A review by caterinaanna
Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali

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.