The latest books I have read ...

Having finished reading Honour, the fourth book I have read by authour Elif Shafak I must confess there is something rather special about the way she writes and draws the reader's attention. Her novels are skillfully crafted, powerful and virtually irresistible, irrespective of the themes. This one is on "identity, what it is to be an immigrant when the prescriptive traditions you have fled are still carried within" and is worth being read.  

 

"Between you and the enemy, the fist and the internal organs, the individual and the society, the past and the present, the memories and the heart ... in everything that you do or that happens to you in this life, you need space. The space will protect you. The trick in taking a hard punch is to know how to create extra space."

I ended up reading two more immigrant related story books, which having been sponsored by a Portuguese Foundation I had never heard of (Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos ) -  A porteira, a Madame (The concierge and the Madam) by Joana Carvalho Fernandes and Movimento Perpétuo (Perpetual Movement) by Ana Cristina Pereira, I really liked.


They were both informative, particularly regarding some unknown (or rather unrevealed) facts connected to the flux of immigrants from Portugal over the years, but some of  the short stories collected in The Concierge and the Madam were really fascinating ... and definitely worth being read (especially by people who often look down on us and commonly accuse us of not being creative ) ...

Note: I quite liked the fact that the Foundation Francisco Manuel dos Santos had a card related to the printed book  sold together with it, so as to be used as book marker ... (a fairly simple detail that somehow makes the difference).