never know what´s next…

Maria Reva: Endling.

A year ago we purchased an old house in a very tiny rural village. The house and the annex need a lot of work - and after a year, they still do since there still are a lot of untouched corners, rooms, walls, floors, ceilings- but, there also is a garden attached to the house. It is a sheltered garden, garded by ancient stone walls. There is lot to be done, there, too but as there are some spiders in the attic, there are snails itruding (?) the garden. 

So, the garden is occupied by snails. There's no shortage of them. I used to have them for dinner, occasionally, here in France, but no more. No more am I removing them from my garden either since now, after reading Endling, I know they are even more important to the environment than ever (yet still I have the urge to remove them from my roses, from the stone walls). 

So, I let them live, unbothered as I would like Ukrainians live unbothered by Russians as well and here I come to Endling, to Reva ´s book. These - snails, Russians, Ukrainans under the attack, are thematically written in Reva's book, awarded and for good reason, too.Her writing is on point, sharp and her dialogue flows.

This book was a very good read, suprising, dimentional, up to date with very current themes. 

There's a lot in this book. A bit too much, even. Just to mention few, there's feminism, marriage equality,marriage rights and brides and bachelors, real and phoney. There's war, identity, feeling an outsider,feelings out of your own heritage, your own culture and language. There's sisterhood, brotherhood, mothers, loneliness, western values versus others and yes, there's snails and environmental issues…So much as you can tell - too much even- but what I especially enjoyed in this marvellous book, was the writer and her struggles in her writing this book, her writing in her life situatons. Loved those pages,the reality, the rawness.

A book with merits, a book worth reading.