liked the way the book explored the concept of storytelling, whether as a creative act, for entertainment, to impart a moral message, as a form of self-deception (the stories we tell ourselves) or a means to spread rumour, gossip or disinformation. The inhabitants of Gunnar’s village particularly enjoy the last three.

Throughout the book Gunnar remains an eccentric, solitary and troubled character who experiences moments of extreme mental distress and struggles with addiction.  However, his generous nature means he never loses our sympathy and I’m sure I’m not the only reader willing him to resist the lure of those bottles or to share his pleasure in his nice new coat.

There are some nice touches of humour such as Gunnar’s christening of a group of well-meaning ladies whose visits he comes to dread as ‘The Constipated Hags of Iceland’ or Sigurd’s wish that Gunnar leave him alone so he can finish the ‘What Season Actually Suits Your Personality’ quiz in The Women’s Paper. Reading material is in short supply in Gunnar’s village and I think we all suspect Sigurd is definitely a (dead of) winter person. And Gunnar’s initial suggestion for a suitable name for an elf made me laugh out loud.

The author created a good sense of what daily life must have been like in a small village in Iceland in earlier times. Gunnar’s story is set in 1920 although I must say there was very little, apart from the doctor possessing a telephone and Sigurd’s reading matter, to obviously position it in that period. I found some concentration was required so as not to get confused between the characters in Sigurd’s story and Gunnar’s life. As it turns out, I needn’t have worried.

I confess it was curiosity rather than a feeling of suspense that propelled me through the book. It starts quite slowly – indeed I had some sympathy with Gunnar’s frustration at the speed of Sigurd’s storytelling. At one point, Gunnar complains to Sigurd about a lack of action scenes in the story and Sigurd replies, ‘It’s called a build-up… It’s for dramatic effect’. Storytellers would not meet my definition of a page-turner; for me it’s more a character study but no less entertaining for that. And it’s fair to say the book picks up pace in the final chapters with some last minute surprises and reveals.

In three words: Quirky, detailed, tender

Try something similar: A Stranger from the Storm by William Burton McCormick

Follow this blog via Bloglovin

Storytellers bjorn-promo-photo-2020aAbout the Author

Bjørn Larssen is a Norse heathen made in Poland, but mostly located in a Dutch suburb, except for his heart which he lost in Iceland. Born in 1977, he self-published his first graphic novel at the age of seven in a limited edition of one, following this achievement several decades later with his first book containing multiple sentences and winning awards he didn’t design himself. His writing is described as ‘dark’ and ‘literary’, but he remains incapable of taking anything seriously for more than 60 seconds.

Bjørn has a degree in mathematics and has worked as a graphic designer, a model, a bartender, and a blacksmith (not all at the same time). His hobbies include sitting by open fires, dressing like an extra from Vikings, installing operating systems, and dreaming about living in a log cabin in the north of Iceland. He owns one (1) husband and is owned by one (1) neighbourhood cat.

Connect with Bjorn
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Storytellers Full Tour Banner

#BookReview The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

whatcathyreadnext2 Comments

The ProphetsAbout the Book

The Halifax plantation is known as Empty by the slaves who work it under the pitiless gaze of its overseers and its owner, Massa Paul. Two young enslaved men, Samuel and Isaiah dwell among the animals they keep in the barn, helping out in the fields when their day is done. But the barn is their haven, a space of radiance and love – away from the blistering sun and the cruelty of the toubabs – where they can be alone together.

But, Amos – a fellow slave – has begun to direct suspicion towards the two men and their refusal to bend. Their flickering glances, unspoken words and wilful intention, revealing a truth that threatens to rock the stability of the plantation. And preaching the words of Massa Paul’s gospel, he betrays them.

The culminating pages of The Prophets summon a choral voice of those who have suffered in silence, with blistering humanity, as the day of reckoning arrives at the Halifax plantation.

Format: Hardback (400 pages)          Publisher: Quercus
Publication date: 21st January 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

Find The Prophets on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

According to the blurb, ‘Love, in all its permutations, is the discovery at the heart of The Prophets‘. There certainly is love in the book, particularly between Isaiah and Samuel, but there’s also a hell of a lot of hate, as well as obscene cruelty and racial prejudice. The author does not hold back in describing the dreadful treatment meted out to the slaves on the Halifax plantation and the suffering they endure on a daily basis. One of the most shocking aspects for me was the way in which the male slaves are treated akin to stud animals, forced to inseminate female slaves in order to create a production line as it were of future slaves.

The book is told from multiple points of view, including individual slaves, such as Maggie, Essie and Puah, and members of the Halifax household. Interspersed with these is the origin story of an African tribe in which the king is a woman and her wives are men, gender identity being one of the themes of the book. Another narrative strand recounts in detail the squalid scenes aboard a ship bringing enslaved people from Africa, an experience so horrific that many would prefer to drown themselves.

The slaves on the Halifax plantation have literally nothing, except the bare minimum of food and shelter needed to keep them alive and be productive workers. They don’t even possess their own birth names having been given new names, invariably biblical, by plantation owner Paul Halifax. Paul’s excessive religious zeal and his twisted notion that he is doing God’s will is one of the most disturbing aspects of the book.

All the characters in the book seem drawn in different ways to Isaiah and Samuel whether that’s out of curiosity, understanding, desire or opportunism. The book also illustrates the various strategies for survival the slaves adopt, such as Be Auntie’s submission, Puah’s attempts to remain unnoticed or Maggie’s hidden revenge. None of these work and the penultimate chapter of the book – Exodus – is a story of revenge, death and destruction.

Although I could appreciate the quality of the writing, I felt I couldn’t quite do the book justice, if that doesn’t sound weird. I was left with the sense there were themes I was missing because of my lack of familiarity with the biblical references. For example, the significance of the books of the Old Testament that form the titles of each chapter. I found some of the book’s highly expressive language and imagery confusing and I’ll freely admit that the last chapter completely lost me. I know there is a good and important story here; I just regret that others have found it easier to navigate and assimilate than I did.

I received a proof copy courtesy of Quercus.

In three words: Powerful, intense, eloquent

Try something similar: The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

Follow this blog via Bloglovin

Robert-Jones-Jr.-c-Alberto-Vargas-7-1About the Author

Robert Jones, Jr. is a writer from Brooklyn, N.Y. He earned both his B.F.A. in creative writing and M.F.A. in fiction from Brooklyn College. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Essence, Gawker, and The Grio. He is the creator of the social justice social media community, Son of Baldwin, which can be found on Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, Medium, Tumblr, and Twitter. He is also currently working on his second novel. (Photo/bio credit: Publisher author page)

Connect with Robert
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram