The Little Breton Bistro. Nina George

Published: Hachette NZ
Date: April 2017
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages:292
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Source: Thanks to Hachette NZ
Rating:
                  

Marianne Messman longs to escape her loveless marriage to an uncaring husband - an artillery sergeant major named Luther. On a day trip to Paris, Marianne decides to leap off the Point Neuf into the Seine, but she is saved and while recovering in hospital comes across a painting of the tine port town of Kerdruc in Brittany and decides to try her luck on the coast.

Have you ever been desperate enough to want to escape life? To throw yourself in the Seine and end it all! No? Well Marianne does, life has passed her by, she is deeply unhappy and sees no other way out.  However when her effort to bring her sad life to a close is thwarted by a stranger she eventually finds herself on the way to Brittany and possibly ready to listen to herself and her own needs and desires.

The more I read on in this story the more I was captivated by Marianne and the people she meets up with. I loved them all and especially Emile and Pascal - one who suffers from Parkinson's and the other from Dementia but ... they are happy and love each other. 

I felt like I was there in Brittany, in the cafe, by the sea amongst the various characters. I loved seeing Marianne uncovering the things she loves and needs, the people she loves and needs. I read this book over Easter and truly if there was ever a book about death and resurrection this was it. Such an important message to us all, to live who we truly are, without worrying about what others think. 

While this may have been about a woman who needed to bring alive the powers within her, the men in the story are not left out, they too need to have the courage to live out their wildest dreams. I did despair that Jean-Remy, a young chef,  would ever get there and claim his love... 

Ultimately an uplifting and life affirming story that I'll remember for a long while.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend. Katarina Bivald

Published: Random House Audio
Date: 19th January 1916
Format:Audiobook
Narrator: Fiona Hardingham, Lorelei King
Length: 12 hrs  10 min
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Source: Thanks to eStories 
Rating:
         

It all began with a correspondence between two quite different women: 28-year-old Sara from Haninge, Sweden, and 65-year-old Amy from the small town of Broken Wheel, Iowa. After years of exchanging books, letters and thoughts on the meaning of literature and life, Sara, mousy, disheveled, who has never been anywhere in her life--has really lived only for her work in a beloved bookshop, which has just closed its doors for the last time--bravely decides to accept her unknown friend's invitation to visit. But when she arrives, she finds her house empty, the funeral guests just heading home. . . Sara finds herself alone. And what choice do the inhabitants of Broken Wheel have but to take care of their bewildered tourist? And what choice does Sara have, faced with a town where nobody reads and her desire to honour her friend, but to set up the perfect bookshop with all the books she and Amy shared--from Yann Martel's Life of Pi to Iris Murdoch and Jo Nesbo, to Bridget Jones and Doug Coupland's All Families Are Psychotic, Little House on the Prairie And then watch as the townsfolk are, one by one, transformed in unexpected ways. . .

As I listened to The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend I fell in love with this funny little Iowa town where if we're being honest the inhabitants mostly didn't really read! As the farms have been sold off the town has fallen on poorer times and there isn't too much optimism around.

At the invitation of Amy, Sarah arrives from Sweden into their midst. Amy and herself have been correspondents over their love of books and has invited Sarah to the town. Only trouble is Amy has just died as Sarah arrives in time for the mourning.  The town takes Sarah under their wing and she finds she has to pay for nothing.

The people of Broken Wheel are a motley group, there is Caroline the church warden, right and proper who has a running feud with Grace over at the diner. There is George whose wife left him and whose job it is to drive Sarah around the town wherever she wants to go. George took to the bottle when his wife left with his daughter but now he seems to be pulling himself up. There is Jen who writes the newsletter and perhaps tries to write others lives. There is John, an African American who for the first time ever felt safe in Broken Wheel and he had a special relationship with Amy.  Then there is Tom and Andy, who are about the same age as Sarah.

What Sarah does by her very being there is to bring life and new hope to the town in ways she can't even understand and its all through books. As a reader I loved this aspect and enjoyed all the bookish references and Sarah's love for books.

We get to meet Amy through her letters which are peppered throughout the story. She too has a great love for books and also has little wisdoms and insights to share about both books and the people of the town.

I found it a warm, funny story that lent itself well to being presented in audio by the two narrators. One voice for Amy's letters and the other for telling the story and all the goings on in the town. They both narrated well, Lorelei King who presented Amy's voice sounded older and warmer and really brought Amy to life. Fiona Hardingham was pleasant and differentiated the voices of the ensemble cast enough to add interest.  There presentation made me really care for the characters. 

I received this audiobook from eStories. It was a site that I found easy to use.

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I'm Still Here. Clelie Avit

Published: Hachette NZ
Date:  12th July 2016
Format: ARC Paperback
Pages: 230
Genre: Fiction
Source:Thanks to Hachette NZ
Rating:
                         

Elsa has been in a coma for five months. With all hope of reviving her gone, her family and doctors are having to face the devastating fact that it might be time to turn off her life support... They don't realise that in the past few weeks Elsa has regained partial consciousness; she knows where she is and can hear everyone talking around her bed, but she has no way of telling them she's there.

Thibault is in the same hospital visiting his brother, a drunk driver responsible for the deaths of two teenage girls. Thibault's emotions are in turmoil and, needing a retreat, he finds his way into Elsa's room. Seeing her lying there so peacefully, he finds it hard to believe she is not just sleeping.

I'm Still Here was first published in French and has now been translated into English. It is beautifully written and the story engaged me all the way through. Imagine being in a coma and being able to hear but not to be able to move anything or communicate with the outside world. Worse really than being in solitary confinement, especially as you listen to medical staff informing your family that nothing can be done, that they ought to sanction all the machines to be turned off and let you go.

The story is alternately told from two points of view. It starts with Elsa and then chapter by chapter rotates with Thibault.  When Thibault accidentally finds himself in Elsa's room he sees it as a kind of refuge. But soon he is intrigued by this girl and he talks to her in a way that no one else has. While this part could be a little far fetched the beauty of Elsa and Thibault had me totally believing!  Elsa looks forward to Thibault's visits, and her body responds in little but unmarked ways. She wants to wake, she wants to open her eyes, but can she? 

Thibault has issues with his brother a few doors down in the hospital - while driving drunk he has had an accident and killed two girls. Thibault cannot forgive him, does not want to visit him. This is how he has ventured into Elsa's room, avoiding his brother. How will all that play out?

Thibault has a married couple who are his very good friends. He is about to become the godfather of the little one and he loves her. He has always wanted children and his heart is so open to them. 

How does all this end? Well I am not giving it away. Let's just say that I was on team Thibault and up until the very end was unsure how it would all end.  If you have the chance, reach for this book, it won't take long to read, and I am sure you'll become totally charmed too.

Bride Flight. Marieke van der Pol

Bride Flight
Marieke van der Pol
Publisher: University of Western Australia
Date: 2010
Translated by: Colleen Higgins
Pages: 441
Format: Large Paperback
Genre: Fiction
Source: Local library

It is 1953, and the last great transcontinental air race from London to Christchurch is about to begin, but even before the KLM plane has left the runway, it has already become famous as the “bride flight” for its cargo of brides-to-be flying out to join their fiances on the other side of the world.

Among them are Ada, Marjorie and Esther, who all have their own reasons for wanting to leave the past behind and make a fresh start. And then there’s Frank, a charismatic bachelor with big dreams for the future, whose path will continue to cross with each of the women as they build very different lives for themselves in New Zealand. It is only when they meet again, years later at Frank’s funeral, that the three women realise just how tightly their lives have been bound together by what happened on that fateful voyage.

Bride Flight by Marieke van der Pol was recommended to me by Jannie T, one of the book bloggers I exchanged cards with over the Christmas season. She reads most of her books, if not all, in her own language.  She recommended Bride Flight as it had been translated into English and so was accessible to me.  She was delighted to recommend it to me because the book is mainly set in New Zealand.  I found it at one of our local libraries and have now read it.

It begins with a plane race in 1953, one plane brought with it the brides from the Netherlands to join their fiances.  I was a little young to remember this, but I asked some one a little older about this and he remembered it straight away.  What fascinated me was that it was completed non stop for the travellers, the plane did stop for refuelling but as far as I remember the passengers only got off once for a 30 minute stretch and also a brief stop in Australia.  If you have flown non stop from New Zealand to Europe ( in my case Ireland) then you know how taxing it is.  This group of people were on the plane for twice the length of modern flights!

The story is the story of three women who are on that flight and one man - Frank.  They are all sitting close together and as the flight takes place their lives begin an intertwining that will go on all their lives.  The book goes between the present and the past.  It opens with the three women Ada, Majorie and Esther making their way to Martinborough for the funeral of Frank.  One of my questions was why is Majorie back in the Netherlands at this point in time?  Why did she take flight back to her homeland? Gradually as the story unfolded I came to understand why.

It was fascinating for me to see how it was for these immigrants as they came to settle in New Zealand.  The author certainly did her research well as it is very authentic in terms of that time in New Zealand - I grew up in the fifties, so it was interesting to see that time through their eyes.  It recalled many things, for example no coffee in New Zealand in the '50's! And how these characters missed it.

This is a very gritty, real story - not a romance in case you have been misled by the title.  Ada is on her way to meet her husband by proxy - he belongs to the reformed church, and can I just say I did not like him!!  Ada is the best looking of the three and her beauty catches Frank's eye.  Esther is a Jew and has a background that she tries to keep the door shut on so that the monsters don't get out. She is very ambitious and soon ditches any thought of marrying.  She wants to make a splash as a top notch clothing designer.  Majorie is a Catholic and seems to get the best husband Hans.

The complicated relationships, backgrounds and odd group of people make for a engaging read, I had to keep on reading to find out what happened when?  Why is it like this?  What did  she do? What did he turn out like?  Will this character reveal this particular secret or not?

This is not a book I would have picked up myself, so I am grateful for this recommendation, a book that helps me note how life can be complex and people too.  And also what is it like to be an immigrant in a new country where you are accepted but it feels like you are never quite 'one of them'.