The Kindness of Enemies – Leila Aboulela

A select five of us discussed this book on June 9th.

To say there were mixed feelings is not putting it too strongly!

However, there was general agreement that we all enjoyed the historical part of the story, especially as it is based on factual events running parallel with the Crimean War. None of us had realised that Russia had been fighting on two fronts during this time. It was interesting to learn about the history of Dagestan and Chechnia.

Imam Shamil lived until 1871 and is still revered as a learned and spiritual leader.

The governess Anna Drancy did indeed write her memoirs after being released and her description of the kidnapping tallies with the book. Apparently, other family members and house guests were also kidnapped.

Anna Chavchavadze went on to have nine children with David, who sadly never managed to raise the funds in his lifetime to take back their estate,  having mortgaged it as part of the ransom money.

There was disagreement over the style of writing. Some of us had trouble relating to the current-day characters and found the writing very ‘flat’. There wasn’t enough background to understand what drove Natasha, Malak and Oz. Others were very much enjoying the read and had a clearer picture in their heads!

The whole identity issue reminded us of the previous book, The Vanishing Half. Many of the characters struggled to find their real ‘home’, especially  Natasha, torn between her Sudanese and Russian roots,  and Jamaledin who found he preferred the ‘civilisation’ of St Petersburg to that of his homeland in the mountains. We never really got to the bottom of Oz’s issues.

No surprise that much of our conversation revolved around the current situation in Russia/Ukraine and how history (sadly) continues to repeat itself.

Would we recommend it?

Even if only for the interesting history, yes.

The next book is The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell and we shall meet on August 18th at 20:00  hours in The Hundred.

Book Choices for Summer 2022

We will meet on Thursday 9th June 2022 at 8pm in The Hundred of Ashendon to discuss The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela. Then choose our next read from the following choices:

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

Maggie O’Farrell takes readers on a journey to the darker places of the human heart, where desires struggle with the imposition of social mores. This haunting story explores the seedy past of Victorian asylums, the oppression of family secrets, and the way truth can change everything.

In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend’s attempts at commitment, Iris Lockhart receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital - where she has been locked away for over sixty years. Iris’s grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. But Esme’s papers prove she is Kitty’s sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father on Esme’s face. Esme has been labelled harmless - sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But Esme’s still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit?

Maggie O’Farrell’s intricate tale of family secrets lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth will haunt readers long past its final page.

Snap by Belinda Bauer 

On a stifling summer's day, eleven-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car, waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. Jack's in charge, she said. I won't be long.

But she doesn't come back. She never comes back. And life as the children know it is changed forever.

Three years later, mum-to-be Catherine wakes to find a knife beside her bed and a note that says: I could have killed you.

Meanwhile, Jack is still in charge - of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they're alone in the house, and - quite suddenly - of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother.

But the truth can be a dangerous thing...

Germinal by Émile Zola, Roger Pearson (Translator)

This is the thirteenth novel in Émile Zola’s great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity’s capacity for compassion and hope.

Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, in debt, and unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike that could mean starvation or salvation for all.