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canadianbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
I read this one on the plane coming home.
This story is set in Portugal and looks at life from the point of view of a number of residents and visitors to a small village there. Some are native Portuguese, others are long-term residents from England, and still others are tourists. There is a range of ages as well from ten up through eighty-four. Some are reminiscing about the past, some living in the present, and others looking to the future. As they deal with the world as its changes come to them, they also look at it in the context of their own familiar lives.
Ali writes beautifully and with great humour and her characters are what make this book. They come to life and illuminate the landscape they reside in.
This story is set in Portugal and looks at life from the point of view of a number of residents and visitors to a small village there. Some are native Portuguese, others are long-term residents from England, and still others are tourists. There is a range of ages as well from ten up through eighty-four. Some are reminiscing about the past, some living in the present, and others looking to the future. As they deal with the world as its changes come to them, they also look at it in the context of their own familiar lives.
Ali writes beautifully and with great humour and her characters are what make this book. They come to life and illuminate the landscape they reside in.
caterinaanna's review against another edition
3.0
As ever with any book which is a collection of stories, some work better than others. This one isn't helped by having the characters who seem to do most to link the various strands together - the ex-pat English family - being really rather unpleasant people. Various reviews that I read while still part-way through suggest that the last chapter brings everything together. In reality, it merely focussed on the most annoying of the characters - someone whose appearance had been long anticipated and turned out to be a disappointment - and most of the others happened to be there at the time: minor interactions, but no real engagement in most cases. Some characters, mostly locals, have been painted sensitively, and I did get enough of a feel for the place to think it would be interesting to visit, but overall I was disappointed.
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