Afbeelding auteur

Gian Sardar

Auteur van Take What You Can Carry: A Novel

3 Werken 167 Leden 13 Besprekingen

Werken van Gian Sardar

Take What You Can Carry: A Novel (2021) 93 exemplaren
You Were Here (2017) 51 exemplaren

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1979. It's almost too difficult to imagine that answering an ad for a 3rd roommate would lead to a trip to Kurdistan to meet a man's family. However, answering an ad and meeting for a personal interview was the catalyst that prompted Olivia to meet Delan. Taking photographs on the trip could lead Olivia to win a photojournalist position on her employer's Los Angeles newspaper. How often has Olivia wished for love in her personal life and wished to be a photojournalist taking photographs that matter? Do wishes come true?

A story beautifully written, raw yet tender. It is the story of differences – the differences between being in love and living with love. It is the story that photographers tell through their work. Capturing differences between the happiest and cruelest times, a photograph can exhibit an indescribable truth, reveal a secret, capture sheer joy, or spark a memory.

I loved so many lines in the novel that are gripping and thought-provoking. Two of my favorites:
"You love someone because of who they are but also—and maybe more important—despite who they are."
"The camera does not judge, a professor said. It captures. Judgment is what humans place upon the photo."
I encourage every reader not to miss the Acknowledgements as the author shares the inspiration for the novel as inspired by true events. The novel shares Kurdistan's landscape beauty and humanity that I've never seen or read in any news report. I highly recommend this novel.

Discussion Questions are available at the end of the novel.
… (meer)
 
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FerneMysteryReader | 2 andere besprekingen | Jul 12, 2023 |
When I began this novel, what struck me right away was how little I knew about 1979 Kurdistan. I wonder if I even knew Kurdistan was a place or the Kurds a people back then. I imagine my mind would have still been focused on Southeast Asia and the sorrow of coming out of the Vietnam War.

Gian Sardar draws on her own intimate knowledge of the place and the people in writing this novel, which follows the trip of an American girl, who is a photographer, on a visit to the country with her Kurdish boyfriend, ostensibly to attend a family wedding. It is a frightful place to be at this time, and the fright I felt for her and for this family was quite real. You could tell the story was grounded in actual experiences and memories, some of them Gian’s own, and some those of her own Kurdish father and her American mother.

It isn’t a perfect novel. At times it is too slow, and at other times too repetitive in its efforts to impress upon us the danger that is around every corner. There were moments in the book that didn’t feel quite real, or maybe the right word would be genuine. Most of those had to do with the romantic angle. I am not a fan of romance novels, however, so this might have worked perfectly for someone who is. What did work marvelously was Sardar’s connection to the area itself. The descriptions of the terrain and the culture were beautifully written and often fascinating. The Kurdish characters felt very real to me, as did the fear and the sense of foreboding that were present from the moment the couple landed on Iraqi soil. I have one other objection, but it would be impossible to account for it here without a spoiler, and I try very hard never to ruin a book for any future reader, so I will just count that one silently.

The point in selecting this novel was to read something outside my normal reading preferences. This was a different culture, a different genre and a different time period than I usually choose, so it filled the bill. It was a perfectly satisfactory read, and earns a 3.5 star rating, which I rounded down.
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mattorsara | 2 andere besprekingen | Aug 11, 2022 |
I liked this book very much for giving insights into Kurdish culture, Jurdish persecution in Iraq, and the story. I gave it a 4 because the main character, Olivia, was a little over the top introspectively. Those musings could have been shortened. Also, I sometimes didn’t quite understand what the author neBt as I read. However, the story was exciting and seemed very realistic.
 
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bereanna | 2 andere besprekingen | Jun 26, 2022 |
I received an ARC from Penguin First to Read to review.

You Were Here follows 4 different characters, 2 in the present day, 2 in the early 1900's who are distantly linked to them. First we have Abby who sells estate jewelry living in Los Angeles with her screenwriter boyfriend Robert. Abby has been with Robert for 4 years and they are waiting for his big break for their life to begin-marriage, house, kids. Abby is anxious battling her ticking biological clock, thinking about all her friends who are ahead in that respect. Abby suffered from nightmares in high school that were so unsettling she refuses to return home. The nightmares return coincidentally in time with her 10 year high school reunion. She decides to go home and dig into her dreams that she believes may be related to her grandmother. Hoping to fix her terrors and maybe run into Aidan, a man she desperately yearned for in high school. The next character we follow, unsurprisingly is Aidan, Abby's high school crush. He is a detective on the police force in their home town he has recently returned to. He is buried in a serial rapist case that is plaguing their town. We alternate from present day with those two to Abbys grandmothers neighbor Claire. Claire's segments are split between her and her husbands mistress Eva. Claire is trying to find out about her cheating husband, William. They've only been married for two years. She can't imagine what she's done to deserve the betrayal but fears they are only together because their fathers approved of the match. Both from well-off families they have to keep up appearances that nothing is wrong. Eva, the other woman, comes from a small town that William frequents for his medical practice there. He spends a few days a week with her. They both seem completely taken with one another, head over heels. She hopes he will commit to her and leave behind his wife. William and Eva try to conceal their relationship but are found out by another doctor and exposed. After their high school reunion Aidan and Abby are sifting through her grandmother, Edith's letters. Edith's next door neighbors were Claire and William. They begin trying to figure out what happened all those years ago. A love triangle, a suicide, a disappearance and robbery. Abby must decide in a situation of her own, to hold out hope for practical, caring Robert or to jump at the chance for Aidan who has always been interested in her as well. She hopes to stop her dreams of a terror long past, while Aidan hopes to stop a current monster that is lurking just out of reach, before he strikes again. Gian Sardar has written a beautiful story. At first it was slightly hard to keep track of all the characters. They cut to the next person before you had a full grasp of who you were reading about. This got better through the book. The chapters segued with much better timing. The characters are still likable even with their evident flaws. I felt myself somehow rooting for both Eva and Claire to get their happily ever after when clearly that cannot happen. And again with Abby I wanted her to have this happy duality, in Makade with Aidan and in LA with Robert. So no matter how the story worked out I was both satisfied and disappointed by their outcomes. I very much enjoyed this. Thank you Penguin for the opportunity to read it.… (meer)
 
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staceyfronczak | 9 andere besprekingen | Apr 3, 2018 |

Statistieken

Werken
3
Leden
167
Populariteit
#127,264
Waardering
½ 3.6
Besprekingen
13
ISBNs
11

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