Book Review: The Iron Age by Arja Kajermo.

A young girl commences the story of her harsh childhood in 1950s Finland. Living in poverty, the girl and her family battle through extreme weather and with the bare essentials. They have no electricity, wear hand-me-down clothes and are on the receiving end of the sharp tongue and temper of their veteran father. Local folklore and legend add a new dimension to the children's lives and they hover halfway between fear and hope. The family are forced to leave their small holding, when they are disinherited.  "Mother and the baby and me were put on the train. Father went in the hired lorry from the village with Tuomas and Tapio, two cows and three piglets." The boys are bullied in school and a disastrous night sees their new life abruptly halted. Once again the family move, this time to Sweden, leaving one child behind. "a country that had been at peace for well over a hundred years, where nobody knew anyone who had been in a war, where people look prosperous and healthy, where people seemed at ease with themselves and at peace with the world". For a girl who is coming-of-age, this brings temporary hope. But it is short-lived: "But we brought our war with us. The shrapnel that had gone into Father's legs, in 1944 in the painful retreat when the war was lost, had somehow worked its way into his children. Each one of us carried a shard of that iron in our hearts."

As with all immigrants, school is problematic. Language; culture; attitudes. The girl soon tires of her incomprehensible surroundings. "We were now what Mother called ummikko. We were people who could only speak our own language and we could not understand the language around us. And the people around us could not understand us. It was a terrible fate to be ummikko. It was like being deaf and dumb Mother said." She misses the brother they have left behind and in an act of defiance, chooses to stop speaking, instead, escaping into the world of books. From fairytales to Enid Blyton; Pippi Longstocking to The Little Mermaid; Robinson Crusoe to Anna Karinina. "I did not just read the books. I lived the stories in the books."

This is a small, yet perfectly formed examination of a child with longing. Longing for love and respect; for equality and acceptance; for a brighter future. She is sharp and sassy beyond her years and despite her abusive upbringing, she continues to look toward the light. She uses her imagination to escape the realities of her situation and her story is inspiring, heartwarming and full of magical release. There are stunning illustrations (by Susanna Kajermo Torner) dotted throughout the book, depicting the thoughts of the un-named girl and they are a delightful bonus. An abrupt ending leaves the reader gasping for more but also signifies the reaching of age. The Iron Age is a captivating read. Short in length but loaded with depth. It is at times difficult, but the young narrator lifts the tale to its inspiring stature. A fine debut from a distinctive new literary voice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ARJA KAJERMO has contributed cartoons to the feminist publisher Attic Press and occasionally to the Sunday Press, The Irish Times, Image magazine, Magill and others. Her strip Dublin Four ran in the Sunday Tribune. She now draws the strip Tuula in the Sunday edition of a Swedish daily newspaper. In 2014 she was shortlisted for the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award for her short story The Iron Age,upon which this novel is based. Arja lives in Dublin.

The Iron Age is published by Tramp Press and is available in PB and ebook format. You can order your copy, with Free Worldwide Postage, HERE. The ebook can be ordered via amazon link below:

#IrishFictionFortnight - Day 14 - "Spill Simmer Falter Wither" by Sara Baume. Review and Giveaway.

"This is my favourite novel of the decade"

Thanks to Tramp Press, there are two copies of this award-winning debut novel to be won.  Just enter via rafflecopter link below.  Good Luck! 

MY REVIEW

One man and his dog.  Not an original idea, but this is no ordinary novel.  

This is my favourite novel of the decade.  

This debut comes from the winner of  2014 Davy Byrnes Award, so I had a sneaky suspicion that I was starting to read something special.  It took me about thirty seconds of reading to know, rather than suspect, that this was a novel to be savoured.  From the prologue, to each individual chapter (each attributed to a season) and from paragraph to line, I slowly inhaled the story and let it take over.  I was transported from a cold bedroom in Co. Louth to the rural villages of the Irish Midlands, stopping off in the odd coastal towns.  The potholed roads, the long twisting laneways, the silent main streets and the family run pubs and petrol stations.  What a change from the usual dual carriageways of our daily lives.  As I turned the pages, I was reluctant to do so.  The knowledge that I had to finish this book was something that I was ignoring, instead choosing to place my bookmark in with hesitation and delaying the inevitable.  I would place the book at arms length, glance at it, close my eyes and re-read the latest pages in my mind.  Now, I am aware that that this makes me sound slightly deranged, but those who know me can surely picture it.   Eventually, I could hold off no more.  The bookmark was removed for the last time and I faced the final pages.  I felt like I was losing a friend.  I was almost certain how the ending was going to shape up, and I was in denial.  A big deep breath and it was over. 

 I am still a bit bereft.  

The protagonist in this tale is not named, however the mystery of his name is easily solved.  He has a diminished mental capacity which makes him the same level as a child of approximately nine years old.  The reader is left to imagine this gentle giant with an abundance of innocence and years of loneliness and isolation.  He adopts an ex-badger baiting dog, who he christens OneEye, and here begins an incomprehensible story of devotion.  

Sara Baume has taken the idea of friendship to a new level, in my opinion.  The 'companionship' concept does not come close to the depth of feeling described in this novel.  A child may feel this way about a special blanket, sobbing uncontrollably when parted from it.  A recently widowed man may have a shadow of this feeling visible across his face.  A mother may feel this as she watches her son head off to war.  Such is the depth of the friendship between Ray and OneEye.  Each chapter is sprinkled with seasonal sensations and each line is written with the most sensual prose I have encountered from a contemporary author.  The mood, the tempo, the minimal dialogue and the outstanding descriptive passages made for an emotional journey, albeit on a small island with basically just one character.    I could go on to reveal more plot line and quote some of the poetic verses contained within the narrative, but I am going to leave that to the lucky person who is reading this novel for the first time.  I can never have that honour again, but will certainly enjoy my re-reads.

A massive congratulations to Sara Baume and Tramp Press.  You have raised the bar for Irish, and International, fiction...

Spill Simmer Falter Wither is published by the amazing team at Tramp Press.  The title is available in paperback and you can get your copy, with Free Worldwide Postage and 12% discount, here.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

#IrishFictionFortnight - Day 12 - "Flight" by Oona Frawley. Review and Giveaway.

Thanks to the author,  I have a signed paperback copy of Flight to giveaway as part of #IrishFictionFortnight.   Just enter via rafflecopter link below.  Good Luck!

MY REVIEW

Four people. Four journeys. Four lives. From Zimbabwe to Ireland,  America to Vietnam, these journeys each come with their own tales.  Some of isolation, humiliation and degradation, others of hope and prosperity in a different world.  

Sandrine has come to Ireland to seek a better life for herself, and hopefully her family.  She is employed by Elizabeth to look after her elderly parents, Tom and Clare, who can longer manage alone. 

Having returned to Ireland on Tom's retirement, the couple are now based in their seaside home in Dublin.  Elizabeth warns Sandrine that they often get confused and can be a handful.  Sandrine soon realises that her hopes of attending school in Ireland are no longer a viable option and she dedicates her time to the monitoring of Tom and Grace.  On her rare occasions to venture out of the house, she is a first hand witness to the hostile treatment of "non-nationals" in Ireland and how the country, as a whole, sees the immigrant workers as some kind of threat to their nation.  Deportations are a regular thing and Sandrine fears she will be discovered as working full-time, despite her student visa status.  On top of this, there is the added problem of her pregnancy.  She has not told anyone, and finds it hard to plan her future with so much uncertainty in the present.

Elizabeth visits her parents almost everyday and watches as they deteriorate at an alarming rate.  When her father has to be placed in a care facility, her mother is distraught. Sandrine does her best to create a normal atmosphere in the house but it soon becomes apparent that Grace is fading.  Elizabeth can only watch, helpless as her parents become shadows of their former selves.  She remembers how much she wanted to leave their home in Vietnam, to study in America, away from the restrictions of Asian life and how even now, in her late 30s, she can still remember the monsoons, the heat and the smell of spices, which were the ingredients of her childhood abroad.

This story is based during the economic boom years of the Celtic Tiger in Ireland.  There are jobs for everyone,  houses being built on land in every town and a flood of immigrants to fill positions that the general population thought beneath them.  The streets are crowded, the shops are bustling and the roads jammed packed with gleaming new cars.  One can see why Ireland was an ideal destination for the thousands of people from troubled countries,  who needed to escape to survive.  

Oona Frawley has cleverly linked the two sides of the story without being either dismissive or preachy. The narrative is jam-packed with melodic prose and I found something beautiful on almost every page.  When trying to pick a short excerpt to use for this review, I really struggled.  There were simply too many.  Descriptive passages are used with such powerful intensity throughout the novel, gliding from chapter to chapter.  There is no need for inverted commas, for example.  The dialogue is blended in with the sentences, of which I didn't even notice for a while, so seamlessly was it done.

It is a while since I was moved to tears while reading a book, but the chapters describing the downward spiral of Tom and Clare were emotionally draining for me.  I could almost have been in the room at times.  Watching a parent, who was always the one in charge, now become the one requiring help,  is a painful storyline.  However, the author has done this with care, and carries it off very well.  Although I thought I would tire of hearing about Tom's career and his obsession with peppers and spices, the narrative moved on and my senses took over.  Scent and sound, imagining the rains and intense heat, this became part of my world as I turned page after page of this poetic book.  

I would recommend this novel for lovers of Colum McCann, Colm Tobin and Anne Enright as it is full of their warmth, passion and clever use of language.

Flight is published by Tramp Press and is available in Paperback.  Order your copy, with Free Worldwide Postage and 15% discount, here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

"Spill Simmer Falter Wither" by Sara Baume

Thanks to Tramp Press for the review copy of this title...

One man and his dog.  Not an original idea, but this is no ordinary novel.  

This is my favourite novel of the decade.  

This debut comes from the winner of  2014 Davy Byrnes Award, so I had a sneaky suspicion that I was starting to read something special.  It took me about thirty seconds of reading to know, rather than suspect, that this was a novel to be savoured.  From the prologue, to each individual chapter (each attributed to a season) and from paragraph to line, I slowly inhaled the story and let it take over.  I was transported from a cold bedroom in Co. Louth to the rural villages of the Irish Midlands, stopping off in the odd coastal towns.  The potholed roads, the long twisting laneways, the silent main streets and the family run pubs and petrol stations.  What a change from the usual dual carriageways of our daily lives.  As I turned the pages, I was reluctant to do so.  The knowledge that I had to finish this book was something that I was ignoring, instead choosing to place my bookmark in with hesitation and delaying the inevitable.  I would place the book at arms length, glance at it, close my eyes and re-read the latest pages in my mind.  Now, I am aware that that this makes me sound slightly deranged, but those who know me can surely picture it.   Eventually, I could hold off no more.  The bookmark was removed for the last time and I faced the final pages.  I felt like I was losing a friend.  I was almost certain how the ending was going to shape up, and I was in denial.  A big deep breath and it was over. 

 I am still a bit bereft.  

The protagonist in this tale is not named, however the mystery of his name is easily solved.  He has a diminished mental capacity which makes him the same level as a child of approximately nine years old.  The reader is left to imagine this gentle giant with an abundance of innocence and years of loneliness and isolation.  He adopts an ex-badger baiting dog, who he christens OneEye, and here begins an incomprehensible story of devotion.  

Sara Baume has taken the idea of friendship to a new level, in my opinion.  The 'companionship' concept does not come close to the depth of feeling described in this novel.  A child may feel this way about a special blanket, sobbing uncontrollably when parted from it.  A recently widowed man may have a shadow of this feeling visible across his face.  A mother may feel this as she watches her son head off to war.  Such is the depth of the friendship between Ray and OneEye.  Each chapter is sprinkled with seasonal sensations and each line is written with the most sensual prose I have encountered from a contemporary author.  The mood, the tempo, the minimal dialogue and the outstanding descriptive passages made for an emotional journey, albeit on a small island with basically just one character.    I could go on to reveal more plot line and quote some of the poetic verses contained within the narrative, but I am going to leave that to the lucky person who is reading this novel for the first time.  I can never have that honour again, but will certainly enjoy my re-reads.

A massive congratulations to Sara Baume and Tramp Press.  You have raised the bar for Irish, and International, fiction...

Spill Simmer Falter Wither is published by Tramp Press and is available in paperback 

" Flight " by Oona Frawley

Thanks to Tramp Press for sending me a review copy of this book .......

Four people. Four journeys. Four lives. From Zimbabwe to Ireland,  America to Vietnam, these journeys each come with their own tales.  Some of isolation, humiliation and degradation, others of hope and prosperity in a different world.  

Sandrine has come to Ireland to seek a better life for herself, and hopefully her family.  She is employed by Elizabeth to look after her elderly parents, Tom and Clare, who can longer manage alone. 

Having returned to Ireland on Tom's retirement, the couple are now based in their seaside home in Dublin.  Elizabeth warns Sandrine that they often get confused and can be a handful.  Sandrine soon realises that her hopes of attending school in Ireland are no longer a viable option and she dedicates her time to the monitoring of Tom and Grace.  On her rare occasions to venture out of the house, she is a first hand witness to the hostile treatment of "non-nationals" in Ireland and how the country, as a whole, sees the immigrant workers as some kind of threat to their nation.  Deportations are a regular thing and Sandrine fears she will be discovered as working full-time, despite her student visa status.  On top of this, there is the added problem of her pregnancy.  She has not told anyone, and finds it hard to plan her future with so much uncertainty in the present.

Elizabeth visits her parents almost everyday and watches as they deteriorate at an alarming rate.  When her father has to be placed in a care facility, her mother is distraught. Sandrine does her best to create a normal atmosphere in the house but it soon becomes apparent that Grace is fading.  Elizabeth can only watch, helpless as her parents become shadows of their former selves.  She remembers how much she wanted to leave their home in Vietnam, to study in America, away from the restrictions of Asian life and how even now, in her late 30s, she can still remember the monsoons, the heat and the smell of spices, which were the ingredients of her childhood abroad.

This story is based during the economic boom years of the Celtic Tiger in Ireland.  There are jobs for everyone,  houses being built on land in every town and a flood of immigrants to fill positions that the general population thought beneath them.  The streets are crowded, the shops are bustling and the roads jammed packed with gleaming new cars.  One can see why Ireland was an ideal destination for the thousands of people from troubled countries,  who needed to escape to survive.  

Oona Frawley has cleverly linked the two sides of the story without being either dismissive or preachy. The narrative is jam-packed with melodic prose and I found something beautiful on almost every page.  When trying to pick a short excerpt to use for this review, I really struggled.  There were simply too many.  Descriptive passages are used with such powerful intensity throughout the novel, gliding from chapter to chapter.  There is no need for inverted commas, for example.  The dialogue is blended in with the sentences, of which I didn't even notice for a while, so seamlessly was it done.

It is a while since I was moved to tears while reading a book, but the chapters describing the downward spiral of Tom and Clare were emotionally draining for me.  I could almost have been in the room at times.  Watching a parent, who was always the one in charge, now become the one requiring help,  is a painful storyline.  However, the author has done this with care, and carries it off very well.  Although I thought I would tire of hearing about Tom's career and his obsession with peppers and spices, the narrative moved on and my senses took over.  Scent and sound, imagining the rains and intense heat, this became part of my world as I turned page after page of this poetic book.  

I would recommend this novel for lovers of Colum McCann, Colm Tobin and Anne Enright as it is full of their warmth, passion and clever use of language.

Flight is published by Tramp Press and is available in paperback

http://www.bookdepository.com/Flight-Oona-Frawley/9780992817008