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A review by jentidders
Bottled Goods by Sophie Van Llewyn
5.0
Deservedly longlisted for the 2019 Women’s Prize, this short novel which combines magic realism, folklore and flash fiction, is set in 1970s Romania during Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime.
Alina and her husband Liviu are teachers in their twenties, whose marriage begins to deteriorate when Liviu's brother defects and they fall under suspicion and surveillance.
Struggling also with a manipulative mother, accusations from a student, and a menacing Secret Services age, Alina turns to her superstitious and mystical Aunt Theresa for a solution to reduce her problems to a manageable size.
Bottled Goods was completely different from what I expected, and I absolutely LOVED it. It's an inventive, peculiar and absorbing read, that is at once funny and bleak, haunting and memorable.
Alina and her husband Liviu are teachers in their twenties, whose marriage begins to deteriorate when Liviu's brother defects and they fall under suspicion and surveillance.
Struggling also with a manipulative mother, accusations from a student, and a menacing Secret Services age, Alina turns to her superstitious and mystical Aunt Theresa for a solution to reduce her problems to a manageable size.
Bottled Goods was completely different from what I expected, and I absolutely LOVED it. It's an inventive, peculiar and absorbing read, that is at once funny and bleak, haunting and memorable.