Reading All the Bookers!

  Booker Prize :  Winner  International Booker 2024 Plot Time and Place :  Berlin, immediately before and after the fall of the Wall Opening sentence :    "Will you come to my funeral?" Plot summary :  " An intimate and devastating story of the path of two lovers through the ruins of a relationship, set against the backdrop of a seismic period in history." (from thebookerprizes.com) Review :  At first I enjoyed the love story, with the description of life in the DDR in the background. But the book is way too long, and the story loses its magic. It gets tiresome and depressing. Rating :  3/5

Booker Prize :  Winner International Booker  2020  Plot Time and Place :  Present day Netherlands Opening sentence :    "I was ten and stopped taking off my coat." Plot summary :  It is narrated by ten-year-old Jas, a girl who lives with her religious family on a dairy farm in the Netherlands. Jas is grieving the death of her brother, who died in an accident. His death drives further instability in the family and deteriorates Jas' mental health.  Review :  It´s strange to say you liked a book when it is so full of disturbing scenes and imagery. But I liked it. The writing is beautiful, the descriptions very imaginative, and it was interesting to see how different people deal with grief, and the dynamic between siblings. The author is also very good at writing in the first person as a child, it really feels like a child's voice and thoughts. Rating :  4/5