The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili: book review

The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili (2020 in English; first published in 2015) is set in the 1990s in the outskirts of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, in the Residential School for Intellectually Disabled Children on Kerch Street.

The dilapidated school is ‘officially responsible for the care and education of school-age children with no family.’ After nine years of schooling, the children must leave and fend for themselves.

Lela is 18 years old and living in the school. She ‘doesn’t know where she was born or to whom, who it was who gave her up or first brought her to Kerch Street.’ She finished school three years ago but doesn’t want to leave and the teachers are not pressuring her to.

Her favourite place in the school is the fire escape’s spiral staircase because there’s a ‘strange, sweet smell.’ The aroma comes from the pear field next door.

She has an uncontrollable urge to kill the elderly history teacher Vano. His demise will have to wait because young student Sergo has just been run over by a car, and a ‘deep hush’ overcomes the school residents. And an American couple John and Deborah want to adopt nine-year-old Irakli. Lela wants to ensure that Irakli takes advantage of this opportunity and helps him learn some English words. She’ll deal with Vano after Irakli leaves for a new life in America. That day comes soon enough, when John and Deborah arrive to sign the adoption papers.

This is an interesting, emotive novel in which the desire for aromas, comfort, and a sense of belonging surround the procession of school children and teachers as they face violence, neglect, and misconceptions on a daily basis.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

MARTINA NICOLLS

MartinaNicollsWebsite

Rainy Day Healing

Global Gentlemanliness

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog