Book of Queens - Libroj.org

Neniu kovrilo — Book of Queens (2022, Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated)

Lingvo: English

Eldonita je 18-a de januaro 2022 de Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated.

ISBN:: 978-1-62371-847-3

(1 recenzo)

THE BOOK OF QUEENS is a family saga that spans four generations of women caught up in the tragic whirlwind of turf wars and suffering in the Middle East - from the Armenian genocide and the Israeli occupation of Palestine to modern-day civil wars and the struggles between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon and Syria. Four queens of a deck of cards dealt a bad hand by fate - Qayah, Qana, Qadar and Qamar - form the branches of the same family tree rooted in the land of their origins despite the forceful winds that repeatedly try to carry them away. A line of red-haired women united by the ties of blood that runs through their veins - which violence has spread through the ages - each with a deep story and all with one thing in common: unwavering power and resilience in the face of adversities of being a …

THE BOOK OF QUEENS is a family saga that spans four generations of women caught up in the tragic whirlwind of turf wars and suffering in the Middle East - from the Armenian genocide and the Israeli occupation of Palestine to modern-day civil wars and the struggles between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon and Syria. Four queens of a deck of cards dealt a bad hand by fate - Qayah, Qana, Qadar and Qamar - form the branches of the same family tree rooted in the land of their origins despite the forceful winds that repeatedly try to carry them away. A line of red-haired women united by the ties of blood that runs through their veins - which violence has spread through the ages - each with a deep story and all with one thing in common: unwavering power and resilience in the face of adversities of being a woman in a war-torn region. With the perfect mastery of finely chiselled writing, Joumana Haddad manages to construct a novel of extraordinary intensity, without ever sinking into pathos or grandiloquence. She also challenges the systematic abuse of political and religious power and authority that continues to cloud the lives of a culturally diverse and progressive youth until the present day.

1 eldono

Stephanie Jane recenzis Book of Queens de Joumana Haddad

A particularly grim read

4 steloj

I suppose the first thing I must say about The Book Of Queens is that I found it to be a particularly grim read. A saga set across four generations of the same family, a family which finds itself repeatedly hounded from their home for being 'other' - the wrong religion or the wrong ancestry for the times in which they find themselves. Each generation flees, usually as refugees leaving almost everything they own behind, and somehow finds the inner strength to build their lives again from scratch, only to see their children forced to repeat the same journeying. The Book Of Queens is all the more harrowing for having been inspired by Haddad's own family history.

The story is told in four sections, each dedicated to one of the four 'queens' - Qayah, Qana, Qadar and Qamar. While reading, I did find the similarity of their names confusing and …

I suppose the first thing I must say about The Book Of Queens is that I found it to be a particularly grim read. A saga set across four generations of the same family, a family which finds itself repeatedly hounded from their home for being 'other' - the wrong religion or the wrong ancestry for the times in which they find themselves. Each generation flees, usually as refugees leaving almost everything they own behind, and somehow finds the inner strength to build their lives again from scratch, only to see their children forced to repeat the same journeying. The Book Of Queens is all the more harrowing for having been inspired by Haddad's own family history.

The story is told in four sections, each dedicated to one of the four 'queens' - Qayah, Qana, Qadar and Qamar. While reading, I did find the similarity of their names confusing and often struggled to remember which woman was the mother, grandmother, daughter or granddaughter in that particular era. After finishing the book however, it occurred to me that, in many ways, it didn't matter whose life we focused upon. Each woman faced chillingly similar choices and hardships as their current nation home shifted its religious or cultural ideology, leaving them isolated again. I was reminded of similar intolerances across the Balkans as in Nadia Mujagic's memoir, Ten Thousand Shells And Counting. The Book Of Queens is very real historical fiction. It does encompass brief moments of joy and hope, but mostly left me feeling so grateful that my life does not reflect those of Qayah, Qana, Qadar or Qamar. I don't think I could find their strength.