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sizhucchi's review against another edition
4.0
At first I had a hard time reading it--it just went maybe a little too slowly for my liking? But I also read it just after I finished three novellas that were written as fragments, vignettes, and short stream of consciousness-like styles and it was just vastly different.
The closer I got to the end of this book, the more I loved it. I highly recommend it.
The closer I got to the end of this book, the more I loved it. I highly recommend it.
chantelmccray's review against another edition
3.0
Quiet and lyrical. Beautifully written and terribly sad.
kiramke's review against another edition
2.0
An interesting lesson, and not a bad story in its bones (though a bit maudlin), but far too long. It explains itself too much, repeats and fills and drags itself too much. I think cutting fully half the writing would turn this into a powerful short story.
2.5
2.5
bookishmaggie's review against another edition
5.0
Aside from the impeccable writing and detailed descriptions of nature, the accomplishment of the novel lies in the harrowing account of abuse, the honest portrayal of grief, and the transformative power of friendship.
The part nature plays in it, being a safe haven for Raj as well as being a catastrophic force at times, encapsulates the complexity human history with nature but also with other people. When his horrifically abusive father died, he cried and wondered why, yet his relationship with nature, which killed his brothers but allowed him to hide, was much the same.
The theme of loneliness and the steps which one is willing to take to alleviate that pain is a testimony to the human need for social connection. When Raj lost his brothers, he didn’t just lose his family members but also his playmates, his protectors, the ones who looked out for him most. They were always there for him to save him from a beating, to do all the work while he went to school, to let him walk between them in the safest spot. Once he lost them, his father turned his grief into violence against Raj. Once Raj lost David, he became more like his father because he lost his innocence, his hope.
Another important aspect of this book is the inclusion of the British atrocities during the Second World War. The Allied Forces won the war and the victors are the ones who write the history books. We never hear of the Allies’ treatment toward Jews, which in this book is comparable to not only the concentration camps in German territories but modern day concentration camps in America. People being deprived of basic necessities, forced to share close quarters with contagious individuals until the whole camp become a cesspool of disease and suffering and death.
I will have this book in my heart for the rest of my life.
The part nature plays in it, being a safe haven for Raj as well as being a catastrophic force at times, encapsulates the complexity human history with nature but also with other people. When his horrifically abusive father died, he cried and wondered why, yet his relationship with nature, which killed his brothers but allowed him to hide, was much the same.
The theme of loneliness and the steps which one is willing to take to alleviate that pain is a testimony to the human need for social connection. When Raj lost his brothers, he didn’t just lose his family members but also his playmates, his protectors, the ones who looked out for him most. They were always there for him to save him from a beating, to do all the work while he went to school, to let him walk between them in the safest spot. Once he lost them, his father turned his grief into violence against Raj. Once Raj lost David, he became more like his father because he lost his innocence, his hope.
Another important aspect of this book is the inclusion of the British atrocities during the Second World War. The Allied Forces won the war and the victors are the ones who write the history books. We never hear of the Allies’ treatment toward Jews, which in this book is comparable to not only the concentration camps in German territories but modern day concentration camps in America. People being deprived of basic necessities, forced to share close quarters with contagious individuals until the whole camp become a cesspool of disease and suffering and death.
I will have this book in my heart for the rest of my life.
anetq's review
3.0
The story of a ship full of jewish refugees interned in a Mauritius prison is fascinating - after being rejected by the British in Palestine in 1944, they end up in a prison on a tropical island.
The story of the old man remembering his childhood and his meeting with a boy from that ship was... a little too long and winding for my taste. And wordy - I'm guessing it's the French literary style, but the logic seems to be: why use one word, when you can use 4, meaning the same, but adding to the atmosphere ...or boredom (in my case).
The story of the old man remembering his childhood and his meeting with a boy from that ship was... a little too long and winding for my taste. And wordy - I'm guessing it's the French literary style, but the logic seems to be: why use one word, when you can use 4, meaning the same, but adding to the atmosphere ...or boredom (in my case).
desirosie's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars
This was a terribly sad book, filled with the grief and lamentations of a young boy.
I don’t know if this is related to the original French or the translation, but I found the language hard to absorb and process.
This was a terribly sad book, filled with the grief and lamentations of a young boy.
I don’t know if this is related to the original French or the translation, but I found the language hard to absorb and process.
crabbygirl's review against another edition
1.0
it's a little known fact that jews were detained and imprisoned on mauritius, a colony of great britian, when their refugee boat to palestine was refused. this book uses this piece of history, and the subsequent death of 128 prisoners, as the backdrop to a story of a young boy looking to physically and emotionally replace the brothers he lost in a flood. there is much sadness in the piece, but it was repetitive. this may be attributed to it's translation (it was originally written in french). maybe the french have a deeper vocabulary for grief? but for me, there was too much grief, and no distraction from it.
subjectheading's review against another edition
5.0
This one is going to stay with me for a while. A beautiful book, a sad story, and some history about which I knew very little. I may actually revisit this one later when I have time again.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
5.0
‘I would have liked him to tell his story himself in his own words and with the things that he alone could see.’
This novel was inspired by the story of 1,584 Jews who fled Europe, were refused entry to Palestine (then under British rule) and were subsequently imprisoned on Mauritius from December 1940 until the end of World War II, in 1945. It recounts a heartfelt friendship between two boys: David, a one of the imprisoned Jews who is an orphan, and Raj, a Mauritian of Indian heritage who is grieving for his two brothers, lost in a flash flood.
After his brothers are drowned, Raj and his parents move to Beau Bissau where Raj’s father becomes a guard at the prison where the detained Jews are held. Raj spends much of his time peering through a fence in the prison, and this is how he meets David. The boys each recognise the other’s grief, and a period of hospitalisation in the prison infirmary draws them together. Raj, hospitalised as a consequence of his father’s beatings, is unaware of the war and the plight of the Jews and David is suffering from malaria. The boys communicate in French: ‘I’m all alone’. ‘Me too.’
Raj does not want to be alone, and he hopes to save David from prison for his sake as well as for David’s. Raj hopes as well that David can fill part of the gap in his mother’s heart:
‘I thought I could banish a little of my mother’s grief by bringing her another son, I believed this kind of thing was possible if one truly loved.’
Raj is recounting the story sixty years later as a 70 year old man, and it becomes a eulogy to David, to the 128 Jews who did not survive their imprisonment, and to Raj’s brothers Anil and Vinod.
‘Like me, my mother carried the deaths of Anil and Vinod within her,” Raj says. “You can say you are an orphan, or a widow or a widower, but when you have lost two sons on the same day, two beloved brothers on the same day, what are you? What word is there to say what you have become? Such a word would have helped us.’
As an adult, Raj is looking back on events with a greater understanding, but with no less pain. There was no escape in the past, from tragedy; there is no escape in the present from the consequences of it. The greatest loss of all, perhaps, is the loss of childhood.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
This novel was inspired by the story of 1,584 Jews who fled Europe, were refused entry to Palestine (then under British rule) and were subsequently imprisoned on Mauritius from December 1940 until the end of World War II, in 1945. It recounts a heartfelt friendship between two boys: David, a one of the imprisoned Jews who is an orphan, and Raj, a Mauritian of Indian heritage who is grieving for his two brothers, lost in a flash flood.
After his brothers are drowned, Raj and his parents move to Beau Bissau where Raj’s father becomes a guard at the prison where the detained Jews are held. Raj spends much of his time peering through a fence in the prison, and this is how he meets David. The boys each recognise the other’s grief, and a period of hospitalisation in the prison infirmary draws them together. Raj, hospitalised as a consequence of his father’s beatings, is unaware of the war and the plight of the Jews and David is suffering from malaria. The boys communicate in French: ‘I’m all alone’. ‘Me too.’
Raj does not want to be alone, and he hopes to save David from prison for his sake as well as for David’s. Raj hopes as well that David can fill part of the gap in his mother’s heart:
‘I thought I could banish a little of my mother’s grief by bringing her another son, I believed this kind of thing was possible if one truly loved.’
Raj is recounting the story sixty years later as a 70 year old man, and it becomes a eulogy to David, to the 128 Jews who did not survive their imprisonment, and to Raj’s brothers Anil and Vinod.
‘Like me, my mother carried the deaths of Anil and Vinod within her,” Raj says. “You can say you are an orphan, or a widow or a widower, but when you have lost two sons on the same day, two beloved brothers on the same day, what are you? What word is there to say what you have become? Such a word would have helped us.’
As an adult, Raj is looking back on events with a greater understanding, but with no less pain. There was no escape in the past, from tragedy; there is no escape in the present from the consequences of it. The greatest loss of all, perhaps, is the loss of childhood.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
msjoanna's review against another edition
4.0
Like many books translated from French, the sentences in this short novel tended to run long, with many commas and many clauses. Still, the translator did an excellent job making the prose feel flowing and poetic rather than stiff and wordy.
I found both the subject and the style interesting. The book traces the story of Raj, a native of Mauritius and his retelling of meeting a Jewish exile sixty years earlier. I had no idea that a boat full of Jewish exiles were sent from Palestine to Mauritius during WWII. Actually, I'm not sure I'd ever heard of Mauritius until I heard about this book.
When I started the book, I objected to the structure (i.e., that the book is a telling by a seventy-year-old Raj of events that occurred sixty years earlier). Generally, I find novels in flashback or past tense to be overly consciously structured or boring. But the form worked for this book -- the narrative voice was strong and the ability to say that these memories may have changed over time was effective rather than annoying.
I found both the subject and the style interesting. The book traces the story of Raj, a native of Mauritius and his retelling of meeting a Jewish exile sixty years earlier. I had no idea that a boat full of Jewish exiles were sent from Palestine to Mauritius during WWII. Actually, I'm not sure I'd ever heard of Mauritius until I heard about this book.
When I started the book, I objected to the structure (i.e., that the book is a telling by a seventy-year-old Raj of events that occurred sixty years earlier). Generally, I find novels in flashback or past tense to be overly consciously structured or boring. But the form worked for this book -- the narrative voice was strong and the ability to say that these memories may have changed over time was effective rather than annoying.