The Summer List
- Majken Zein Sørensen
- Jun 25, 2020
- 22 min read
Read, Watch and Listen your way through the holiday ☀️ 'The Summer List' is here! Great books, fun tv-series, interesting movies, and adventurous podcasts. All with elements of ‘history’...and made together with the lovely readers of this blog.
Please go ahead, dive in, and explore all the great stuff. Enjoy!
🌏 Around the World 🔎 Cosy Mysteries 👑 About a Very Special Person ⏳ Very Long Time Ago💥 War Time 📝 Notebooks 🕍 Jewish Family Histories 🖌🎨 Great Art 🔮💫 Curiouser and Curiouser 👀
🌏 Around the World
📚 Egypt
“The Republic of False Truths”
A work of fiction about the Egyptian revolution, taking us inside the battle raging between those in power and those prepared to lay down their lives in the defense of freedom.
Cairo, 2011. After decades under a repressive regime, tensions are rising in the city streets. No one is out of reach of the revolution. There is General Alwany, a high-ranking member of the government's security agency, a pious man who loves his family yet won't hesitate to torture enemies of the state; Asma, a young teacher who chafes against the brazen corruption at her school; Ashraf, an out-of-work actor who is having an affair with his maid and who gets pulled into Tahrir Square through a chance encounter; Nourhan, a television personality who loyally defends those in power; and many more.
As these lives collide, a new generation finds a voice, love blossoms across class divides, and the revolution gains strength. Even the General finds himself at a crossroads as his own daughter joins the protests. Yet the old regime will not give up without a fight. With an unforgettably vivid cast of characters and a heart-pounding narrative, Al Aswany gives us a deeply human portrait of the Egyptian Revolution, and an impassioned retelling of his country's turbulent recent history.
Written by: Alaa Al-Aswany.
📍 Watch this interview with Alaa Al-Aswany: “Religion should be a personal, private issue. The state should not have any religion. This is the only way to achieve democracy.” Watch the world-renowned Egyptian novelist Alaa al-Aswany speak straightforwardly about contemporary Egypt and why a great societal change is imminent. (Made by ‘Louisiana Channel’)
🎬 England, Singapore, USA, Sweden, Argentina, Finland, Russia, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Canada, Alaska…
“The Complaints Choir"
'Complaints Choir' is a community art project that invites people to sing about their complaints in a choir together with fellow complainers.
The first Complaints Choir was organized in Birmingham (UK) in 2005, followed by the Complaints Choirs of Helsinki, Hamburg and St. Petersburg in 2006. The public performances of the four choirs were recorded and made into the documentary “The Complaints Choir”. After it had been distributed through online magazines and video sharing websites, the idea spread quickly to many other countries.
In 2006 in Singapore, a complaints choir that was to be in a festival was prohibited from performing by the government. The Singapore government's Media Development Authority refused to issue a permit because some members of the choir were foreigners and some of the lyrics touched upon "domestic affairs”.
The name 'Complaints Choir' is a literal translation of the long-established Finnish expression ‘valituskuoro’, English has the expression "a chorus of complaints”.
One of the complaints mentioned in the Helsinki version was the fact that the Finns were always beaten by the Swedes in the Eurovision Song Contest. A few months later, Finland won the contest for the first time, with Sweden coming fifth.
The project is initiated by: Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen.
📍 “The slugs will eat my lettuce, and dogs won’t clean their poo, I haven’t won the lottery, life is going down the loo…” Watch the Complaints Choir of Birmingham sing out citizens’ complaints
📚 Greece, Spain, Turkey
“The Island”
On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother’s past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more.
Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone’s throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga – Greece’s former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war, and passion.
She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip…
“The Return”
Beneath the majestic towers of the Alhambra, Granada’s cobbled streets resonate with music and secrets. Sonia Cameron knows nothing of the city’s shocking past; she is here to dance. But in a quiet café, a chance conversation and an intriguing collection of old photographs draw her into the extraordinary tale of Spain’s devastating civil war.
Seventy years earlier, the café is home to the close-knit Ramírez family. In 1936, an army coup led by Franco shatters the country’s fragile peace, and in the heart of Granada the family witnesses the atrocities of conflict. Divided by politics and tragedy, everyone must take a side, fighting a personal battle as Spain rips itself apart.
“The Thread”
Thessaloniki, 1917. As Dimitri Komninos is born, a fire sweeps through the thriving multicultural city, where Christians, Jews and Moslems live side by side. It is the first of many catastrophic events that will change for ever this city, as war, fear and persecution begin to divide its people.
Five years later, young Katerina escapes to Greece when her home in Asia Minor is destroyed by the Turkish army. Losing her mother in the chaos, she finds herself on a boat to an unknown destination. From that day the lives of Dimitri and Katerina become entwined, with each other and with the story of the city itself.
Thessaloniki, 2007. A young Anglo-Greek hears the life story of his grandparents for the first time and realises he has a decision to make. For many decades, they have looked after the memories and treasures of people who have been forcibly driven from their beloved city. Should he become their new custodian? Should he stay or should he go?
All the three books above are written by: Victoria Hislop.
🔎 Cosy Mysteries
📚 “The Moonstone”
Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond - aka the Moonstone - on her eighteenth birthday. At her birthday party, she wears the diamond on her dress for all to see, however, later that night the precious stone is stolen from Rachel's bedroom. Now starts the efforts to explain the theft, identify the thief, trace the diamond, and recover it.
“The Moonstone” is a novel from 1868 and thereby in itself a piece of history. It is considered to be the first novel in the detective-genre and is often said to be the godfather of the classic English detective story. When it was released it instantly became a bestseller.
FUN FACTS: “The Moonstone” was originally serialised by Charles Dickens, a close friend of Wilkie Collins, in his magazine ‘All the Year Round’ between 4 January and 8 August 1868. In 1877 the novel was adapted for the stage, a production that ran for about two months. Subsequently, there have been many films, radio and television adaptations.
Written by: Wilkie Collins.
🎧 “A Shot in the Dark”
Sussex, England, 1929. Mydworth is a sleepy English market town just 50 miles from London. But things are about to liven up there, when young and handsome Sir Harry Mortimer returns home from his diplomatic posting in Cairo, with his beautiful and unconventional American wife, Kat. No sooner have the two arrived, when a jewel robbery occurs at Harry's aunt's home - Mydworth Manor…
Part of the “Mydworth Mysteries”-series: “A Shot in the Dark”, “A Little Night Murder” & “London Calling”.
Written by: Matthew Costello & Neil Richards. Narrated by Nathaniel Parker.
📍Find it here: Audible - Here's a free sample
📺 “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries”
The series revolves around the personal and professional life of Phryne Fisher, a glamorous private detective in 1920s Melbourne. In the first episode, “Cocaine Blues”, Miss Fischer has returned to Melbourne after years abroad. Immediately she is embroiled in mystery: A poisoned husband, cocaine and smuggling rings.
“Miss Fischer’s Murder Mysteries” is based on author Kerry Greenwood's historical mystery novels. A feature film titled “Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears” was released in February 2020.
Created by: Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger.
📍Find it here: Netflix.
👑 About a Very Special Person
📚 “Josephine Baker”
A graphic biography that tells the story of the life of Josephine Baker: “The remarkable life and glorious times of a spirited, principled and thoroughly modern woman – a star who dazzled audiences in the twenties, who aided the French Resistance during World War II and who in later years adopted 12 children from different ethnic backgrounds to prove that racial harmony was possible.”
Created by: Catel Muller & José-Louis Bocquet
📺 “The Great - An Occasionally True Story"
“The Great” is a satirical, comedic drama loosely based on the story about the rise of Catherine the Great from outsider to the longest-reigning female ruler in Russia's history. The series is fictionalized and portrays Catherine in her youth and marriage with Emperor Peter III (amalgamated with Peter II) focusing on the plot to kill her depraved and dangerous husband.
Written by: Tony McNamara.
🎧 “The Half-Life of Marie Curie”
In 1912, scientist Marie Curie spent two months on the British seaside at the home of Hertha Ayrton, an accomplished mathematician, inventor, and suffragette. At the time, Curie was in the throes of a scandal in France over her affair with Paul Langevin, which threatened to overshadow the accomplishment of her second Nobel Prize.
“The Half-Life of Marie Curie” is recorded at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City...and it is really well done! Please listen to the free sample below.
Written by: Lauren Gunderson.
Performed by: Kate Mulgrew and Francesca Faridany.
📍Find it here: Audible - Listen to a free sample
📚 The Neapolitan Novels
Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years. The books circles around the main characters, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, as they become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship.
Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women.
The first novel in the series - “My Brilliant Friend” - has been adapted for television. You can watch it at HBO.
Written by: Elena Ferrante.
⏳ Very Long Time Ago
📚 Earth’s Children-series
“The Clan of the Cave Bear” - “The Valley of Horses” - “The Mammoth Hunters” - “The Plains of Passage” - “The Shelters of Stone” - “The Land of Painted Caves”.
“Earth's Children” is a series of epic historical fiction novels that sets in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic era, circa 30,000 years before present.
It tells the story of Ayla, an orphaned Cro-Magnon girl who is adopted and raised by a tribe of Neanderthals and who later embarks on a journey to find the Others (her own kind). Along the way she meets her romantic interest and supporting co-character, Jondalar.
The couple journey from the region of Ukraine to Jondalar's home in what is now France, along an indirect route up the Danube River valley. In the third and fourth works, they meet various groups of Cro-Magnons and encounter their culture and technology. In the fifth novel they finally return to southwestern France and Jondalar's people. The series includes a highly detailed focus on botany, herbology, herbal medicine, archaeology and anthropology, but also more personal themes such as romance, sex, and coming-of-age crises.
Written by: Jean M. Auel.
📚 The Adventures of Asterix
“Asterix in Britain”, “Asterix in Switzerland”, and “Asterix the Legionary”
A France-Belgian comic series about Gaulish warriors, who have adventures and fight the Roman Empire during the era of Julius Caesar. Each Asterix comic starts with the following introduction: “The year is 50 BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely… One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders.”
The Gaulish warriors resist the Roman occupation by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid Getafix (Panoramix in the French version), which temporarily gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonists, the title character Asterix and his friend Obelix, have various adventures. In many of the stories, they travel to foreign countries.
FUN FACT: The "-ix" ending of both of the title characters' names (as well as all the other pseudo-Gaulish "-ix" names in the series) alludes to the "-rix" suffix (meaning "king") present in the names of many real Gaulish chieftains such as Vercingetorix, Orgetorix, and Dumnorix.
Created by: René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo.
In 2012 the movie “Asterix and Obelix - God Save Britannia” was made, inspired by the comic book “Asterix in Britain” 👇
💥 War Time
📚 “Blitz - The Story of the 29TH December 1940”
A quiet Sunday teatime and, in the City of London, clerks and draper's assistants, canteen ladies, caretakers, architects and clerics join firefighters and wardens preparing to protect their 'Square Mile' through the night.
In France meanwhile, the Luftwaffe's elite pathfinders take off at the head of a terrifying fire-raid - designed to burn off, 'like weed patches from the air', London's ancient heart.
The image of St Paul's that night amid clouds of black smoke immediately became the ultimate symbol of Britain's Blitz defiance. But the reality of this 'Second Great Fire of London', in all its unprecedented destruction and indomitable humanity, is almost lost amid myth and counter-myth.
Now, in a stunningly vivid and immediate work of historical storytelling, M. J. Gaskin tells the true story of London's desperate hours. And she shows how, across the Atlantic, Americans agonized over the cost of aiding Britain's struggle against the Nazis - and the cost of letting her fall.
Written by: M.J. Gaskin.
📺 “Kindertransport: A fantastic Act of Love”
“Dame Stephanie Shirley was among thousands of mostly Jewish unaccompanied children, who were sent by their parents to safety in the UK fleeing the rise of the Nazis in Europe. She was just five years old when her mother put her on a train in Vienna bound for London, not knowing if they would ever meet again. Dame Stephanie tells Witness History about the lasting trauma left by her mother's "fantastic act of love”.”
The story is part of ‘BBC Witness History - the past as told by the people who were there.’ In the archive you find 100s of historical tellings and happenings from around the world.
🎬 “Balloon”
"Balloon" tells the true story of the two families, the Strelzyks and the Wetzels, who built a hot-air balloon in a cellar in Thuringia, a state in the German Democratic Republic, before flying across the border into Bavaria one chilly night in September 1979. The first attempt, involving the Wetzels fails, with the balloon crashing into a forest before it could cross over the border - it turned out that the balloon they devised wasn't large enough for all of them. Although the family is able to make their way back home, the balloon is eventually discovered by the authorities, who begin an intense manhunt to find the culprits before they can try again.
Director: Michael Bully Herbig.
📝 Notebooks
📚 “Explorers' Sketchbooks - the Art of Discovery and Adventure”
The sketchbooks and journals presented in this book allow us the opportunity to share, through their own eyes and thoughts, the on-the-spot reactions of around 70 intrepid individuals as they journeyed into frozen waters, high mountains, barren deserts and rich rainforests.
Some are well known, such as Captain Scott, Charles Darwin, Thor Heyerdahl and Abel Tasman; others are unfamiliar, including Adela Breton, who braved the jungles of Mexico to make an unparalleled record of Maya monuments, and Alexandrine Tinne, who died in her attempt to be the first woman to cross the Sahara.
Here are pioneering explorers and map-makers, botanists and artists, ecologists and anthropologists, eccentrics and visionaries, men and women, providing their thoughts on the art of exploration.
Created by: Huw Lewis-Jones & Kari Herbert.
📚 “Listography - Your Life in Lists”
So you can read exciting journals written by other people - or you can create your own! And it doesn’t have to be complicated.
How about writing your autobiography made up entirely of listed details from your life? Lisa Nola has created a number of ‘Listography-books’, like the “Travel Listography: Exploring the World in Lists”, the “Literary Listography: My Reading Life in Lists” the “Food Listography: My Delicious Life in Lists” or how about the “One List A Day - A Three Year Journal”.
All you have to do is to fill out the lists and there’s your life, all written down in one notebook.
🕍 Jewish Family Histories
📚 “The Hare With Amber Eyes”
Edmund de Waal is a world-famous ceramicist. Having spent thirty years making beautiful pots―which are then sold, collected, and handed on―he has a particular sense of the secret lives of objects.
When he inherited a collection of 264 tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings, called netsuke - none of them larger than a matchbox - he wanted to know who had touched and held them, and how the collection had managed to survive. And so begins this extraordinarily moving memoir and detective story as de Waal discovers both the story of the netsuke and of his family, the Ephrussis.
The Ephrussi family & the netsukes - in short: Once the Ephrussi family were a very wealthy European Jewish banking dynasty, centered in Odessa, Vienna, and Paris. Also, they were peers of the Rothschild family. However, in 1938 they lost almost everything when the Nazis confiscated their property. After the war, the family failed to recover most of its extensive property, including priceless artwork, but this easily hidden collection of 264 Japanese netsuke miniature sculptures was saved, smuggled away by a loyal maid, Anna, and hidden in her straw mattress. All in all the collection has been passed down through five generations of the Ephrussi family, providing a common thread for the story of its fortunes from 1871 to 2009.
Written by: Edmund de Wall.
🎧 “My Lost Family”
In the 1950s, Ben-Moshe’s mother, Lillian, met a student called Raymond who belonged to a wealthy Iranian Jewish family. He was handsome, and she was a naive 15-year-old; she soon found herself pregnant. And so, they were married. This was not a success. They were poor because Raymond couldn’t find work in London, and it wasn’t long before Lillian was living with her Yiddish-speaking refugee mother again, along with her two small children: Andrew, then three, and Michelle, then two.
One day, Raymond knocked at the door. He wanted to take the children to the park and, having no reason to refuse, she let him. But he never returns. When they reappear 40 years later, the search for the truth begins.
Unfolding like a mystery, we follow Danny Ben-Moshe and his eccentric Jewish family as they unearth secrets, attempt to reconcile, and hear the shocking news that sheds new light on events.
This podcast-series builds upon the story from Danny Ben-Moshe’s award-winning documentary film “My Mother’s Lost Children".
📺 “Unorthodox”
Esty, a 19-year-old Jewish woman, is living unhappily in an arranged marriage among an ultra-Orthodox community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City. On a Sabbath day, she runs away to Berlin, where her estranged mother lives. Here she tries to navigate a secular life, discovering life outside her community and rejecting all of the beliefs she grew up with.
Back in Williamsburg, Esty's husband, Yanky Shapiro, discovers she is missing and runs to his family for help. He learns that she is pregnant, and by order of their rabbi he travels to Berlin with his cousin, to try to find her.
“Unorthodox” is inspired by Deborah Feldman's autobiography “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots”.
Find it here: Netflix.
🖌 🎨 Great Art
📚 “In Search of Lost Time”
or “Remembrance of Things Past”
[This excellent review of “In Search of Lost Time” 👇 is written by - the person behind - the site: Rat Race Refuge .com (shortened version)]
“A La Recherche du Temps Perdu” has been published in English as “In Search of Lost Time” and as “Remembrance of Things Past”. Under any name, this classic by Marcel Proust intimidates many potential readers due to its mind boggling length of 3308 pages. Despite the length, this is not a difficult novel to read; it’s just long. In fact, the writing style is straightforward and doesn’t suffer from being pretentious although it does contain extended descriptive passages. In addition, the novel was originally broken up into 8 books so you can think of this as a long series of more manageable length novels. However, other than the first book, “Swann’s Way”, the rest of the books in the series don’t stand alone very well so if you read past the first book, you’ll be in it for the long haul.
Before tackling “In Search of Lost Time”, I need to warn you not to expect any kind of conventional plot. Instead, this is a first person memoir of the narrator as he comes of age at the beginning of the 20th century in the high society circles of Paris. In addition, the narrator is not strong and heroic; he is a sickly, sensitive young man who is a bit effeminate. This might not sound promising for a novel but when you dive into it, you’re in for an extraordinary experience. This is a work of literature that takes you right inside the mind and thoughts of the narrator in a way that has rarely, if ever, been equaled. Not only do you get to be privy to the narrator’s innermost thoughts during key events in his life, you also get to experience his everyday anxieties, daydreams, obsessions, and emotional ups and downs. It’s fascinating how completely you become immersed in a world that seems utterly real with characters that you grow to know just as if they were real friends and acquaintances.
There are certainly large differences between French high society in the early 1900s and modern society. However, the characters in this novel have the same motivations, personalities, character defects, and problems as modern people. The psychological issues of the early 1900s aren’t really much different than today. The characters in this work will undoubtedly remind you of people you’ve met and, after reading this novel, you’ll probably gain some insight into their personalities. I thought the depictions of people having a desperate desire to gain admittance into the upper level “salons” of Paris to be both entertaining and realistic. The social infighting, backstabbing, subtle slights, and sucking up were all described brilliantly. I’ve met plenty of members of the local country club who have the same social obsessions as the characters depicted in this work.
The most impressive aspect of Proust’s writing is his ability to describe perceptions, emotions, and epiphanies. Everyone’s heard the saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Here, Proust shows repeatedly that, with a thousand words, he can describe things that can’t be captured in a photograph. One of the most famous examples of this is his description of how the taste of “madeleines” triggers deep memories and emotions. The first part of this passage is reprinted below:
“one day in winter, on my return home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea, a thing I did not ordinarily take. I declined at first, and then, for no particular reason, changed my mind. She sent for one of those squat, plump little cakes called “petites madeleines,” which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell.
And soon, mechanically, dispirited after a dreary day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me.
An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory—this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was me. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal.
Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I sensed that it was connected with the taste of the tea and the cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could not, indeed, be of the same nature. Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it?”
Within “In Search of Lost Time”, Proust has ample opportunity to explore many themes. The overarching themes are focused on memory, perception, and the passage of time. There is also much examination of love in many forms, lust, friendship, faithfulness, honesty, dishonesty, social climbing, politics, aging, and death. In short, this is series of books about life with all its wonders, difficulties, and triumphs.
Much has been made of the depictions of homosexuality in this work as it is well known that Proust was a homosexual although the narrator of the novel is not. In fact, the narrator often reflects a negative view of homosexuality. But, for its day, this was probably a groundbreaking novel in that it has important characters that are homosexual and there are some long conversations and thoughts about homosexuality in both men and women.
At his best, Proust provides startling insights into the meaning of life. At his worst, he rambles on long digressions, not unexpectedly with a novel of this length. There are certainly more than a few sections that could have benefited from serious editing. The last 3 books of the series suffer the worst from excess bloat because Proust died before he completed his final editing of these books. I suspect the publisher was afraid to begin any serious editing of these works due to a fear of modifying the intent of the author. But overall, the bulk of the writing is so good that the excesses can be easily forgiven.
My recommendation for “In Search of Lost Time” or “Remembrance of Things Past” is to start with the first book, “Swann’s Way” and be very patient with the slow start. You owe it to yourself to take the time to read at the least the first 300 pages. At that point you’ll know if this novel is going to be worth your time. If you find yourself drawn into the world of Proust, you’ll find that these books are quite addictive and you’ll have to continue to the end. Despite a drop in quality over the last 3 books, the very last book does a terrific job of bringing the novel full circle and should not be missed.
“In Search of Lost Time” or “Remembrance of Things Past” is written by: Marcel Proust.
🎬 “Loving Vincent”
An animated biographical drama film about the life of the painter Vincent van Gogh, and, in particular, about the circumstances of his death. Did he commit suicide - or was he shot? A young man named Armand, who is sent by his father to deliver Van Gogh's last letter to his brother, Theo, starts to investigate the affair.
Reportedly a local boy in the village where Van Gogh stayed at the end of his life liked to torment Van Gogh. The boy was in possession of a gun, which he often, drunkenly, had waved around town, however, the daughter of the house where Van Gogh lived at this time is certain that the young lad wasn’t capable of murder.
Still, the doctor who examined Van Gogh, claims that the shot that killed the artist must have come from a few feet away, and this rules out suicide. Armand is puzzled. But then he learns that Van Gogh had had a violent argument with his landlord shortly before his death…
After Armand returns home, he receives word from Theo's widow, Johanna, thanking Armand for returning the letter. Johanna attaches one of Van Gogh's letters to her – signed, "Your loving Vincent."
“Loving Vincent” is the first fully painted animated feature film. Each of the film's 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, created using the same techniques as Van Gogh by a team of 125 artists drawn from around the globe.
🔮💫 Curiouser and Curiouser 👀
📚 The Cemetery of Forgotten Books - series
“The Shadow of the Wind”
Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the ‘Cemetery of Lost Books’, a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Carax.
But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find.
Then, one night, as he is wandering the old streets once more, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from the book, a character who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax’s work in order to burn them.
What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind…
“The Angel’s Game”
In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man – David Martin – makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books, and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner. Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love.
Then David receives the offer of a lifetime: he is to write a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realises that there is a connection between this haunting book and the shadows that surround his home…
“The Prisoner of Heaven”
It begins just before Christmas in Barcelona in 1957, one year after Daniel and Bea from “The Shadow of the Wind” have married. They now have a son, Julian, and are living with Daniel’s father at Sempere & Sons. Fermin still works with them and is busy preparing for his wedding to Bernarda in the New Year. However something appears to be bothering him.
Daniel is alone in the shop one morning when a mysterious figure with a pronounced limp enters. He spots one of their most precious volumes that is kept locked in a glass cabinet, a beautiful and unique illustrated edition of “The Count of Monte Cristo”. Despite the fact that the stranger seems to care little for books, he wants to buy this expensive edition. Then, to Daniel’s surprise, the man inscribes the book with the words ‘To Fermin Romero de Torres, who came back from the dead and who holds the key to the future’. This visit leads back to a story of imprisonment, betrayal and the return of a deadly rival …
“The Labyrinth of the Spirits”
As a child, Daniel Sempere discovered among the passageways of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books an extraordinary novel that would change the course of his life. Now a young man in the Barcelona of the late 1950s, Daniel runs the Sempere & Sons bookshop and enjoys a seemingly fulfilling life with his loving wife and son. Yet the mystery surrounding the death of his mother continues to plague his soul.
Just when Daniel believes he is close to solving this enigma, a conspiracy more sinister than he could have imagined spreads its tentacles from the hellish Franco regime. That is when Alicia Gris appears, a soul born out of the nightmare of the war. She is the one who will lead Daniel to the edge of the abyss and reveal the secret history of his family, although at a terrifying price.
The four books above is written - in this order - by: Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
🎧 “The Curse of the Hope Diamond”
The Hope Diamond is one of the most iconic items in the Smithsonian's collections. However, this glittering gem is rumoured to have a dark side. French monarchs, an heiress, and at least one unlucky postman have met misfortune after possessing it—though does that really constitute a curse?
In the “The Curse of the Hope Diamond” podcast, the host tracks the lore of this notorious gem through the centuries, from southern India, through the French Revolution, and across the Atlantic Ocean to its current home at the National Museum of Natural History, to find out.
📍Sidedoor: A Podcast that dives into the stories of the treasures of the Smithsonian Institution - the world's largest museum, education, and research complex. Find the podcast here
📚 “The Club Dumas”
Lucas Corso is a book detective, a middle-aged mercenary hired to hunt down rare editions for wealthy and unscrupulous clients. When a well-known bibliophile is found dead, leaving behind part of the original manuscript of Alexandre Dumas's “The Three Musketeers”, Corso is brought in to authenticate the fragment.
He is soon drawn into a swirling plot involving devil worship, occult practices, and swashbuckling derring-do - all happening among a cast of characters bearing a suspicious resemblance to those of Dumas's masterpiece. Aided by a mysterious beauty named for a Conan Doyle heroine, Corso travels from Madrid to Toledo to Paris on the killer's trail in this twisty intellectual romp through the book world.
Written by: Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
📍The film director, Roman Polanski, once read “The Club Dumas”, and he liked it. Actually he liked it so much that he ended up making a movie - partly - based on it. He said that he "saw so many elements that seemed good for a movie. It was suspenseful, funny, and there were a great number of secondary characters that are tremendously cinematic”. The movie is called “The Ninth Gate” - watch the trailer here 👇
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