A review by whatbritreads
A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible by Christy Lefteri
4.0
Christy Lefteri really knows how to write a book that will tug on your heart strings. She has an amazing way of coupling fiction with real and relevant social commentary on the state of the world, or the state the world has previously been in.
Her writing is especially beautiful in this one, it might be my second favourite after The Beekeeper of Aleppo. It’s a real demonstration of pure talent when a book can make me care and feel a great depth of emotion only a few pages in but this managed to do just that. It was ridiculously heartbreaking right from the first couple of chapters right through to the end. It was so heavy but delicately handled. For such a dense book it felt effortless to get lost in, the storytelling was so immersive I couldn’t help but keep turning the pages. I devoured this over a few hours in a single sitting.
This story, despite being so sad, was very charming. The characters were so bold and realistic, it almost felt like reading a report of real events. I loved how different they all were and this ended up being a very rare occasion in which I actually cared about every single perspective being offered to me. They were all fascinating and came together to tie the story up nicely. Nicely definitely not being a literal description of how it plays out. This is still, at the end of the day, a story about the devastating impacts of war and corrupt politics. It did these things the utmost justice in my opinion, accurately and beautifully handled.
My main qualm with this book was the odd sections of storytelling that felt like infodumping, it was a completely unexpected way of doing things that I didn’t like or see the need for. Characters on multiple occasions just randomly started telling their entire life stories over several pages without pause out loud to other characters. It just felt really unnatural and I wish we could have learnt about them and their lives in a way that felt less rushed and forced. It took me out of it for a few short lapses.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. If you’re looking for something brutally honest and sad, this is the one. The ending of this actually physically made my heart drop and I felt sick at what I read. I’ve never had such a visceral physical response to reading something before this.
Her writing is especially beautiful in this one, it might be my second favourite after The Beekeeper of Aleppo. It’s a real demonstration of pure talent when a book can make me care and feel a great depth of emotion only a few pages in but this managed to do just that. It was ridiculously heartbreaking right from the first couple of chapters right through to the end. It was so heavy but delicately handled. For such a dense book it felt effortless to get lost in, the storytelling was so immersive I couldn’t help but keep turning the pages. I devoured this over a few hours in a single sitting.
This story, despite being so sad, was very charming. The characters were so bold and realistic, it almost felt like reading a report of real events. I loved how different they all were and this ended up being a very rare occasion in which I actually cared about every single perspective being offered to me. They were all fascinating and came together to tie the story up nicely. Nicely definitely not being a literal description of how it plays out. This is still, at the end of the day, a story about the devastating impacts of war and corrupt politics. It did these things the utmost justice in my opinion, accurately and beautifully handled.
My main qualm with this book was the odd sections of storytelling that felt like infodumping, it was a completely unexpected way of doing things that I didn’t like or see the need for. Characters on multiple occasions just randomly started telling their entire life stories over several pages without pause out loud to other characters. It just felt really unnatural and I wish we could have learnt about them and their lives in a way that felt less rushed and forced. It took me out of it for a few short lapses.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. If you’re looking for something brutally honest and sad, this is the one. The ending of this actually physically made my heart drop and I felt sick at what I read. I’ve never had such a visceral physical response to reading something before this.