Books change when you listen to the author speak about them. I read this one before I sat in a crowded lecture hall (finally! We are having fully booked cultural events again!) and heard David Grassman speak about what moves him and how he makes choices as a writer. The book got a completely new shape in my head afterwards, as it got a signature too, forever moving it to a different shelf in my bookcase - the one for "met the author, got a signed copy". And it is not even so much that I read th...

You know with a title like this, it’s going to be a story that delivers a gut punch.This is a generational story. Vera, remarries and takes on a new family after serving time on Goli Otok in the 50’s. Her daughter, Nina, from her first marriage, runs away but not before she has sex with her step brother and leaves him for years only to come back and have a child with him before she leaves again.Vera the step mother is 90 now. A grandiose party is held bringing everyone together. The estranged da...

A multigenerational story of love and lossThree women in one familyVery movingBased on the true story of Eva-Panic NahirI had no idea when reading this that it was based on a true story.Here is the link to read more:https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.haar...

Longlisted for the 2022 International Booker PrizeRafael was fifteen years old when his mother died and put him out of her misery. Rain poured down on the mourners huddled under umbrellas in the small kibbutz cemetery. Tuvia, Rafael’s father, sobbed bitterly. He had cared for his wife devotedly for years and now looked lost and bereft. Rafael, wearing shorts, stood apart from the others and pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his eyes so that no one would know he wasn’t crying. He thought: No...

I really thought I was headed for the full 5* stars till the last 20-25%. The wheels fell off for me when we got to the island.Prior to that engrossing and well written.

No, I'm sorry, this didn’t do it for me. As in the great To the End of the Land (a novel that I really loved), Grossman presents us with a portrait of a strong woman, in this case even three of them: grandmother Vera, daughter Nina and granddaughter Gili. All three are marked by life, each in a different way. The story is set in Israel (again in a kibbutz) and in the former Yugoslavia, and ultimately turns out to be related to dramatic events under the Tito regime, in the years after the Second

Unconditional love and the long tentacles of war, engulf three generations of women and the man who loved all of them. Vera, Nina and Gili, each with their own experiences, impacted by Vera and her horrific war experiences and the decisions she made in the past.This author, though male, does a terrific job describing women, treating them with respect and empathy. Not an easy feat. This book also describes an area of which I have read little. Yugoslavia and Tito. An impactful book, taking us from...

My goodness, my goodness. This one did it for me. What a story, what a writer. Okay, now I’m itching to get to “A Horse Walks into a Bar,” which I’ve had for years. This novel went to some dark places I wasn’t expecting; And some emotionally gruelling places; And some devastatingly heartbreaking places. I wouldn’t say it is a flawless book (structure can feel forced at times), but the ambition is in full force here. Due to its never-ending change in structure, this book always kept me on my toes...

I read this because it was longlisted for the international booker prize. I fear it didn't really work for me. The story itself is impressive, but I can't help feeling there would have been better ways to recount the story of Vera. It is a family history with a secret at its core, so it should have been right up my alley, but I had issues with the style, the narration, the characters and mostly the convoluted structure. There is a granddaughter telling the story looking back at a movie she made

Read for the Booktube Prize / Quarterfinals. Rating to come once the judging of this round has been finalized (30 May).

The older I get the more I contemplate what I can never know about past generations of my family. Even as I've tried to outline the facts and piece together story fragments, I know that there won't ever be a way to truly understand what my ancestors went through or why they made certain decisions. This is a subject Maria Stepanova rigorously contemplated as she sifted through family mementoes and records in her fascinating and extensive book “In Memory of Memory”. One of her conclusions seemed t...

This a a wonderfully written family saga. One of best books I’ve read this year so far. It’s a complex book. It’s about human hearts. And the joys and tremendous losses and trauma at different ages and stages of life. It’s about how people respond when they are hurt/hurting. It speaks to how family members actions and choices affect each other. It attests to the power of love and kindness and resilience. And also how we can hurt those we love when we are hurting. It’s about the choices we make.

All the starts plus many more !!! What an incredible story ! Wow

4.5 stars rounded up.Three generations divided by the trauma of being abandoned, travel together to the gulag of the elder one’s past. A gut wrenching journey, reliving the past, facing the truth , that may take them to a place in their hearts where forgiveness and redemption can be found . That it is based on the life of a friend of David Grossman makes it all the more meaningful. Half a star off for being a little slow at first , but worth the pace .I received a copy of this book from Knopf/Ra...

It is clear to see that Grossman is a keen observer of people, of family dynamics. He captures, with infinite care, the micro expressions that give us away. The conversations that occur between people, without a word being said. The way additions and subtractions to the family system alter the entire relational ecosystem, sometimes beyond repair. The flow of stories through this system, and the gentle mutations that happen along the way. The way childhood trauma solidifies us to a specific age,

A must read. Grossman makes everything looks so simple and yet the story goes so deep

“Gili, in you I want to put everything I had in life. Everything”. “I don’t understand, Grandma”…….Gili ‘will’ come to understand- and so will we—the readers. “The heart pangs”…… stumbling on “an invisible barbed wire”……SOOOOO GOOD!!!David Grossman continues to be one of my all-time favorite authors.“More Than I Love My Life”….is an intimate-extended-family-journey-filled with awe -power-and humanity. inspired by a true story!

An emotive story and interesting characters is not fully done justice by the set-up of the story or the narrative voice used by the author. At times fairytale like, at times horrific, I would have been more impressed if this would have been a personal reflection on mother-daughter relationsIn their own limited, fucked up way they were being my parentsThe theme of this year's International Booker Prize is definitely mothers. In More Than I Love My Life we follow the fascinating family history of

I highly recommend the audio of “More Than I Love My Life” by David Grossman, translated by Jessica Cohen and performed by Gilli Messer. Messer narrates the voices with aplomb and skill. Her eastern European accented English lends the audio authenticity to this rich and involved story. If I allowed a criticism, it would be that it was overly ambitious…..there is a lot going on. So much, that after finishing the audio, I needed to go back to the beginning to remember how this all started. There a...