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The Language of Kindness, by Christie Watson

Published earlier this year, The Language of Kindness is the most thoughtful book I have read in 2018. This work of nonfiction follows former nurse, Christie Watson, over her twenty years of service with the NHS in England.

About the author (from Watson’s website): Christie Watson spent most of her career [as a  registered nurse] in paediatric intensive care in large NHS hospitals before becoming a resuscitation officer, which involved teaching and clinical work on hospital-wide crash teams. 

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Image via The Irish Times

 Her first novel, Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away, won the Costa First Novel Award and her second novel, Where Women Are Kings, was also published to international critical acclaim. Her works have been translated into twenty-two languages. She lives in London and writes full time. 

Christie was recently awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters, honoris causa for her contribution to nursing and the arts by the University of East Anglia. She is patron of the Royal College of Nursing Foundation.

 

36700318 About the book (from the jacket description): Christie Watson was a nurse for twenty years. Taking us from birth to death and from A&E to the mortuary, The Language of Kindness is an astonishing account of a profession defined by acts of care, compassion and kindness.

We watch Christie as she nurses a premature baby who has miraculously made it through the night, we stand by her side during her patient’s agonising heart-lung transplant, and we hold our breath as she washes the hair of a child fatally injured in a fire, attempting to remove the toxic smell of smoke before the grieving family arrive.

In our most extreme moments, when life is lived most intensely, Christie is with us. She is a guide, mentor and friend. And in these dark days of division and isolationism, she encourages us all to stretch out a hand.

My feelings about the book: While I am frequently drawn to medical nonfiction, the focus on kindness and care for others in Watson’s story strongly attracted me. Right now, when there is so much hatred and chaos going on in the world, it’s lovely to find moments of kindness in our lives,. It’s become even more important to notice these are significant interactions and valuable traits for individuals and society.

Watson offers readers a window into the less-considered emotional connections nurses develop with their patients. Adam Kay – an award-winning comedian and writer for TV and film who previously worked as a junior doctor, detailed his funny and sad experiences in his 2017 book This Is Going To Hurt – wrote a very empathetic review for The Guardian, and captured so many of my own responses and feelings about the read:

In her introduction [Watson] tells us that she started her career thinking of nursing as a combination of chemistry, biology, physics, pharmacology and anatomy, but now realises that it’s actually much more about philosophy, psychology, art, ethics and politics. This is an argument she explores throughout the book… This is not a story of a high-octane career in a pioneering surgical field; it’s not a memoir filled with blockbusting anecdotes. Instead, it is a gently remarkable book about what it means to be a nurse, what it means to care. It struck me again and again how little we hear from nurses, how quiet their voice is, how poorly represented they are on our bookshelves. All this despite the crucial role they inevitably play in our lives and those of our families. It also struck me how poorly we understand what this role truly involves… The book is shot through with love – not just the love she has for her patients, but also for her colleagues and for her former profession. It’s also, by the very nature of the job, filled with a great deal of sadness. 

Within any healthcare profession, tragedy and sadness are daily occurrences. Watson strongly conveys the high level of care she provided her patients during life’s most difficult moments. I do not believe Watson’s memoir was written for praise or accolades (though she’s received much and many), but rather as a call to remember the significance of caring for others.  She shares the compassionate levels of dedication she brought to her work, and illustrates (in a totally non-preachy way) how kindness plays such an integral role in everyday life, and how this should be the norm, not the exception.  I am sure we could all use this reminder right now, and take comfort in it.

Can you think of other books (fiction or nonfiction) with kindness as a focus? I would love to hear your suggestions on this theme.

Happy reading!

 

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Sea Prayer – Khaled Hosseini

KH Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed. Hosseini is also a U.S. Goodwill Envoy to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people of Afghanistan – women, children, and refugees.

Last year, in collaboration with  The Guardian‘s in-house VR team, artist Liz Edwards, and the UNHCR, Hosseini commemorated the second anniversary of the death of the three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi (trigger warning: the Alan Kurdi link shows a sensitive image of the young child) with an illustrated story animated in a virtual reality film.  Narrated by the Bafta-winning actor Adeel Akhtar, Sea Prayer is accompanied by a score specially created by Sahba Aminikia, an Iranian-American contemporary classical music composer, and performed by the US-based string musicians Kronos Quartet and the musical saw player David Coulter.

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About the book (from the jacket copy):

On a moonlit beach, a father cradles his sleeping son as they wait for dawn to break and a boat to arrive. He speaks to his boy of the long summers of his childhood, recalling his grandfather’s house in Syria, the stirring of olive trees in the breeze, the bleating of his grandmother’s goat, the clanking of the cooking pots. And he remembers, too, the bustling city of Homs, with its crowded lanes, its mosque and grand souk, in the days before the sky spat bombs and they had to flee.

When the sun rises, they and those around them will gather their possessions and embark on a perilous sea journey in search of a new home.

Proceeds from the sale of Sea Prayer will go to The Khaled Hosseini Foundation and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency to help fund life-saving support and build better futures for refugees around the world.

My thoughts:

Sea Prayer, so gorgeously illustrated by Dan Williams, is a visually stunning work of art and a heartbreakingly important short story. Dedicated to the thousands of refugees who have perished at sea, as they attempted to flee the war-torn region, the book begins with Hosseini evoking the western Syrian city of Homs of days gone by. A father writes to his son, about the memories he cherishes, and the experiences he loved as a child – in a city that was vibrant and full of life, in contrast to the current destruction and devastation.  Hosseini writes beautifully and sparsely, while conjuring both tender and horrific moments. The story is strongly complemented by the accompanying artwork. As the letter moves from a past bursting with life, hope, and colour, to a present of annihilation and loss, the illustrations capture these disparities.

It is an emotional experience, reading this book. But, I encourage you all to purchase a copy – it is an excellent story, and the proceeds from your purchase will help with necessary humanitarian aid for so many refugees.

Here are just a few examples of the artistic gorgeousness inside Sea Prayer:

 

 

Women Talking – Miriam Toews

Trigger warning: rape and sexual assault portrayed

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About the author: Miriam Toews is one of Canada’s most talented and well-known writers. She has published six previous bestselling novels: Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness, The Flying Troutmans , Irma Voth,  All My Puny Sorrows, and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life.  She is a winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers Trust Marian Engel/Timothy Findley Award. Toews lives in Toronto.

In a note at the start of her new novel, Women Talking, Miriam Toews (pronounced Tayves) describes the book as “a reaction through fiction” to the true-life events which took place between 2005 and 2009 within the Manitoba Colony, a remote Mennonite community in Bolivia. Girls and women would regularly wake up in the mornings to discover they had been sexually violated during the night, but with no recollections of the attacks. The assaults were dismissed as ‘wild female imagination,’ or else attributed to ghosts or demons. In truth, a group of colony men had been spraying an animal anesthetic into targeted houses at night, which rendered their victims unconscious. The men would then proceed to rape and violate the women (infants, elderly, and relatives included). The colony elders, deciding that the case was too difficult to handle themselves, called local police to take the suspect men into custody.

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Photo by Carol Loewen

Miriam Toews grew up in a small Mennonite town called Steinbach in Manitoba, Canada, somewhere that wasn’t as isolated as the Bolivian community but was still evangelical, rigid, and withdrawn from society. “I felt an obligation, a need, to write about these women,” says Toews who, like the Mennonites in Bolivia, is descended from the Molotschna colony in what is now Ukraine. “I’m related to them. I could easily have been one of them.”  In an excellent interview for The Guardian, Toews goes on to say “I don’t like the media phrase ‘ghost rapes’… It’s not accurate, obviously, and it perpetuates the ignorance around the attacks. It echoes what the elders were saying to the women. Some of the women had begun to think that way themselves: ‘Could it be demons? Satan? Punishment? Ghosts?’ Using the term makes the whole thing sound like a cartoon.”  [Note: this sensationalized phrase was used in the link in the opening paragraph, above, which shares an article about the actual events.] When she heard about the attacks, Toews says:  “I was horrified but not surprised. The details were shocking but these types of crimes have always occurred in places like this. Extremist, closed communities are ripe for violence.”  She is aware that Women Talking has landed in a politically charged climate. “I know the book could be viewed as me making a political statement through a fictional narrative, which wasn’t really my intent. My goal is always to tell a story and to create characters that will move the reader. But I’m of course a feminist. I have a need to challenge that status quo that I’ve experienced,” says Toews.

WT by MTAbout the book (from the jacket description): The sun rises on a quiet June morning in 2009. August Epp sits alone in the hayloft of a barn, anxiously bent over his notebook. He writes quickly, aware that his solitude will soon be broken. Eight women–ordinary grandmothers, mothers and teenagers; yet to August, each one extraordinary– will climb the ladder into the loft, and the day’s true task will begin. This task will be both simple and subversive: August, like the women, is a traditional Mennonite, and he has been asked to record a secret conversation.

Thus begins Miriam Toews’ spellbinding novel. Gradually, as we hear the women’s vivid voices console, tease, admonish, regale and debate each other, we piece together the reason for the gathering: they have forty-eight hours to make a life-altering choice on behalf of all the women and children in the colony. And like a vast night sky coming into view behind the bright sparks of their voices, we learn of the devastating events that have led to this moment.

Acerbic, funny, tender, sorrowful and wise, Women Talking is composed of equal parts humane love and deep anger. It is award-winning writer Miriam Toews’ most astonishing novel to date, containing within its two short days and hayloft setting an expansive, timeless universe of thinking and feeling about women–and men–in our contemporary world.

Read an excerpt, courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada

My thoughts on the novel: I am a huge fan of Miriam Toews’ writing. This novel was my most anticipated read for 2018. Having huge excitement about a new book from a favourite author can be problematic though, as sky-high expectations can be tricky to keep in check. I have been mulling over my reaction and feelings about the book for a couple of weeks now – Women Talking is definitely thought-provoking and evocative.

Toews makes some very interesting storytelling choices — from purely a writing standpoint, I always feel there is so much to learn from Toews’ style. She is incredibly talented, nuanced, and clever.  The writing in Women Talking is no exception. Initially, I found the large cast of characters a bit awkward to navigate at moments, but that settled as the story progressed. This may be the largest number of players Toews’ has ever given voice to, and it feels like a different and compelling approach when considered with her other novels. Women Talking is timely for our #MeToo era, and I am thankful Toews wrote this book, which provides a front row seat to the physical and emotional harm, confusion, and lack of agency women experience and endure because of rape. (Though it should be noted that Toews actually began writing this novel before All My Puny Sorrows (2013), and the  partially completed manuscript sat waiting for her return for several years.) The fact that Women Talking deals with organized and condoned attacks within a sequestered religious community magnifies the urgency the women are feeling, and the restricted number of options available to them as they attempt to determine their own fates with very limited resources and time. The fact the community traditionally prevents the women from achieving literacy adds another challenging layer during the women’s decision-making discussions. Toews brings such heart and thoughtfulness to this story – while it is a difficult subject she has written about, the moments of love, hope and humour shine through.

For more from Miriam Toews:

SoMAL by MT            ABoGB by MT           ACK by MT  TFT by MT IV by MT AMPS by MT SLaL by MT

 

Have you read Women Talking yet? Do you plan to if you haven’t? 

As this is a novel based on truth, I welcome your recommendations for your favourite based-on-a-true-story fiction. Making reading lists of books is a serious past-time, and especially fun when focused on a specific theme or topic.  😊

 

Happy reading!

 

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A Dangerous Crossing – Ausma Zehanat Khan

azk-pic_orig Ausma Zehanat Khan holds a Ph.D. in international human rights law, with a research specialization in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans. In each of her novels in the Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak series she brings her real life experiences, and concerns for humanitarian crises into her stories. Khattak heads up Canada’s Community Policing Section, which handles minority-sensitive cases across all levels of law enforcement.  Khattak strongly relies on Rachel Getty, a resourceful detective. Though the characters are based in Toronto, their work, Khan’s mysteries, have taken readers into the painful history of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia (The Unquiet Dead), examined radical Islamists in Toronto and northern Ontario (The Language of Secrets), and portrayed the lives of dissidents in Iran (Among the Ruins). In this new story, A Dangerous Crossing, Getty & Khattak travel to Greece in search of a Canadian NGO worker who has vanished from a Syrian refugee camp – we are given a very up-close experience of the Syrian crisis in all its horrors.

34953093 About the book:  For Inspector Esa Khattak and Sergeant Rachel Getty, the Syrian refugee crisis is about to become personal. Esa’s childhood friend, Nathan Clare, calls him in distress: his sister, Audrey, has vanished from a Greek island where the siblings run an NGO. Audrey had been working to fast-track refugees to Canada, but now, she is implicated in the double-murder of a French Interpol agent and a young man who had fled the devastation in Syria.

Esa and Rachel arrive in Greece to a shocking scene, witnessing for themselves the massive fallout of the Syrian war in the wretched refugee camps. Tracing Audrey’s last movements, they meet some of the volunteers and refugees―one of whom, Ali, is involved in a search of his own, for a girl whose disappearance may be connected to their investigation. The arrival of Sehr Ghilzai―a former prosecutor who now handles refugee claims for Audrey’s NGO―further complicates the matter for Esa, as his feelings towards her remain unresolved.

Working against time, with Interpol at their heels, Esa and Rachel follow a trail that takes them from the beaches of Greece, to the Turkish–Syrian border, and across Europe, reaching even the corridors of power in the Netherlands. Had Audrey been on the edge of a dangerous discovery, hidden at the heart of this darkest of crises―one which ultimately put a target on her own back?

As with her past novels in the series, there are heartbreaking moments, yet the astounding strength and perseverance of the human sprit shines through. I really enjoy Khan’s style of storytelling. In bringing such difficult subjects to life, she displays incredible kindness and sensitivity. Her characters are flawed and evolving, and her settings are vividly brought to life. While the mysteries anchor each story, these books are as much about the characters as they are about solving crimes. I do feel A Dangerous Crossing wobbled just a wee bit with an Esa and Sehr storyline, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. (I suggest reading the series in order, as histories are built upon and carry forward from one book to the next.)

I often feel the character of Esa Khattak reminds me of Louise Penny’s wonderful Armand Gamache – they share the traits of quiet nobility, intelligence, and kindness. If you are a fan of the Three Pines series, I think you will enjoy the Getty & Khattak series too. (With one caveat: the supporting cast in Khan’s books aren’t as large a presence, and are not nearly as quirktastic as Penny’s Three Pines chums.)

We often hear about the ability of fiction to improve empathy in readers and I feel like this is something Khan takes seriously. She includes informative afterwords in each of her books, which help ground her fiction in reality, and add depth to the reading experience – I always find these sections of her work fascinating and helpful.  I absolutely love this series, and strongly recommend it to you all.

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I would love to know your favourite mystery series. Please leave a comment below so we can chat about great books.

Happy Reading!

Reading Slump

rainy day by yelena bryksenkova

Rainy Day by Yelena Bryksenkova

I love this illustration —  it’s got books, it’s got a cozy blanket, it’s got a furry friend, and a cup of tea! It also seems to perfectly capture the weather we’ve been “enjoying” lately. It’s been grey, damp, and cold for weeks now and I think we are all ready for some warmth and sunshine.

During these dull, chilly days, my reading seems to have taken a bit of a hit too. I’ve been trying to sleuth out some ‘nice’ reads — books that are really well written, yet aren’t too emotionally taxing, or dealing with very weighty issues. This is a surprisingly difficult task, as it turns out. Through some helpful reading friends on Twitter, I do have a few new-to-me novels to investigate, in the hopes of finding a completely engrossing story that will really WOW! me.  (Do leave your recommendations below in a comment, if you have some great ideas you’d like to share!!)

In an attempt at distraction, and to boost my bookish enthusiasms,  I began looking ahead on the 2018 publishing calendar, for the new releases that have me very excited.

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The Trick to Time, by Kit de Waal.  This was released on 29 March 2018 — but I include it here because I am stupid-excited to read it.  de Waal’s My Name is Leon was probably my favourite read of 2016, and this new novel has been receiving wonderful praise already.  What’s the new book about? From the publisher’s website: Mona is a young Irish girl in the big city, with the thrill of a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding house. On her first night out in 1970s Birmingham, she meets William, a charming Irish boy with an easy smile and an open face. They embark upon a passionate affair, a whirlwind marriage – before a sudden tragedy tears them apart. Decades later, Mona pieces together the memories of the years that separate them. But can she ever learn to love again? The Trick to Time is an unforgettable tale of grief, longing, and a love that lasts a lifetime.

9780735272798 Vi, by Kim Thúy; translated by Shiela Fischman. These two women are the most magical combination! Fishman always does an incredible job capturing the lyrical nuances of Thúy’s prose, while preserving the way Thúy examines and plays with memory. About the book: Daughter of an enterprising mother and a wealthy, spoiled father who never had to grow up, the Vietnam War destroys the life they’ve known. Vi, along with her mother and brothers, manages to escape–but her father stays behind, leaving a painful void as the rest of the family must make a new life for themselves in Canada. From Saigon to Montreal, from Suzhou to Boston to the fall of the Berlin Wall, she is witness to the immensity of the world, the intricate fabric of humanity, the complexity of love, the infinite possibilities before her. Ever the quiet observer, somehow she must find a way to finally take her place in the world. Publishing in Canada on 10 April 2018.

isbn9781473668997Earlier this year, I read Ruth Hogan‘s debut novel, The Keeper of Lost Things. I loved it so much — and it is exactly the kind of story I am trying to find to help with my current reading slump. Hogan is a lovely, sensitive writer who shows a lot of heart in a way that isn’t sappy or cloying. About The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes: Masha is drowning. Once a spirited, independent woman with a rebellious streak, her life has been forever changed by a tragic event twelve years ago. Unable to let go of her grief, she finds solace in the silent company of the souls of her local Victorian cemetery and at the town’s lido, where she seeks refuge underwater – safe from the noise and the pain. But a chance encounter with two extraordinary women – the fabulous and wise Kitty Muriel, a convent girl-turned-magician’s wife-turned-seventy-something-roller-disco-fanatic, and the mysterious Sally Red Shoes, a bag lady with a prodigious voice – opens up a new world of possibilities, and the chance to start living again. Publishing in the UK 03 May 2018.

9780385691598 A new Anne Tyler novel!! From the publisher’s website, here’s the description for Clock Dance: Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life. In 1967, she is a schoolgirl coping with her mother’s sudden disappearance. In 1977, she is a college coed considering a marriage proposal. In 1997, she is a young widow trying to piece her life back together. And in 2017, she yearns to be a grandmother, yet the prospect is dimming. So, when Willa receives a phone call from a stranger, telling her that her son’s ex-girlfriend has been shot, she drops everything and flies across the country to Baltimore. The impulsive decision to look after this woman and her nine-year-old daughter will lead Willa into uncharted territory–surrounded by eccentric neighbors, plunged into the rituals that make a community a family and forced to find solace in unexpected places. A bittersweet, probing novel of hope and grief, fulfillment and renewal, Clock Dance gives us Anne Tyler at the height of her powers. Look for this new book on 10 July 2018.

9780735234253Also publishing on 10 July 2018, is the second novel from Claire Holden Rothman – Lear’s Shadow. The book’s description reads, in part: A captivating novel about aging fathers and their grown daughters, childhood scars, and rewriting the script with a little help from Shakespeare, from the acclaimed author of My October. Tender, vivid, and powerful, Lear’s Shadow is a richly satisfying exploration of how the ties of love can both bind and liberate us, and of how, even in the face of grief, we can embrace life. I am often drawn to books about books, or new novels that reimagine previous works. Add in the themes of Lear’s Shadow, and this new novel is ticking so many of my reading boxes.

9780735273962NEW MIRIAM TOEWS!! (Can you tell I am super-excited for this novel?) It will be released on 21 August 2018, and I am twitchy with anticipation.  The publisher describes this book as:  A transformative and necessary work–as completely unexpected as it is inspired,  Based on actual events that happened between 2005 and 2009 in a remote Mennonite community where more than 100 girls and women were drugged unconscious and assaulted in the night by what they were told (by the men of the colony) were “ghosts” or “demons,” Miriam Toews’ bold and affecting novel Women Talking is an imagined response to these real events.  By turns poignant, witty, acerbic, bitter, tender, devastating, and heartbreaking, the voices in this extraordinary novel are unforgettable. Toews has chosen to focus the novel tightly on a particular time and place, and yet it contains within its 48 hours and setting inside a hayloft an entire vast universe of thinking and feeling about the experience of women (and therefore men, too) in our contemporary world. In a word: astonishing.

9781487004835_1024x1024Publishing on 28 August 2018, is a new novel from Patrick DeWitt!  With hope, it will be as completely enjoyable as The Sisters Brothers! Here’s the book’s description: Frances Price — tart widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature — is in dire straits, beset by scandal and impending bankruptcy. Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there’s the Price’s aging cat, Small Frank, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral litigator and world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts. Putting penury and pariahdom behind them, the family decides to cut their losses and head for the exit. One ocean voyage later, the curious trio land in their beloved Paris, the City of Light serving as a backdrop not for love or romance, but self-destruction and economic ruin — to riotous effect. A number of singular characters serve to round out the cast: a bashful private investigator, an aimless psychic proposing a seance, a doctor who makes house calls with his wine merchant in tow, and the inimitable Mme. Reynard, aggressive houseguest and dementedly friendly American expat. Brimming with pathos and wit, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind ‘tragedy of manners,’ a riotous send-up of high society, as well as a moving mother/son caper which only Patrick deWitt could conceive and execute.

imagesArriving on shelves 04 September 2018, is  Washington Black from Esi Edugyan, and it sounds fantastic!  Says the publisher: A dazzling, original novel of slavery and freedom, from the author of the international bestseller Half-Blood Blues. In 1830, two English brothers arrive at a Barbados sugar plantation, bringing with them a darkness beyond what the slaves have already known. Washington Black—an eleven-year-old field slave—is horrified to find himself chosen to live in the quarters of one of these men. But his new master is not as Washington expects him to be. He is the eccentric Christopher Wilde—naturalist, explorer, inventor and abolitionist—whose obsession with perfecting a winged flying machine disturbs all who know him. Washington is initiated into a world of wonder: a world where the night sea viewed from a hilltop explodes with light, where a simple cloth canopy can propel a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning—and where two people separated by an impossible divide can begin to see each other as human. From the blistering cane fields of Barbados to the icy wastes of the Canadian Arctic, from the mud-drowned streets of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black teems with all the strangeness and mystery of life. This inventive, electrifying novel asks, what is freedom? Can a life salvaged from the ashes ever be made whole?

It really is looking like a great year in fiction publishing.  I would love to hear about the books coming out this year that have you most excited — please leave a comment below; it’s always fun to share in everyone’s bookish enthusiasm!

Happy reading!