Сух период

by Gabriela Babnik

Сух период" описва любовни отношения, в които обичайните роли са разменени. Тя - шейсет и две годишна художничка със средноевропейски произход, той - двайсет и седем годишен африканец, отраснал на улицата и ставал жертва на множество злоупотреби. Онова, което ги сближава, е самотата на техните тела, трагичното детство и най-вече времето на харматана - сухия период, когато нито природата, нито любовта могат да разцъфнат.

Скоро художничката осъзнава, че празните пространства между тях са създадени не само от цвета на кожата и разликата в годините, а преди всичко от нейната принадлежност към западната цивилизация, в която самата тя е изгубила всяка от определените й роли - на дъщеря, на жена и на майка. Еротиката не премахва самотността, изтласканите тайни от миналото изплуват и в света, който тя иначе мисли за по-стабилен, за по-невинен. В романа се вплитат магически реализъм и фрагменти от африканската политическа реалност.

Genres: Africa, Contemporary, Fiction, Burkina Faso

Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Gabriela Babnik (born 1979) is a Slovene writer, literary critic and translator. She has published three novels and her journalistic literary and film criticism regularly appears in national newspapers and magazines in Slovenia.

(wikipedia)

Reviews

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, let me say that I never would have learned about this title, let alone read it, if my challenge group weren't trying, as a group, to read something set in every country of the world. Burkina Faso has not yet been claimed, and it seemed such an out of the way place, that it might go neglected for some time.

This includes two first person accounts which don't exactly alternate, but are definitely interspersed. For the first sentence or two of a new section, it wasn't always clear who was speaking, but clarity was quickly restored. I should have had more empathy for Ana, the 62-year old woman but for some reason did not. There was just something off about her and I couldn't quite feel for her. The ending, which was completely unseen by me, gave me the reason for my disquiet. Ismael, the 27-year old African, I felt for entirely. Parts of his story made my heart ache, literally. It goes without saying that characterization is quite strong in this novel and is a good enough reason for reading without the setting.

The prose is quite good and varied, and I would lean toward another by this author for this reason even without the strong characterization. I thought about the translator's role in this. There are occasional short segments where the Africans' voice is pidgin English. This must not have been an easy job to convert from the original Slovenian to English.

When a description says it includes "magical realism" I don't know what to expect. As a general rule, I don't like this, but I know I have exceptions. So, I decided to plunge ahead despite that. It was more of the type that I don't like than the type I'm willing to accept, but not so much that I couldn't move ahead. For me, it was more "blurry around the edges." There are those who could find enough "ick" factors in this to avoid it. The frequent reference to a man's penis was certainly different from my normal reading.

This easily crosses the 5-star threshold and I'm very glad to have read it.

[Vishy · Rating 4 out of 5]

We've all heard of 'Hurricane Season'. Well, this is not that 😊 In these parts, it is 'Dry Season' 😊 With Gabriela Babnik.

A woman in her sixties is walking through the streets of Burkina Faso. She meets a man in his twenties. Sparks fly. What happens next? She is in her sixties, he is in his twenties. She is white, he is black. Will this work? You have to read the book to find out.

I loved the central premise in the book. I haven't read many (=any) spring–autumn romances, especially in literary fiction, especially in which the woman is older. It is common in movies and TV shows. But I haven't seen many books featuring this. So that was wonderful. Gabriela Babnik's prose is elegant and is a pleasure to read. I loved that. The story is narrated by the two lovers alternatively. They talk about their past and how they came to be where they were in the present. I loved those parts which delved on their past history. The parts in which they talked about their relationship and about each other – I found them hit and miss. Sometimes I loved those parts, sometimes I found them underwhelming.

One of the things I love reading in books is the description of food. There is a description of a Burkina Faso food in the book – "tô, kneaded balls of dough soaked in sesame sauce." I want to try that 😊

Towards the end, the story has a cinematic climax, which in my opinion felt thrust in. I would have loved it when I was younger. But now, I was a little bit disappointed. But the book has won widespread acclaim and won awards. So probably, the problem is with me and not with the book.

I am glad I read 'Dry Season'. It has many things to recommend it. It is also my first Slovenian book 😊 So, yay! My dream is to read atleast one book from every language from the Balkan region. Till now I've read Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Slovenian books. Only Montenegrin and Macedonian are left. Looking forward to reading them also soon.

I'll leave you with some of my favourite passages from the book.

"In fact, I don’t really know how it is with the body – when, exactly, does it start to decline, when does it surrender to that cold blast of wind, not asking, not hoping anymore, that things might change for the better? The only comfort is the here and now, which becomes the best you’ve got."

"I swore to myself that I would learn to make sentences, not just letters and words, but long weaving sentences, and would someday write it all down in the dust, in the ground, in the earth. And when somebody looks down at my writing from above, their heart, from all the beauty of it, will cling to their inner walls and simply stand still."

"Should I be like other elderly people who sit in remote villages and gaze into the fire and at certain rare moments think their life could have encompassed something other than simply what it is now? Or like the elderly lady who watches people’s faces through the window of a café, people too preoccupied to return her look? All my life I had lived the way other people wanted me to live, my mother, my father, my son, my ex-husband, my customers; all my life I had been the person they wanted to see. I could remember periods of my life lived through as somebody else, so now I had no need to pretend. So all those men sitting at that low table, and the woman by the window – I was able to return their gaze."

"The desire to have a baby was, for him, a form of control, but there’s nothing new about that. It happened to generations before me and even a generation or two after me, and it undoubtedly happened to the women I was watching from under the mango tree."

"Nowhere does evening come the way it does in the desert. The darkness comes over you so suddenly you sit in front of it motionless. It swarms a while through your entire body, then settles in your feet, and all you can do is light a paraffin lamp. The mosquitoes gather in formation around it, and you have to shoo them away with your hand."

"The frog does not know there are two kinds of water if he never falls into the hot kind."

Have you read 'Dry Season'? What do you think about it?

[Arvis Austrums · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stāsts sevi piesaka ar vairākiem 'āķiem', kuri ievelk. "Viņa - sešdesmit divus gadus veca māksliniece no Eiropas vidienes, viņš - divdesmit septiņus gadus vecs afrikānis - audzis uz ielas un bijis vardarbības upuris." Skaidrs, ka starp viņiem veidojas attiecības, bet kas ir tas sausumvējš, kas neļauj uzplaukt mīlestībai? Neviļus - romāna gaitā, man bija jādomā par salīdzinoši nesen lasīto franču autora stāstu krājumu "Stāsts par pēdām un citas fantāzijas", kurā jūtama Āfrikas pirmatnība. Un domāju par to tādēļ, ka šajā romānā Āfrika tomēr ir kaut kas eiropietim neizprotams. Lūk, vēl viens 'āķis', kas pievilka, jo atklāja, ka es par šo pirmatnību patiesībā nezinu joprojām neko. Brīdinu, ka tas var šokēt vēl kādu. Abi galveni varoņi lasītājam sevi atklāj nežēlojot nevienu.. tostarp vairākkārt dziļi personiskas intīmas sajūtas. Tāpat erotika - sekss - citkārt arī drāšanās, mīlēšanās un neesiet pārsteigti - kopošanās -tas viss ir ļoti būtiska romāna daļa, jo varoņiem nākas risināt arī šo aspektu. Kas viņus abus tik ļoti pievelk un lika atrast vienam otru kaut kur Āfrikā. Daudz stereotipu, daudz neizprotamu likumu, bet tieši tādēļ tik saistošs teksts, jo laikam galu galā par mīlestību. Galu galā stāsts savijas tiktāl, ka nav lielas atšķirības - Rietumāfrikas sociālā pirmatnība, vai Eiropas civilizācijas šūpulis - cilvēka eksistenciālās vajadzības visā savā krāšņumā izpaužas laikā, kad pūš harmatans - sauss, karsts vējš.
Tā Eiropas valsts, no kuras ir māksliniece Ana - ir Slovēnija (arī dažkārt Anglija un Francija), tomēr romāna izaicinošais stāsts neļauj to asociēt ar šīm valstīm. Kaut ko ļoti lielu ir paveikusi autore, lai šī liktos vairāk āfrikāņu literatūra.

"Kopš mītu tavā ģimenē, ļauju ataugt uzacīm. Un vairs nezīmēju. Reizēm no rītiem palieku zvilnēt uz matrača un gaidu, kad nāks kaut kādas beigas." ... "Kad pagriežos uz muguras, tava tante glauda manu gurnu iekšpusi un vēderu. Nepārproti mani, tie ir gluži sievišķīgi glāsti, kuri ir kā liecība, ka Āfrikā viss norisinās nesteidzīgi, tāpēc man vēl jāpagaida. Taču viņa to prot, bet es ne. Man trūkst gaisa."

"Tev jāatzīst, ka es nevarēju paredzēt, kā strādās tava asinsrite. Sapratu, ka esi silts, ne pārāk karsts, bet man ne sapņos nebija rādījies, ka mūsu romāns izvērtīsies šādi."..."Esmu izspēlējusi savas kārtis, atsakoties būt tāda kādi ir citi pensionāri no manas valsts. Neesmu kļuvusi par daļu no viņu pliekanās, tukšās teiksmu pasaules, no vēlmēm pēc visa gatava, ar ko sevi barot, kad kauli grab, tik un tā nezinot, vai rīt būs turpat, kur ir, vai pamodīsies viņā pusē. Es pastaigājos savos pašas dārziņos.".

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit that before I read this book I really knew nothing about the small West African nation of Burkina Faso. The setting alone of this story in this small and politically volatile country taught me so many things, but the book as a whole is also a fantastic read.

From all outward appearances, the two main characters of this story could not be more different. Anna is a 62-year-old white woman from Slovenia who has had a successful career as a textile artist. Ismael is a 27-year-old black man from Burkina Faso who has grown up on the streets and has never had any real job or career. It is surprising, even shocking that Anna and Ismael become lovers, but the author weaves their tales together so perfectly that in the end we are convinced that this relationship has had a powerful impact on both of them.

The narrative alternates between the point of view of both main characters. We learn that Anna was rescued from an orphanage by her parents who, in a last ditch effort to save their marriage, agree to adopt a child since they cannot have one of their own. But her parent’s strained relationship takes an emotional toll on her as a little girl as she is mostly left to be raised by a housekeeper. Anna’s father is busy with his multitude of extramarital affairs and Anna’s mother remains aloof from her daughter while she constantly works at her sewing machine making women’s lingerie. Anna eventually falls into an unhappy marriage with a man whom her mother chose for her and her only son from this marriage ends up in a mental institution. Anna abandons her home, her family and her past to find some peace and quiet in Africa.

Ismael, when he was very young, lived in a remote African village with his mother who was an outcast. Ismael never knew who his father was and he is constantly witnessing his mother being abused by fellow villagers as she is tied to the “shaming pole” and spit upon. We are never told exactly what his mother’s sin is in the eyes of the villagers, but there is reason to suspect it has something to do with Ismael’s lack of a father. Ismael and his mother eventually migrate to the streets of Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso, where they live in cardboard boxes under a bridge. When Ismael’s mother is killed and he is left alone in a city full of dangerous people, he is taken in by strangers who never really fulfill the role of a family for him. He stays with an “ebony” woman and her husband for a while who have lost their own son and are trying to keep Ismael as their surrogate child. Ismael also stays with a man named Baba who has been the only positive male role model in his life. But Ismael gets pulled into the illegal and dangerous activities of Baba’s son Malik.

Even though they are born on different continents and decades apart there are some important ties that bind Anna and Ismael together. They both feel abandoned and isolated, neither of them knows their real father and both of their mothers are emotionally distant. Anna and Ismael have separate and distinct stories told in alternating chapters, but the way in which the author gradually weaves together their stories is brilliant. At first appearance it would seem that Anna and Ismael are using their sexual relationship to suppress their feelings of abandonment and isolation. But as they share their stories with one another a deeper, emotional bond is forged.

Set against the backdrop of the harmattan, the dry season in West Africa, this novel is a must read for anyone who enjoys brilliant literary writing with strong and intense characters. I kept asking myself throughout the novel why, of all places on earth, Anna would pick this obscure West African country to flee to. The dry season is one of extremes: extreme amounts of dust, extreme changes in temperatures, extreme fog and eventually extreme downpours of rain when the season ends. This is the perfect setting for two characters who are, much like the dry season itself, both going through the extremes experiences of human existence.

This is my first title from Istros Books, an Independent British publisher that specializes in translating books from Eastern Europe into English, and I am very excited to see what else they have in their catalogue.

[Kelsi H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please check out all of my reviews at http://ultraviolentlit.blogspot.ca!

Burkino Faso is an unusual setting for a writer from Central Europe, but the unexpectedness adds another layer to the story. Ana, a Slovenian woman in her 60s, travels to the small African nation and begins an affair with 27-year-old Ismael. They are united by loneliness and tragic pasts, filled with both emotional and physical abuse. Ana’s world is in the west, yet she has essentially rejected it – she prefers to embrace Ismael’s African culture.

At first it seems like colonial appropriation, but as Ana���s story unfolds, it reads more like a twist on intersectional feminism: Ana as a repressed woman forming a bond with another “other.” Her thoughts only begin to veer into racism as she idealizes the “innocence” of the African people and views Ismael as a naïve young boy – in fact, he has experienced much more in his short life than she has in her sixty-two years. She acts as though his innocence will rub off on her, and make her whole again after the losses she has suffered back in Europe.

The novel is written in alternating POVs, which made it hard to get into because it wasn’t always clear who was narrating. The voice switches with no headings – I’m not sure if that was a problem with the ARC, or whether it was meant to be disconcerting, adding unexpected confusion. On top of that, Ana is an unreliable narrator, and even she seems to be unclear about which events are real: “But that had been a happy time, so happy that, especially when I look back on it, maybe it never happened.” (Loc. 397)

Ana was adopted, and she is not at all grateful to her adoptive parents. She has no respect for them, and says it would have made no difference if they had left her on the orphanage floor. Ismael is an outsider too, and he can relate to the difficulties of family life. Ana leaves Slovenia because of issues with her adult son, then takes a lover that is younger than he is. Upon seeing Ismael naked, she is reminded of her son. Likewise, Ismael dreams frequently of his mother during his relationship with Ana – it is all very Freudian.

The method of storytelling is often postmodern, with hints of magic realism (and even a nod to One Hundred Years of Solitude when Ana refers to “Remedios the Beauty”), but it is old-fashioned at times too. It reads like a chronological memoir, but the narrators also speak directly to the reader. Eventually, Ana begins to mix up past and present, with memory overlapping reality. There are many metafictional references to writing and novels, and it becomes hard to tell whether either character is real or just a figment of the other’s imagination – are they each a creation of the others’ deepest hopes and fears?

The setting was filled with great details, and I wanted to hear much more about it. The plot was subtle and nostalgic, drifting through dreams and memory. Ana and Ismael, real or imagined, come together because they are lonely – but neither one can complete the other because they are not whole themselves. Dreamlike and often magical, this was a beautiful story about sadness and loss between two very different cultures.


I received this novel from Istros Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twisty literary tale of older euro woman visiting (escaping from her "old"life?) Burkina Faso and falling. In love with a much younger street tough fella. Mayhem ensues. Has a back and forth pov that gets tighter and tighter focus as story goes along. Fun "local facts" and history and politics of a country that has had some very down downs in 21st century after being a paragon of normality for much of latter 20th

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anna und Ismael könnten nicht unterschiedlicher sein. Sie ist eine Künstlerin aus Slovenien und er ein Straßenjunge aus Burkina Faso. Trotz der Unterschiede verlieben sie sich ineinander. Aber nicht nur die unterschiedliche Herkunft schafft eine Distanz zwischen ihnen.

Die erste Szene sagt viel über die Beziehung zwischen Anna und Ismael aus. Auf der einen Seite ist da eine große Intimität zwischen ihnen, auf der anderen Seite sind sie auch meilenweit voneinander entfernt. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass die beiden in einer Sprache kommunizieren, die nicht die Muttersprache ist. Vielleicht liegt es auch am Altersunterschied, obwohl der die meiste Zeit keine Rolle zu spielen scheint. Beide machen sich viele Gedanken über den jeweils anderen, aber wenn sie darüber sprechen wollen, sagen sie meistens etwas ganz anderes, was wieder zu neuen Missverständnissen führt.

Sicher ist, dass Ismael nicht mit der starken Frau zurecht kommt, die Anna in seinen Augen ist. Er erkennt nicht, dass sie voller Zweifel und Unsicherheiten ist. Anna dagegen sieht in Ismael einen jungen und noch etwas unreifen Mann, der ohne ein festes Ziel lebt. Beide irren sich und das finde ich sehr schade, denn ich habe das Gefühl, dass ihre Beziehung nur dann eine echte Chance hat, wenn sie sich so erkennen würden, wie sie wirklich sind.

Die Geschichte zeigt, dass man trotz gegenseitiger Zuneigung in einer Beziehung alleine sein kann. Ich weiß nicht, ob ich den Beiden wirklich wünsche, dass ihre Beziehung langfristig erfolgreich ist, denn ich denke dass auf lange Sicht unglücklich sein werden. Aber ich hoffe auch, dass ich mich irre.

[Amira Kaadan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the honesty of the words in this book.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The man thought he could change the world, when it is only the world that can change you.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this read. I just couldn't get in to it.

I did continue but I just felt a disconnect to the characters and the narrative of it.

One paragraph on the third last page made me think about the award for bad sex writing. That is not a good thing.

* *

[Ingeborg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written, there is a lot of poetry in this novel ...

[Maja]

Prva knjiga od koje sam odustala na pola. Sori, ne mogu

[Lefki Sarantinou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ασυνήθιστος έρωτας, ασυνήθιστη υπόθεση, ασυνήθιστη συγγραφέας, ασυνήθιστο τόπος...Το επίθετο "ασυνήθιστος" είναι κάτι το οποίο χαρακτηρίζει οπωσδήποτε το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο "Ξηρή εποχή, ο ασυνήθιστος έρωτας του Χαρματάν".

Είμαι βέβαιη ότι οι περισσότεροι αναγνώστες, όπως κι εγώ, ούτε που θα έχουν ακούσει ποτέ για τη Σλοβένα συγγραφέα, κριτικό λογοτεχνίας και μεταφράστρια, Γκαμπριέλα Μπάμπνικ. Κι όμως, τα περισσότερα βιβλία της έχουν βραβευτεί, το εν λόγω πόνημα, μάλιστα, έχει αποσπάσει το βραβείο λογοτεχνίας της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης το έτος 2015.

Ένα μυθιστόρημα, λοιπόν, το οποίο διαδραματίζεται στην Μπουρκίνα Φάσο,μια χώρα της δυτικής Αφρικής για την οποία ελάχιστα πράγματα γνωρίζει ο μέσος Ευρωπαίος. Αυτό, βέβαια, δεν είναι κάτι που ισχύει και για τη συγγραφέα, η οποία όχι μόνο έχει ζήσει στη Νιγηρία, στη Λιουμπλιάνα και στη Μπουρκίνα Φάσο, αλλά έχει κάνει και το μεταπτυχιακό της στη σύγχρονη νιγηριανή λογοτεχνία. Είναι, επομένως, η πιο κατάλληλη για να μας μιλήσει για την πολύπαθη αυτή ήπειρο.

Ο τρόπος με τον οποίο διαλέγει να το κάνει, είναι η ερωτική ιστορία ενός πολύ ασυνήθιστου ζευγαριού, ενός μαύρου εικοσιπεντάρη από τη Μπουρκίνα Φάσο, του Ισμαήλ, με μία εξήνταδυάχρονη Σλοβένα, την Άννα. Η διαφορά ηλικίας είναι, φυσικά, πολύ μεγάλη και, σαν να μην έφτανε αυτό, δεν είναι ο άντρας ο μεγαλύτερος, αλλά η γυναίκα. Γιατί άραγε η συγγραφέας προβαίνει σε αυτή την επιλογή; Τι θέλει να μας πει με αυτό;

Οι δύο πρωταγωνιστές περικλείουν μια τραγικότητα. Ο καθένας από τους δύο κουβαλά τα δικά του τραύματα, τις δικές του ανασφάλειες και τους φόβους του και έχει πληγωθεί επανειλημμένα από τη ζωή. Ο μεν Ισμαήλ γνώρισε από μικρός την ορφάνια και την περιφρόνηση, καθώς και τη φτώχεια, η δε Άννα, παιδί υιοθετημένο, εγκλωβίστηκε σε έναν αποτυχημένο γάμο και σε έναν γιο ο οποίος κατέληξε στο ψυχιατρείο. Αν η Άννα ήταν μικρότερη σε ηλικία, δεν θα κουβαλούσε τόσες πολλές εμπειρίες από τη ζωή της μαζί της στην Αφρική, εμπειρίες οι οποίες παίζουν καθοριστικό ρόλο τόσο στη σχέση της με τον Ισμαήλ, όσο και στην εξέλιξη της υπόθεσης. Από την άλλη, αν ο Ισμαήλ ήταν ο μεγαλύτερος σε αυτή την αλλοπρόσαλλη σχέση, δεν θα μπορούσε τότε η Άννα να παίξει το ίδιο πειστικά τον ρόλο της "πλούσιας προστατευόμενης" σε αυτή τη σχέση, να τον "πατρονάρει" δηλαδή ως έναν βαθμό.

Η αφήγηση εναλλάσσεται από τον ένα εταίρο της σχέσης στον άλλο, προσφέροντας έτσι τις οπτικές και των δυο σε αυτή την παράξενη ερωτική ιεροτελεστία. Επίσης, οι αφηγήσεις ακροβατούν ανάμεσα στο παρόν και το παρελθόν, καθώς ο αναγνώστης μαθαίνει για τη σχέση της Άννας και του Ισμαήλ παράλληλα με το ξεδίπλωμα των προσωπικών τους εμπειριών και των καθοριστικών παιδικών τους αναμνήσεων.

Γενικά πρόκειται για ένα βιβλίο με πολλά αντιθετικά ζεύγη: η πλούσια και ο φτωχός, η ηλικιωμένη λευκή γυναίκα με τον νέο μαύρο άνδρα, η Αφρική και η Ευρώπη, η φτώχεια και ο καπιταλισμός, το ισλάμ και ο χριστιανισμός Οι αντιθέσεις αυτές δίνουν το παρόν και στην ίδια την αφηγηματική τεχνική: παρόν-παρελθόν, συναίσθημα-λογική, ρεαλισμός-υπερρεαλισμός.

Και μέσα σε όλα αυτά σκέψεις... Σκέψεις για τη μητρότητα, τον γάμο, τον ρατσισμό, τα αποτελέσματα της αποικιοκρατίας στην Αφρική και την περίπλοκη πολιτική κατάσταση, τη φτώχεια των ανθρώπων που ζουν εκεί και τον τόσο διαφορετικό από τον δυτικό τρόπο ζωής τους, τον έρωτα, το σεξ και τελικά την ίδια τη ζωή.

Θα μπορέσει άραγε αυτός ο έρωτας να νικήσει τον χρόνο; Ή η διάρκειά του θα είναι τόση όσο κρατάει το Χαρματάν, η ξηρή εποχή στη Μπουρκίνα Φάσο;

Η γλώσσα την οποία χρησιμοποιεί η συγγραφέας κινείται ανάμεσα στον ρεαλισμό και τον υπερρεαλισμό, πότε απλή, πότε συμβολική. Το τέλος του βιβλίου είναι ανατρεπτικό και εξίσου ασυνήθιστο όπως και το υπόλοιπο βιβλίο. Τελικά, το πιο καίριο σημείο του βιβλίου δεν είναι αυτό που φαίνεται και η συγγραφέας προσφέρει η ίδια την ανατροπή.

Ένα βιβλίο το οποίο θα μας κάνει να αναστοχαστούμε για τον ίδιο τον άνθρωπο αλλά και για το κατά πόσον ευθύνονται οι Ευρωπαίοι για τη δύστηνη μοίρα των χωρών της Αφρικής σήμερα, αποτέλεσμα χρόνων στυγνής εκμετάλλευσης και ιμπεριαλισμού από την πλευρά των "δυνατών" λευκών.

[Kate Gardner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange book, difficult to follow at times, but always lyrical and occasionally outstanding. It opens with two people in bed together in a hotel room in Ouagadougou. They are Ana – a 62-year-old artist here on holiday – and Ismael, a 27-year-old local who spent much of his life living on the street. It’s an unlikely pairing and one that doesn’t seem destined to last, but as the narrative alternates between their points of view, we discover things they have in common. In a way they are both running away from their daily lives, and as they gradually open up to each other, we learn that neither of them is quite what you expect.

As the title implies, the story takes place during the dry season in Burkina Faso and this natural phenomenon is reflected in the book’s themes. There is an overwhelming loneliness surrounding both characters, perhaps rooted in the fact that they are both orphans and both had surrogate parents who didn’t really show them love. Ana wonders whether it is fair for a woman of her age to “steal” a young man’s chance of having children. She already has a grown son, one she never really wanted and has ambivalent feelings about. She worries about whether her life has produced anything in the end. Ismael has spent most of his life with nothing, largely alone, and his worries and dreams are less abstract. But he is still a thinker, an intellectual.

Read my full review: http://www.noseinabook.co.uk/2019/09/...

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I barely got through this book.

I think the author confused tragedy porn with getting readers to care about her characters. The secret to getting readers to care about your characters is to make them compelling, and then add tragic backstory if you like. You cannot start with the tragedy dumping, expecting to tug on sympathy, if you first don't put in the effort to make your characters feel less flat.

The switching perspectives and intertwined flashbacks also didn't work for me. They did make the book feel more dynamic, but they also made me feel lost. The constant flashbacks to stuff I didn't care about and people that were no longer relevant also detracted from the natural development of the relationship which is supposedly at the core of the book. That's a shame because Babnik is at her best when she is writing closely, when she draws out a scene so we feel every awkward hand placement, every breath, every anxious thought, when the reader feels as if they are in the room with the characters. The flashbacks drew us away from that and they all felt very distant.

I'm also a bit uncomfortable with some of the content as it veered into extremely stereotypical depictions of Africa, including the Magical African/African character who is there to give wisdom to the white person, evil albino, and extremely sexualized African characters.

[Pogue · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a book I chose to read for my reading around the world trip. I could not finish it, I think I quit half way through the third chapter. I felt nothing for either character and I am going to have to find another book for this country.

[Cristelle Snyman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Petra]

Sedela je, na modrem fotelju, pod veliko svetilko. "Njeni lasje iz opečnate prsti, ki dela črno celino, so obsipavali mlečni obraz polne lune." "Why Africa?" je vprašal nekdo. "It's not a coincidence," je rekla. In jaz sem mislila. Because it makes me shiver. Or is it his touch somewhat still hanging over my white skin?

"Literatura mora govoriti o neizgovorljivem vsakdanjem življenju," je razpletala dalje. In jaz sem mislila, kako sem "à moitié folle grâce à lui." In še naprej se mi je mravljinčila koža, le da nisem vedela, če je bilo zaradi njenih besed ali zaradi dežel, ki jim rečejo "črne", a so v resnici toplo opečnate.

Morda je bilo ob koncu večera oboje, a v tistem trenutku so bile predvsem njene besede, polne harmatanskega vetra, iz katerega so se po meni sipala drobna zrnca puščavskega peska. "Med dvigovanjem slušalke in še po tem, ko sem namesto tistega praznega halo izrekla Ismaelovo ime, sem se zavedala, da je najina ljubezen trajala čas ene sušne dobe." Ljubezen posebnega časa, ko imajo vsi razpokane ustnice. "Posejala sva seme v zemljo, in ker ni bilo klitja, ker ga nikoli ni moglo biti, se mi dozdeva, da je vse zgolj naključje, da sem sama bitje, oropano smisla."

"In kaj opredeljuje brezsmiselno žensko, ko več ne misli na moškega?" bi se lahko, morda pa se tudi je glasilo vprašanje. "Misli na svojo umetnost." Kajti on je bil navsezadnje le "namenjen za druge reči."

[Chelsea Mcgill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ana, a 62-year-old graphic designer from Slovenia, has run away to a completely foreign place – Burkina Faso. There she meets Ismael, a 27-year-old former street kid with a history of abuse, and they begin a relationship despite – or perhaps because of - their differences. As Ana and Ismael take turns telling us, the readers, about their complex and pain-filled lives, we wander with them further into the dream captivating them.

This novel plays with the stereotypes of the old white woman in Africa as a tourist and the street kid with a history of abuse. Ana and Ismael both are and are not prime examples of their stereotype. Underneath his rough exterior, Ismael thinks deeply and is widely read. He can engage intellectually with the world around him. He isn’t really the fighting, drug dealing street kid that the stereotype would lead you to expect – although he does get involved with those kinds of activities sometimes.

Ana tells us that she chose Burkina Faso because of its complete dissimilarity to where she came from. But the longer she stays, the more she realizes that this new place is not all that foreign after all; she has had similar affairs in the past (with dark-skinned, younger men) and this seems like a repeat all over again. Or did those other affairs actually happen?

Read the rest of my review here: http://shinynewbooks.co.uk/fiction08/...

[TheLlamaReads · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this to start with, but it grew on me. As soon as I became more confident that this wasn't a conventional tale, and that the narrator was self-consciously unreliable, I could overcome more of the cliches and assertions of the European-Woman-in-Africa narrative. The sights and sounds of Burkina Faso came through, as did the challenge and difficulties and self-obsession of life. At an event I went to recently others loved this and commended it's complexity, subtlety and I think perhaps it just wasn't the book for me.

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Challenging, original and rewarding. This tale of a love affair between a 62 year-old Slovenian woman and a 27 year-old black man set in Burkina Faso blends metafiction and magical realism to weave a complex narrative that explores the deep secrets and intense loneliness that pulls unlikely lovers together. In the end, it is not certain that either will find what they long for in each others arms.
Full review to follow.