NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney

If I read this novel at the age the two main characters are - late teens/very early twenties, I would have hated it, I wouldn't have understood it, I would have been bored, I would have found very little to relate to. (I was very naive at that time in my life). But now that I have read it at the other end of life - middle age and all that, with plenty of life experience behind me - I got a huge amount out of this, almost to the point that I may think it is wasted on the young.

It is about love - young love which has such an intensity to it, often overpowering in its need to be fulfilled, expressed and simply let out. Danny and Marianne are the young couple, growing up in a small town in Ireland, at school together, yet in completely different social circles. She comes from money, academically gifted, not a popular at school, does not fit in with any peer group. Danny is the opposite - no money, his solo mother is Marianne's family's housekeeper, in the top sports teams and groups, and also academically very gifted. These two find each other, they are soul mates, kindred spirits, but too young and immature to fully realise it, emotional damage ensuing.

They end up at Trinity College in Dublin together - he on a scholarship, she because she can. Their paths cross, separate, recross during their time as students at college and back in their home town during holidays. All you want is for them to get their acts together, get those emotional hurdles out of the way, and be a couple - they are so obviously perfect for each other, but just can't seem to do it. Their paths diverge, Marianne not going through a good time, and Danny for a short time having a really good time. But then they meet up again - will it last?

This was frustrating, I can tell you, as an older person looking in on a young love! But all so incredibly normal - is this the secret behind the title? This novel brings back memories of intense teenage/young adult love/lust/stupid decisions and actions/treating lovers badly/indifferently, navigating one's way through the 'relationship stuff'. Exhausting really, and poor old Danny and Marianne seem to be in a constant state of exhaustion, which leaves you feeling drained, sad and actually very glad that you are no longer at that stage in life.

I am surprised how much I did like this book though, and put it down to the amazingness of the writing. Like so many Irish writers, the author captures emotion, angst, the heartfulness and torment of love, growing up. You feel you are there, that it could be you. There is so much to admire in how she writes about the smallness of the teenage life, how it expands, changes, and grows when moving away to a more stimulating and larger place, not just physically but intellectually too. The story, the plot line could be any book, but it is the writing that elevates this above the standard teenage love story.

THE BAREFOOT SURGEON by Ali Gripper

This is incredible. Not only is this the story of a truly extraordinary and amazing human being, but it is also an extremely well told and outstanding biography. Two huge reasons to read it; be humbled, be excited, enthralled, and grateful that the almost unbelievable story can be told so graciously and so well.

Sanduk Ruit was born in the mid 1950s, into a poor and humble farming community in the mountains of Nepal. Life expectancy was not long, child mortality high, blindness everywhere. And yet from this deprivation, he becomes a world famous healer of the blind, adapting and improving surgery procedures and techniques to pioneer a new and innovative way of cataract surgery, bringing sight back to hundreds of thousands of people. He teams up with Australian ophthalmoloigst Fred Hollows, also a pioneer in the field of cataract surgery and together they take on the rigid and conservative Western medical system to revolutionise the way cataract surgery is done. A real David and Goliath story. Never once does Ruit lose his sense of where he comes from, despite all the fame, accolades, the rich and famous wanting to be associated with him. He continues to perform hundreds of operations a day, in bare feet, in the most impossible environments, with the minimum of facilities and sanitation. His motivation? Seeing what the miracle of sight does to a person, deprived of it for so many years. The rebirth of a life.

The writer has spent a lot of time with Ruit his family, his team of doctors and nurses. She tells his story in his words, his vision, his perseverance and determination. His compassion and love for his fellow man comes shining through, as does his humour, and humbleness. The writer clearly adores her subject, what he represents and how in this deeply troubled world we live in, there are still some very very good people. Outstanding.

THE CUT OUT GIRL by Bart van Es

A memoir of sorts, as well as a biography, this is a gentle and elegantly told story of a young Dutch Jewish girl, Lientje, who was smuggled out of The Hague as the Nazis were taking over Holland, into the care of non-Jewish families in the Dutch countryside. It is also the story of the author, who is the grandson of one of the families Lientje lived with as a little girl. He had grown up knowing that his family had been part of the resistance against the Nazis, and the terrible danger they constantly lived in harbouring a Jewish child. He also knows that something happened some time after the war ended that estranged Lientje from his family.  So he sets out on a quest to find out what happened, Lientje's story is, his own family's story, and in turn  it also becomes a journey of self-discovery and healing for himself.

Part of the story is how Bart tracks down the now very elderly Lientje, her reluctance to open up and tell the story, his quiet and gentle encouragement, getting to know her, gaining her trust.  There is an urgency to it all - she is old after all, he wants to get the story while Lientje is still healthy and well.

We know war is a terrible thing. People do things, make decisions, behave in ways they just would not have to consider in normal every day predictable living. Lientje's parents saw the writing on the wall very quickly, and made the agonising decision to give their only child up to the unknown - the care of others, knowing they would never see her again. He writes so beautifully of this agony, the loneliness of a little girl, doing as she is told, without fully understanding why. being taken by strangers, delivered to strangers, settling in, opening her own heart, being moved on, living in fear.

And then what happened once it was all over. Where does a young girl go whose parents and entire family have all been obliterated?

I loved this book, a sad story, but also full of courage and hope, and above all the rebirth of a relationship and deep bond between two families formed and nurtured during such a trying and difficult time. 

THE ICE PRINCESS by Camilla Lackberg

Translated from the Swedish, this is the first murder mystery in a series featuring writer Erica Falck and detective Patrik Hedstrom. Being the first novel, the author does a lot of scene setting with Erica returning to the small town she was brought up in to sort out her parents' estate following their recent deaths in a car accident.  She is a journalist,  in her mid-30s, tired, stressed, single again, and is both happy and relieved to be back in her old home, enjoying the peace and quiet of her old neighbourhood. Until her best friend from childhood, the beautiful, successful, happily married Alex is found dead in her bathtub, apparently by her own hand.

Being a journalist she  naturally has a very enquiring mind, and fairly quickly she sees that things don't quite stack up in the death by suicide scenario. She and Alex were only children when they were best friends, with Alex and her family suddenly disappearing when the girls were about 10 years old. This little mystery and a few other odd things about Alex and her life do not sit well with Erica. The local detective Patrik also remembers Alex from childhood, and when he and Erica team up, the layers of silence and terrible secrets are gradually revealed.

I kind of guessed what was going on, but the time lines always remained a little hazy, so the big reveal when it did come was still a shock. Which of course is exactly what you want in a good thriller/murder mystery. Plenty of clues and red herrings tossed around, but not enough to give too many Aha moments. I really liked this novel - with a well developed plot line, it just manages to nicely walk the line between 'dynamic crime-solving duo' and the delicate art of slowly peeling the layers behind the lives of those entwined with those who are killed - yes, there is another death! I would happily read the next in the series.