Sky above the Roof - Libroj.org

144 paĝoj

Lingvo: English

Eldonita je 14-a de decembro 2023 de Graywolf Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-64445-225-7

(1 recenzo)

It all begins with a crash.

One night, seventeen-year-old Wolf steals his mother's car and drives six hundred kilometres in search of his sister, who left home ten years ago. Unlicensed and on edge, he veers onto the wrong side of the road and causes an accident. He is arrested, imprisoned, and leaves his mother and sister to pick up the pieces.

What follows is an unflinching account of the events that lead to this moment, told through the alternating perspectives of Wolf's mother, sister and various other voices. In this raw and poignant novel, Nathacha Appanah reveals how trauma shapes generations and the wounds it leaves behind. The Sky Above the Roof is both a portrait of a fractured family and a poetic exploration of the ways we break apart and rebuild.

2 eldonoj

Stephanie Jane recenzis Sky above the Roof de Nathacha Appanah

A strange novella

3 steloj

I found The Sky Above the Roof to be quite a strange novella and, even after a couple of days mulling the book over, I'm still not sure whether I really enjoyed it or not. I did love Nathacha Appanah's poetic writing style which I thought Geoffrey Strachan did a wonderful job of rendering into English, however I found the switching between so many different voices didn't work for me. It seemed as though as soon as I had got to know one person, the narrative focus changed to another. Admittedly they were all ultimately telling the same overall story, but perhaps within a longer book I would have found the frequent changes less distracting.

It was interesting to see how the dysfunction in this dysfunctional family had come about, especially how the actions and decisions of one generation impacted on subsequent generations so Phoenix's emotional reaction to her childhood …

I found The Sky Above the Roof to be quite a strange novella and, even after a couple of days mulling the book over, I'm still not sure whether I really enjoyed it or not. I did love Nathacha Appanah's poetic writing style which I thought Geoffrey Strachan did a wonderful job of rendering into English, however I found the switching between so many different voices didn't work for me. It seemed as though as soon as I had got to know one person, the narrative focus changed to another. Admittedly they were all ultimately telling the same overall story, but perhaps within a longer book I would have found the frequent changes less distracting.

It was interesting to see how the dysfunction in this dysfunctional family had come about, especially how the actions and decisions of one generation impacted on subsequent generations so Phoenix's emotional reaction to her childhood was directly responsible for the way in which she raised her own children even though it did not seem to be a conscious decision on her part. I would have liked to explore more how much her parenting style was responsible for Wolf's ultimate behaviour. The nature versus nurture debate. I wonder if The Sky Above the Roof would benefit from more than one reading in order to reveal its full depths. Personally I thought it was too short for everything I felt it was trying to say.