The Cat and the Tiger by Maia Varsimashvili-Raphael: book review

The Cat and the Tiger: Tales from Georgia by Maia Varsimashvili-Raphael (French edition 2011 – Le Chat et Le Tigre) is a collection of fables all set in the country of Georgia.

There are five tales:

La puce et la formi – The Flea and the Ant

Le chat et le tigre – The Cat and the Tiger

L’ours, le loup et le renard – The Bear, the Wolf and the Fox

Une poignée et demie – A Handful and a Half

Le trois conseils de sagesse – The Three Counsels of Wisdom.

Like all fables, each one begins with, ‘Once upon a time …’

And like all fables, there is a lovely lesson – although, some moral lessons are less ‘lovely’ and are quite cruel, but so were the Fairy Tales of Brothers Grimm!

The characters – animals that speak or stereotypical humans – are oafish and unreasonable, wise and foolish, honest and dishonest, good and bad, rich and poor, fulfilled and disappointed, powerful and subservient.

An ant falls into the water; what will the flea do to save it? A tiger and a cat meet at the edge of a wood; what do they say to each other?

The fables delightfully blend reality with imagination. The author invites readers to ‘try to enter the universe where all these adventures really happened and where nothing ever happened.’

The Cat and the Tiger: Tales from Georgia is a short 63 pages, easy to read, and nicely illustrated by the author – even allowing the reader to colour in the drawings!

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). She lives in Paris.

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. ...

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...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog