Deluged With Books Cafe

Family sagas sometimes leave me feeling bitter sweet but it is combined with such pleasant weariness that I keep devouring more. The Poet’s Wife brings us to the world of Granada, Spain in the 1920s and onwards to the heart of Fidel Castro’s regime where a family villa, Carmen de las Estrellas, and its residents bore the earlier happy days of freedom and later on the ravages of civil war. It seemed quite a minuscule spot, spanning almost fifty years, in that period of Spanish history but a minuscule window worth peeping into. I am not certain I have read much books related to this turbulent time in Spain for most books easily found around bear stories of the Nazi regime so this is a novel read for me. From mother to daughter to granddaughter; three generations of women giving voice to their own views and experiences amidst the turmoil. Every chapter is emotional; in the beginning palpable and tentative till you reach the middle and from thereon it becomes a tumble, waves ...

Oh Hyun Woo, a political activist, has served nearly twenty years of a life sentence, but when the Korean government relaxes its stance on such dissidents, he finds himself up for release. While he was growing old on the inside, though, things on the outside have changed, and he is soon adrift in a world full of noise and activity, multi-storey apartment blocks and mobile phones. As he struggles to adjust to the present, and to consider his future, Mr Oh is also forced to examine the past: family members he's lost, one way or another; friends he's no longer in touch with; comrades who have died or moved on - and the loss of the love of his life: it may have been two decades since they were together, but some relationships leave their mark no matter what.( Goodreads.com )