I read Iron Curtain by #VesnaGoldsworthy. A page-turner set in the 1980s. A young privileged 'red princess' from a poor unnamed central European country elopes to London in the name of love. The sense of displacement has echoes of the Patricia Engel book I read just before this. There's also enjoyable farce here even if the clichés about the UK are laid on a little thick at times. #bookToot#bookstodon#keefsreads
Just read The Country of Others by #LeilaSlimani. Possibly for the second time. May be going mad. Anyway a young French woman falls in love in 1944 and makes a new life in Morocco. The turmoil in that relationship reflects the upheaval under French rule. I was struck by the symmetry between the dreadful way Amine, the husband treats his wife and family, and the way the colonial power treats Morocco. #bookstodon#BookToot#KeefsReads
The second book in the series, Watch us Dance, covers the family's path from poverty to affluence. Morocco is navigating its way through the early years of independence. It's a much more convincing book than the previous one. You want to know what happens to these characters amid the turbulent growing pains of the country. #LeilaSlimani#bookstodon#BookToot#KeefsReads