Expats & Books

I was recently approached to participate in an interview about expats and books by Anita from Greetings from Holland.

Here is an excerpt:

An important book in your life is....
"Paul Coelho's ‘The Alchemist’
The Alchemist is about a young boy named Santiago who sets out to live his dream instead of settling down into mundane everyday life like so many of us do. The book is written simply in the style of a fable, it is full of fantasy, symbolism and adventure similar to what we find in fairy tales but the message is beautiful..." Read the rest of the article.

On the topic of books, I have to say that lately I have really been getting back into reading tonnes of fiction and it is gezellig overload as I lay on the sofa reading while Pogo sits on belly and purrs. At the moment I am picking up a little obsession for Paul Auster (who I recently wrote about here). After finishing his 'The Book of Illusions' I started on his signature work 'The New York Trilogy'.

Just like The Book of Illusions, The New York Trilogy keeps you on the edge and keeps you guessing. Like I mentioned in the interview these novels are a little "dark" and "leave you a little chilled" but I can't help wanting more, so next on my list is 'The Brooklyn Follies'.

Book Review: The Book of Illusions By Paul Auster

The Book of Illusions is without doubt one of the best books I have ever read.


Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost film by silent comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer’s interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years.

When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer’s mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico inviting him to meet Hector. Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever.

The Book of Illusions drew me in from the first sentence and because I couldn't put it down I (sadly) only got to know the characters for a very, very short period of time.

It is a difficult book to describe because the plot was simple, but what made it so hard for me to put down was the eloquent way Auster portrayed his characters, it was powerfully descriptive and so emotionally charged that I found myself chocking back tears several times. They were real, so real it was hard to believe they didn’t really exist, that they didn’t really live these experiences, even if their experiences and circumstances were unbelievable.

The story is told in several narrative layers and as it progresses you begin to see parallels between the lives of David Zimmer and Hector Man; both are broken, both are profoundly sad, both are guilt ridden and both are doing penance from events of random but tragic circumstance.

The Book of Illusions is packed full of symbolism of which I hear Auster is very well known for, but this was the first of his books I read and I intend to familiarise myself with more of his work, so waiting for me on my bookshelf is The New York trilogy :)