Non-New Book Review: January 2009

Friday 2 January 2009

Night Soldiers by Alan Furst

This is a great read. It begins in a small town on the Danube in Bulgaria in the 1930s where local bullies don Fascist Uniforms and kill a young man. His brother, Kristo, involved in the fight with the bullies, now has no future in the village and is recruited by an agent of Soviet Russia for training as an undercover communist agent. The methods used are cruel and competitive. Kristo is sent to Spain along with others from his course and there are scenes from the defence of Madrid by the Republicans aided by international volunteers. The Russian NKVD enforces obedience and conformity mercilessly, the slightest hint of inconvenient allegiances among the men it has control of can result in execution even in the face of the enemy.

Escaping from the NKVD in Spain, Kristo reaches Paris and works as a waiter in the Brasserie Henninger (the restaurant appears in Furst's other books, eg The Polish Officer) using a false identity, with even more identities to follow as he leaves Paris in advance of the German invaders. Near the border with Switzerland

Contribute a review or two?

Why not write a review of a non-new book? I would welcome the chance to publish it on my blog.

The material should be your own, of course, and should not give away important details of the plot or include any promotional information from the book cover.

The circumstances in which you chose to read the book are interesting- so include such details if you wish. For example, I decided to read Fairness because it started with scenes in Deauville, Normandy - which I had visited.

Please give the publisher and the year of publication for clear identification, and add a mark out of ten to measure your enjoyment with ten as 'the perfect read' (Not so many in a lifetime; for an avid reader maybe one a year)

Send your review to:

halvenon@englishwordhelp.com

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More Novel Sentences

The first sentence of a book is supposed to be important in getting you to read it. Here are some first sentences:

The Horned Man by James Lasdun, 2002
One afternoon earlier this winter, in a moment of idle curiosity, I took a book from the shelf in my office, and began reading it where it fell open on a piece of compressed tissue that had evidently been used as a bookmark.

Lie in the Dark by Dan Fesperman, 1999
He began the day, as always, by counting the gravediggers out his window.

Stag Hunt by Anthony McGowan, 2004
The smiling one; the one who hurt; the shy one; the one who kissed; the one who cried.

On the Beach by Nevil Shute, 1958
Lieutenant-Commander Peter Holmes of the Royal Australian Navy awoke soon after dawn.

Novel Sentences.

Snow falling on Cedars by David Guterson, 1994.
"The accused man, Kabuo Miyamoto, sat proudly upright with a rigid grace, his palms softly on the defendant's table - the posture of a man who has detached himself in so far as that is possible at his own trial."

Chocolat by Joanne Harris, 1999
"(Feb 11th, Shrove Tuesday) WE CAME ON THE WIND OF THE CARNIVAL."

A Special Relationship by Douglas Kennedy, 2003
About an hour after I met Tony Hobbs, he saved my life.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kinsolver, 2000
"Her body moved from the frankness that comes from solitary habits."

Patrick Robertson. A tale of adventure by Brian Hennigan, 2000. "I woke at seven thirty, naked, with my right foot wedged in the top corner of the refrigerated mini-bar."

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, 1992
"She stands up in the garden where she has been working and looks into the distance."

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett, 1990
Watch.....// This is space.

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Press, 1997
"Marco da Cola, gentleman of Venice, respectfully presents his greetings."