Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

nothing to envy

North Korea is Orwell’s 1984 made reality: it is the only country in the world not connected to the internet; Gone with the Wind is a dangerous, banned book; during political rallies, spies study your expression to check your sincerity. After the death of the country’s great leader Kim Il Sung in 1994, famine descended: people stumbled over dead bodies in the street and ate tree bark to survive. Nothing to Envy weaves together the stories of adversity and resilience of six residents of Chongin, North Korea’s third largest city. From extensive interviews and with tenacious investigative work, Barbara Demick has recreated the concerns, culture and lifestyles of North Korean citizens in a gripping narrative, and vividly reconstructed the inner workings of this extraordinary and secretive country.

Scores on the doors:

Jane 9
Pauline C 9
Elaine E 10
Rebecca H 9
Janet J 7
Janine J 6 (speed read)
Sally M 9
Cai M 9
Christine P 9
Trude S. 8
June T 9

 

Cai M
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Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom

winter in madrid1940: The Spanish Civil War is over, and Madrid lies ruined, its people starving, while the Germans continue their relentless march through Europe. Britain now stands alone while General Franco considers whether to abandon
neutrality and enter the war. Into this uncertain world comes Harry Brett: a traumatised veteran of Dunkirk turned reluctant spy for the British Secret Service. Sent to gain the confidence of old schoolfriend Sandy Forsyth, now a
shady Madrid businessman, Harry finds himself involved in a dangerous game – and surrounded by memories. Meanwhile Sandy’s girlfriend, ex-Red Cross nurse Barbara Clare, is engaged on a secret mission of her own – to find her former lover Bernie Piper, a passionate Communist in the international Brigades, who vanished on the bloody battlefields of the Jarama. In a vivid and haunting depiction of
wartime Spain, Winter in Madrid is an intimate and compelling tale which offers a remarkable sense of history unfolding, and the profound impact of impossible
choices. ‘Sansom adroitly draws the disparate strands of his ambitious saga together. His non-pareil evocations of time and place anchor his characters with satisfying precision’ Independent

Scores on the doors:

Jane 8
Pauline C 8
Elaine E 8
Rebecca H 6
Janet J 8
Janine J 9
Sally M 6 or 7
Cai M 6
Christine P 7
Trude S. 7
June T 5

 

 

 

Elaine E
Score:

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

picRenee is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building, home to members of the great and the good. Over the years she has maintained her carefully constructed persona as someone reliable but totally uncultivated, in keeping, she feels, with society s expectations of what a concierge should be. But beneath this façade lies the real Renée: passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives. Down in her lodge, apart from weekly visits by her one friend Manuela, Renée lives resigned to her lonely lot with only her cat for company. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the pampered and vacuous future laid out for her, and decides to end her life on her thirteenth birthday. But unknown to them both, the sudden death of one of their privileged neighbours will dramatically alter their lives forever. The Gourmet, Muriel Barbery’s first novel is published on 1st September 2009.

Scores on the doors:

Jane 8
Pauline C 6
Elaine E 6
Rebecca H ?
Janet J 6
Janine J 6
Sally M 7
Cai M 8
Christine P 7
Trude S. ?
June T 6

Janine J
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