Wrong bok at the wrong time, perhaps.DNF. could not buy in. ( )

I was a huge fan of Mr Pip and didn't like this quite as much, though I admired the story telling. The story never quite jelled. I was most interested in the descrepencies between the narratives - esp the differences between Ines' and the male narrators. ( )

3 1/2 stars, rounded up. The story of an African woman searching for her baby who was stolen from her by the father and taken back to Germany. The story is being told in fragments by all of the various people who came in contact with her on her perilous journey as an illegal alien crossing Europe.
It would make a good European movie. The story is handed off like a baton from one character to another, completely disparate and unpredictable in their interaction with the protagonist. Great locales for shooting too. Short scenes, action-filled, emotion, sex.
About midway it started to get a bit boggy, her story in danger of being submerged, drowned by the stories of her 'couriers'. But it recovered soon enough and regained its rhythm. I like the contrasting versions of events provided by the different points of view.
As with Mr Pip, Lloyd Jones shows again the easy and casual cruelties humans show one another, and juxtaposes that with unexpected kindnesses. ( )

This is a story about a woman whose child is stolen from her by his father. With few resources, she leaves her home in Tunisia and travel to Berlin to find her son.

The story is told in a unique way. First, we have a series of short chapters by people who have interacted with the woman. In this way, it is hard to get to really know or understand the main character. We get a better picture of her in subsequent parts of the book, written from the perspective of people who knew her better, and from her own point of view. What emerges is a story about perspectives and perceptions: what is really going on in someone else's mind? Somehow, it works better than I thought it would at the beginning. In fact, it works extremely well.

What would you do to reclaim your child is a question underlining the story. What would you do to help someone you barely know? And why would you do it...these questions are also explored.

I have a feeling this story will stay with me for a while. ( )

A young African woman who gives birth only to have her son heartlessly taken from her undertakes an unbelievable journey to Germany to find her child. Along the way she meets helpers and heartlessness. The story itself is haunting, but the method of telling the story is gripping. First, short chapters are told by individuals who encountered the "woman from Africa". The second section is told from the viewpoint of two individuals who actually build a relationship with her in Germany--a blind man who she works for and his other assistant. The third section is told by the woman herself, a woman whose real name we never know but who assumes the name Inez. The short final section is told by a woman whose life becomes entwined with the African woman in an innocent but malevolent way.

This is not a straightforward plot, but more like the putting together of a puzzle--an interesting puzzle, not one of those vague abstract stories that you have to work to get through. I thoroughly enjoyed the method of telling the story of this woman who is one of the millions that is never really seen. Our African woman is one that has little control over her circumstances yet manages to accomplish what she sets out to do--to see her son. She ceaselessly pursues that goal and pays dearly. I would still vote for "Mr Pip" as Jones' finest novel, but this is a close second. ( )