An English teacher 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

A tale, a fable, and some bangin’ good literature… 🔥

⏰ 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫: Luise lives in a small town in Germany with her parents, friends, and a grandmother who dreams of an okapi right before someone dies. There’s love and loss and scads of lessons that are human. It’s a tale of simple life, a view into Luise’s world as she grows up.

💡𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬💡: There’s a fairy-tale, “other world”, almost pagan quality to this novel. A dash of Mysticism. A pinch of Magic. It feels something like a dream in places, but then realistic and down to earth in others. Symbolism is rampant in the forest, the river, and all the nature elements.

In an odd way, it reminded me a bit of stories in Native American literature where nature plays a central and pivotal role. I love where everything travels full circle, but the theme is simply “all life is a life worth living”. Sometimes upon first reading Native American Lit, I didn’t understand (much like the optician in this novel who tries to interpret Buddhist sayings), but reviewing a paragraph or two allowed me to see connections. It’s a tale… about a mismatched family in a simple town. Wonderful things happen. Terrible things happen. Life happens.

I didn’t grow up in a small town but lived in one for 3 years. The insularity was both comforting and disturbing, simultaneously. Leky wonderfully captures that feeling – being supported by a community, but also not being able to escape it. The characters – real people and their real lives are on display.

I don’t pretend to know a great deal about Buddhism (I’m probably best described as agnostic), but I do know that while it’s a religion, there are aspects that many adopt into their non-Buddhist lives, meditation being one for me. Being one with nature is a feeling I strongly associate with (#notahippie). The landscape of the town plays a role, and for me that was linked to spirituality.

😍𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: Literati. Looking for a high-brow true literature book to sink your teeth into and analyze a bit.

🙅‍♀️ 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: Casual, “not wanting to get too deep” readers or those looking for a quick fast-paced read.

All my reviews available at scrappymags.com around time of publication.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Farar, Straus and Giroux Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my always-honest review and for getting me Lit.