Ricochets Proches de Victimes d'Attentats: Le Grand Oubliés by Camille Emmanuelle

 Ricochets

Proches de Victimes d'Attentats: Le Grand Oubliés by Camille Emmanuelle is a strong book. Written by a journalist and writer specialized in sex, sexuality, problematics and joys of this human sphere, Camille is also a strong, fragile woman, plenty of simplicity and completely sincere with her readers.

What happened in her existence and the one of her husband Luz, a survivor of the horrible terrorist attack in the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo in a cold day of winter, January 7 2015, is pretty shocking, detailed trip in the horror and the beginning of a never-ending calvary. 

It's also a book written for launching a signal: it's not important if you are a survivor or a relative of a survivor: a terrorist attack is forever, and the implications, sometimes physicals, sometimes emotive or both, will remain at long, or maybe forever in that broken, fractured souls.

Camille saved the existence of her husband. For sure: that day was his birthday and she cuddled him a lot more than the necessary: this accumulated time spent at home, saved Luz. 

When Camille understood what happened at Charlie Hebdo, she tried to reach the place: it wasn't simple, but after a long waiting, she met her husband. An husband who told her that he had seen a massacre: most of their friends were killed.

After that, there was a meeting in a hospital: it was necessary to speak with a psychologist. And the psy asked to Camille if she knew that she would have had repercussions. Camille could not believe it: after all, she hadn't seen anything: she didn't assist to the horror, but very soon, too soon, she experienced that, living with a survivor meant also to start of being affected by the same problematics of her companion, a common phaenomenon as she explaines with several examples of other situations.

The first months after the terrorist attack she imagines...

She imagines Luz dead, in a coffin, and then, buried: maybe because they assisted at twelve funerals: maybe because being a survivor means a lot of questions, Camille portrayed herself as the widow, as the one who assisted to the tumulation of her husband.

It was terrible and terrifying: the nightmares of the husband were scaring: the idea of renting a room in a castle, where there were fireworks, they didn't know it, was a bad idea: they panicked, because of the horror experienced.

At first it was necessary to change their house. For obvious reasons. Luz was at risk. They choose other locations, and she missed, terribly missed Paris and her old existence. Luz, in the while, sounded more tranquil. He had lost in his past existence existence, his friends, everything.

Close to the terrorist attack, she discovered to be pregnant.

It meant that when she was having the baby, the imagines she internally visualized were not the ones of a happy family: she couldn't focus anything of it: she saw terrorist attacks, she imagined ugly scenarios. While she was having her baby.

Understandably under shock, they were helped and still are, by psychologists. Just, writes Camille, when we said that we were differently involved in the Charlie Hebdo attacks, psycholigists asked them all the time: "What?" thinking at the immense shock experienced.

Her relationship with people changed: after some while,  just few people asked her how are you? But sometimes it would be good  to tell, to share, Camille writes. She does it, particularly when she has drunk some more wine than the necessary, and she is in company: she becomes pretty chatty; she understands that to her and Luz the best pill they can use for trying to reduce fear, anxiety, anguish is wine: too much wine, admits Camille, candidly.

And what about their baby? Every possible pic of guns are banned, they don't treat the topic with the kid, because they can't tolerate the vision of violence; but...They are banning something from the existence of their baby.They understand that soon or late there will be maybe questions.

Luz sometimes is not fine.

One night, first months from the shocking event, he picked up several issues of Charlie Hebdo, the one appeared after the terrorist attack: on the cover, you'll remember there was written: Tout C'est Perdonne, but he was completely disconnected with the reality close to him: a sensation that hasn't been experienced anymore by her husband.

Trips, vacations also when they went for the first time in Greece, were an adventure, because Luz wasn't fine at all.

Realistically, writes Camille, there was an existence before the terrorist attack and after the terrorist attacks and the old times won't never be back because of this constant anxiety, and hyper-vigilance. She adds that she became with the time hyper-emotive with big tragedies, also pretty distant from her: she cried, desperate, per hours when there was the Orlando terrorist attack to the disco disco; at the same time she can't understand and tolerate anymore when people complain for little things that can happen in a daily base. When you have seen the hell, all the rest of daily problematics are like  Heaven. 

An interesting chapter is dedicated at a sexual harassment Camille lived in NYC. She wasn't still married with Luz, she had another companion; they had a discussion, she left the hotel and went in a local. There, she met this guy, with which she started to talk of the more and of  the less: she didn't have any kind of intention of having a sexual intercourse with him but the day after when she woke up she understood that surely that unkown man of passage had had a sexual intercourse with her. Without doubts. She went to the hospital for the several exams; she had spoken with authorities, but they hadn't taken her in consideration; Camille didn't want to leave this episode alone, terrorized as she was by illness like HIV, shs adds that she takes pills in grade of "preventing" the illness, and also because if he had had sex with her, for sure, she didn't remember it, because drugged. So, this one had been a violence.

We are distant from the time of the MeeToo movement where more or less everyone have said their words in terms of abusea; distant from the big american sexual scandals, and women had less power. Not in France, where authorities investigated and at the end recognized that she had been a victim,

That word, victim, set free, writes Camille, herself from all the possible responsibilities. She wasn't culpable of anything: that man was!

A long chapter is dedicated to France law and rights of the so-called ricochets, and another time, Camille focus the attention on the power of humor, thinking that humor can be helpful and paradoxically good in tragic moments: Roberto Benigni in his movie La Vita è Bella tried to conquer the son with a game, a game for not let him explain what was happening; hiding what reality the world was experiencing in that exact moment; under many ways he used humor, and thanks to it the son survived, maybe less shocked than not other people who hadn't had a father like the one described in the movie by the italian beloved actor.

The questions in the mind of Camille are many and sometimes they involve her daughter as well. Questions on life, death, separation, love. 

Another great movie example is the one by Frank Capra, one of my favorite ones!!! La Vie est Belle. The history this one: George Bailey is a dreamer. He would want to travelling the world, building beautiful houses, visiting places, shaking hands with tons of people around the world; but...

Life becomes hard with him, asking sacrifices. The oldest brother marries a beauty and will move away; the old Bailey suffers of a heart attack dying, and George, ready to leave, remains in Bedford Falls, because he must fight the solitary battle against a disgusting old man, similar to Scrooge, the character invented by Charles Dickens, called Potter. Potter will be rich but he is a heartless man and he will try all his best to destroy George: at some point Bailey will think that his life counts more if dead than not alive.

Many people pray for him and his soul, beign a very good man and so God sends to Earth Clarence, an angel with the soul of a kid, still wingless: he will let show to George what his existence would have been if he wouldn't have been existed. The pharmacist became crazy because once sold some poison to a lady, instead of the proper medicine (George had noticed it: the man had lost the son and didn't understand anymore what he was doing): Clarence will let him show also the poor existence of the rest of citizens, like also the one of his wife, who worked in a library and was still unmarried! 

Camille admits that maybe she hasn't never seen angels (it's not difficult at all to see them! I hope she will! They are hidden in unknown people, in special occasions, and wherever there is a profound discomfort) but certain episodes the months before the terrorist attack let her think a lot.

Psychologists, various kind of assitance, the life of Luz and Camille turned upside down, and a tremendous impact in her existence was also the horrible decapitation of a high school teacher Samuel Paty. It was a horrible terrorist attack, and France remarked strongly its laicity.

Camille started to enter again in that spiral of horror as lived before. She drunk again too much and she felt a sensation of big desperation; 40 terrorist attacks in all Europe for religious purposes.

She starts to think that this one is a never-ending story, that nothing will return to the normality. This time was Luz who helped her, calling the psychologist. The psychologist told her that their situation is this one: Camille has like lived the traumatic moments seen by her husband at Charlie Hebdo, with her empathy and that's why now she is feeling this immense sufferance.

Written with big competence, this one is a long confession of a dark period in the existence of this couple and in the one of Camille, seen without hiding, without omitting, but putting all herself in the description of the several phases experienced by them and the state of the things at the moment.

What I can wish for this couple is to see some light after this tunnel of sufferance. Sure: it won't be simple but not impossible.

Highly recommended book.

I thank Grasset for the physical copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polifori

Align, Expand and Calibrate! Your Stairway to Heaven A 90 days journal by Jacqueline Pirtle

 It's important to be a complete person; for several reasons: we will be more successful in the existence and everything, from work to other social aspects of our life will be more simple.

It is not possible to obtain a complete, and satisfied existence without these three words: alignment, expansion, calibration.

That's why, Jacqueline Pirtle decided to create a journal, you can pick up the 30 days journal or the extended edition, for explain these concepts clearly to everyone and for let us work in these directions:   Align, Expand and Calibrate!

Your Stairway to Heaven A 90 days journal wants to re-put in balance our selves.

Why are these three words so important and crucials in our existence?

Without alignment you won't live in company with your real you so you won't recognize who you are and what life could be out there for you.

Expansion will donate you the possibility of seeing opportunities; without calibration you can't live the high for-life energy you came here to be.

You can't just align your self: you must also proceed with the expansion and calibration because without these two voices, your self wouldn't be complete.

Doing this, you won't live anymore a distorted existence but you will be satisfied, happy, YOU! A complete youself, thanks to this powerful journal by Pirtle.

What are you still waiting: hurry! Align, Expand and Calibrate your self and be happy because after this trip you will be happy, joyous and a new person! 

As always, a very satisfying work for healing and bettering our self and our person, physically, psychologically, emotionally.

Highly recommended. The cover is wonderful and plenty of positive vibes! ❤️

I thank Jacqueline Pirtle for the copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori 

 

Revenir a toi by Leonor de Recondo

The history of Apollonia was a mixture of shadows and phantoms: but, for different reasons, this one is also the tale of two lost and suffering souls: the one of a girl abandoned by her mother and the one of a lady mentally sick.

The new book by Leonor De Recondo

Revenir à Toi, published in the rentrée Litteraire by Grasset treats a thematic of big sufferance: the voluntary disappearance of a mother. I have choosen this book because some friends experienced this hell when little ones.

It happens: it happens that from a day to another a mother would leave alone her kids forever, in company of the remained shocked partner and grand-parents or uncles, and aunts, neighbors unable to give proper answers to them.

Magdalena was just 14 years when her mother left the house and an astonished husband, who had loved that woman with all himself. The parents of the husband recriminating that that girl was not the best one he could have chosen are looking in shock at Magdalena, a teenager who wanted to discover, desperately, where her mother went and why.

But no one knew it.

The sensation of a house, when a mother leaves it forever, is the one of an abandoned place an abandoned lifeless nest; there is not anymore any kind of stability, peace, harmony in the house but tensions, recriminations, fear, anger. When she left the house, Magdalena didn't just choose of leaving the house, but also her past, parents and relatives included. 

The act of removing what previously experienced was made by her pretty well, but Magdalena hasn't never forgotten Apollonia. 

One day, her agent calls Magdalena, who with the time became an actress of theater, (she prefers theater for the strong emotions that donates, for the reality, the life, existence lived in the moment without any kind of filter), telling her the news. "They have found your mother"; just these words and Magdalena leaves everything for Bretagne for trying to see what kind of existence built her mother in their absence: her soul is plenty of questions and stress.

The arrival is pretty shocking. Magdalena won't find a person in good health, Apollonia is 80 years at the moment: the conditions of the house are very poor. She decides that she will stay, she will cook, she will clean the house, she will restore dignity to that lost soul of Apollonia: although the silences of her mother, she will discover what it is necessary to discover, thanks to old journals and a picture. Magdalena understands now which was the germ that caused the sufferance of her mother.  

In the while there is also a pretty spicey love-story with a boy much more young than her, met in a Decathlon; she will live beautiful and sensuals adventures with him.

The book opens several emotional windows: the past with its questions, Magdalena, still teenager and desperate, the reconstruction of what it was the departure of her mother with the consequent feelings, and sensation of loss; the present, with the trip to Bretagne and then the daily activities of Magdalena: the spicey adventure lived with the boy of the store; her mother, her past, her disconnected present, her play Antigone.

An intense, emotional, beautiful book!

Highly recommended.

I thank Chez Grasset for the physical copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori 

 

Questa è la Felicità by Niall Williams

 Sublime, exceptional, superlative!

These ones are the first words with which I can describe Questa è la Felicità, This is Happiness by

Niall Williams. Published by Neri Pozza, Williams is intense, thanks to his intellectual, detailed descriptions of the existence and human conditions: a kiss, a place, a person are analyzed with sentiments, wisdom, acumen. When I find writers like Williams I would want to understand what they have read for then becoming the brains that they are.

The story told in this book 

Faha has lived per centuries without electricity; being a little place, its people are unique pieces, incastonated in that magical world that is Ireland. Strongly catholic people, the narrator and voice of this book will be the, now, 80 years old man Noel Crowe, at that time a teenager of 17 years. He  will share with us the adventures experienced during, maybe, the most important change for Faha: the arrival  of electricity, a new solitude of modern age after all, because if life was simplified, it also meant a drastic changes of habits for all the citizens.

Noel lived with his grand parents Ganga and Doedy because of the departure of his parents, and her mother in particular; a sad story. He is, after all, a happy boy; the arrival of Christy, a man of 60 years working for the electric company, who had asked for a room at Ganga and Doedy,  will mean to Noel new adventures. 

Noel will become an adult thanks to Christy, and will understand the power of love because of the old secret of his friend, a woman left behind fifty years ago! and pretty known in Faha. Christy admits to Noel that he is there not just for presenting electricity to Faha, but also for searching for people he can help or should say: "I am so sorry". To him, trying to be forgiven by people who meant a lot to him but that then have been betrayed by him, in a way or in another, is fundamental.

Noel is still shy, he can't understand the profoundity of feelings lived by Christy: after all there is an abyss of age difference between the two, but he understands that what Christy wants to do is a good thing; so he helps him, trying to reconnect him with the girl, Annie, that Christy had decided to leave alone.

Noel will become a good connection for Annie.

At the same time because of an incident at work, Noel will meet the daughters of his doctor, falling in love for all of them.

When Christy will leave, Noel will feel a strong melancholy but will have also the certainty that that mature friend taught him important life-lessons.

One of the most important questions of this book is: how strong can be feelings when a lot of time passes by?

Noel remembers vividly the daughter of the doctor, Sophie, still sensorially, but also his friend Christy, who had spent most of his existence in foreign countries couldn't forget her Annie and what happened between them.

The title of the book, This is Happiness, Questa è la Felicità is part of a conversation between Christy and Noel. 

Another thematic treated in the book is the lack of water. You must know that in Ireland rains everyday and it is weird that a single day is populated just by sun. Imagine when many many days are rain-free. We will assist at a change of habits of the citizens of Faha, constricted to watering their veggies and potatoes, strained because of this unexpected change.

This book won't be a quick reading. Personally I spent more than fifteen days for reading it or more: I had other books that I was reading because of reviews, but, it's not this. .. it must be a calm and absorbing reading for reflecting: you must absorb concepts, thoughts, feelings. It's not a book, thus one, that will leave you, once you will have completed it. Faha, Noel, Christy, Ganga, with his strong ideas, Doedy  will remain, because characterized very well and because the book has been written superbly,

giving to life the density and, more importantly, the lightness that deserves. 

The author writes, and I agree: "We are our stories. We tell them  to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling."

I chose this book because only in 1973 electricity was brought in our rural area: our people lived in an enchanted world at long; I remember that when we were electricity-free with mom and dad we lighted white candles and they started to tell the adventures lived by ancestors in a remote past, forgotten when artificial light too strong. 

Highly recommended!

I thank Neri Pozza for the physical copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori

 

La Vita Segreta degli Scrittori La vie secrète des écrivains by Guillaume Musso

 La Vita Segreta degli Scrittori

La vie secrète des écrivains by Guillaume Musso hypnotized me from the first lines, and I couldn't help myself: I had to read it till the end in the immediate. I had bought it at my book club, Club Per Voi several weeks ago.

Nathan Fawles is a successul writer who, at the age of 35 years, for unknown and mysterious reasons decides of leaving the writing activity putting down many fans, admirors and in general all the literary environment. No one understood why Nathan had taken this drastic decision after three successfull novels. For all answer, Nathan decides to leave the big cities where he lived in for his buen retiro, Beaumont, a fictional island close to the world described by Jean Giono, populated by few locals and some new residents attracted by the peace of that enchanting place.

The scheme of Musso is the one we started to know with other books: one of the most important characters will become marginal and will be eliminated at some point.

A boy, Raphael Bataille, with the passion for writing, after 20 years from the events described before, decides to afford to the island of Beaumont, working during the summer season at the local bookstore owned by old Audibert. 

Of course he is there not just for the bookstore, but because he brought with him his manuscript and wants to ask to to Nathan Fawles of reading it. The first approach as you'll read is not the happiest one of this world but at the end the writer will become more conciliant in particular when he also receives the visit of a beautiful attracting woman and something changes in his soul.

A homicide at the same time is consumed in the island, putting astonished people in profound costernation. 

The story built by Musso is one of the most complicated and emotionally strong never read. I can't tell you more. I leave you to this hypnotic author and his book, with the idea that if you love these kind of books, this one will capture your attention and if you are a new writer, you'll find a lot of good lessons and advices as well.

Anna Maria Polidori 

Cose che Voi Umani by Enrico Deaglio

 Wow, what a book this one written by Enrico Deaglio Cose

che Voi Umani. Deaglio lives in San Francisco since 2012: he is an acute, tremendous observer of the American reality, always more divided, complex and fragmented.

If you want to understand what the USA became with the time, you must add this book to the list of your readings, because it is simply magnificient.

One of the biggest problems in the USA is...GOD! or better, a "certain" idea of God, seen as a sort of flag for the most terrifying events, let's say the entity used from people for trying to reach their private and public interests.

Yes, we must say that there is not just the danger of an islamic extremistic religion: in the USA the idea of God became with the time always more contorted and...dangerous thanks to advent of sects as the one of Waco and the birth with the time, of new weird religious leaders. 

The book starts with a deflagrating event that we had all seen last January 6th 2021 in the Congress of the USA: people worn as Vikings, entered in that democratic place with belligerant purposes. At that time the President Donald Trump had instructed all these people asking to them of doing this during a final encounter with them, where, he insisted, he had won the election.

There is also, with them, the story starts here, a once pacifical attorney, who, with the time became fixated with guns, and terrified (he voted in the past for the left), by the idea that the same left would have destroy all his dreams of keeping in his house war guns, changed his mind (we are in the profound South of the Usa).

He joined slowly slowly certain movements and with a brain washing became the person who decided to go to the Congress fighting for the cause of Trump. 

Tony is in pension and when understands that his cousin has been arrested and relatives  ask for his help, he is skeptical. He is a Biden supporter and plus...Why his cousin became in this way? What is there behind? Tony in the while starts to work for the New Orion a society that is in grade to tell the story of every person, or fact with extreme precision. This new work could be helpful also for trying to understand what there was in the mind of his cousin when decided to attack the Congress.  

And, starting from these considerations we will analyze a nation, the USA seen in futuristic books, I won't tell you which ones, because created killers as well, as a nazi nation; a place where the multi-culturalism wouldn't exist. We will go in Russia, when at the beginning of 1900 the Romanov were killed and a new power, the Communism became the reality: with its rigidity Communism killed more than 20 innocent million of souls during the hardest decades of the regime.

We will see Lenin compared to Trump, reading analogies with the rest of his key men: the message of Francesco, the bishop of Rome, the Pope who recommended to the Americans a good vote because the danger of an escalation of hate and racism was just behind the door. A news, strangely that no one reported.

We will read what Arnold Schwarzenegger said to the media immediately after the chaos to the Capitol Hill. Republican, he is one of the main oppositors of Donald Trump. He can't be elected in the USA, because he is not born in the USA.

Enrico wont forget to explain us in detail what happened at George Floyd: the video realized by a teen-ager, the fury of the masses for another man killed because of the color of his skin.

And we are back to the reality, a reality where we see the cousin of Tony out of jail but with the order of following the trial of Floyd, writing down the impressions. Not that he had changed his mind.

I considered important chapters also the ones in grade to reconnect events like the terrible Oklahoma city's terroristic attack with the one of the Twin Towers, caused just 3 months after the execution of the killer of that attack.

The USA is more mysterious than what we can think 🤔.

A book that you can't lose!

Highly highly recommended.

I thank Marsilio for the physical copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori 

I

The Mailbox in the Forest by Kyoko Hara and Illustrated by Kazue Takahashi

The Mailbox in the Forest

by Kyoko Hara and Illustrated by Kazue Takahashi is a delicate, tender story of friendship and understanding. Everything starts when little Mayu stays for some while to the house of her grand-parents. They live close to a forest and Mayu is intrigued by the mystery that the forest is transmitting her. Although her granny reassures her that no one lives in the forest, Mayu is skeptical.

At the same time her grand-father receives several letters. Mayu asks to her grand-father what she finds of exciting in reading a letter: her grand-father asks her if she has sent a letter to someone. Mayu tells him that she hasn't never done it, because calling by phone is simpler. Her grand-father so explains her the art of letter-writing. You can re-read what a person sent you, a lot of times, affirms him.

Mayu now, would want to have someone with which exchanging thoughts, but...Where to find him?

Then, one day, wondering in the forest, she discovers a sort of mailbox: someone waits for some letters.

Mayu writes the first one, starting, she discovers, a wonderful and mysterious correspondence with a guy who, certainly doesn't have a great property of language, but that he is more than OK to her. 

At the end the big suprise and the promise of staying in touch also when Mayu leaves because it is time to return home. 

Although in this story there is the discovery of a wild animal as a correspondent, it is understandable that behind that animal, as also for example in the legend of the wolf of Gubbio, there is boy with some difficulties in this case, someone who didn't sufficiently study for too many reasons, maybe sick, but that he is kind, nice, and has a lot of stories to tell. A real and appreciated friend for Mayu.

I see in this fairy-tale the encounter of two completely different friends in "friendship" for each other, with an important lesson learned: it is crucial to stay in touch with our dear ones and sometimes letters are better than a call or an e-mail.

I love the cover, and all the illustrations have a delicate and dreaming touch.

Highly recommended.

I thank Akira and NetGalley for the copies of this book.

Anna Maria Polidori 

Maquillée Essai sur le Monde et Ses Fards by Daphné B.

 Maquillée

Essai sur le Monde et Ses Fards by Daphné B. known Canadian poet and translator tell us in this erudite book, a world, the one of maquillage and influencers in perennial evolution.

It is more a sociological book this one than not, realistically, a real tour in the magical world of hair, and skin and cosmetics and what there is in the middle, although you'll find a lot in this sense as well.

Starting with some observations on Elon Musk and his companion, that we will also find at the end of the book because of the weird and futuristic name of their first creature, the cultural trip attending the reader will let him/her show and know the best influencers, youtubers, new creators of cosmetics and their massive communication through the web.

It is distant the idea of maquillage as a sort of camouflage of the being as it was sometimes intended in the past; cosmetics! We are surrounded by wagons of them, they are a compulsion, but also what the industry is requiring us, what the consumerism wants because of the projection of the woman desired, wanted and idealized in this society. Adding some maquillage means so, treating us well, staying much better with ourselves and the other ones with which we interact with.

At the moment the cosmetic industry is not just in bloom, it is rampant, aggressive and sometimes is not ethical with the environment and our planet Earth, although most brands (I am an Yves Rocher's representative and I go proud of my brand) tend to be great with the Planet and its necessities that are our necessities. 

We will discover the ethicity of the various youtubers when they promote their products, the crucifixion of some others, when they haven't been so honest, but also what these brands propose and why.

Cosmetics remains an important commercial voice but also a sign of cultural revolution. 

Interesting book.

Highly recommended.

I thank Editions Grasset for the physical copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori 

I Colori dell' Incendio by Pierre Lemaitre

Very sensual, sunny, disruptive, candid: secrets, tradiments, expectations, ingenuity, are the main ingredients of the first book that I read by Pierre Lemaitre, I Colori dell'Incendio

I promised to myself of reading also the rest of his production. His way of analyzing reality is in fact so multiform and captivating that will hypnotize you: his characters are well constructed; situations, stories, friendships will keep the reading pleasant. I ordered the book at Club per Voi several weeks ago. I read it pretty calmly because I had many books waiting for my attention. Now, that the situation is more calm, just with three-four books waiting to be reviewed I thought that I could end this one. 

Lemaitre wants to launch a big and provocative question to its readers: is revenge a possibility for a new start, when, the characters who, in different moments and phases and modalities, damaged the principal protagonist of this story, and the principal character a genuine, after all, a good person?

It is possible and it is a certainty according to Madeleine Pericourt and the moral of this story.

I start to tell you that my most favorite characters are Madeleine for her vibrant sensuality, naivety and intelligence, Solange for her spontaneity, Paul for his acute thinking and sweetness, and Vladi for being so unique!

The story starts in 1927 when the famous and well-known banker Marcel Pericourt dies in Paris. During the funeral, the horrible tragedy of Paul the son of Madeleine. Horribly injured by a fall and with a sad destiny, Madeleine is the only heiress of an empire. She doesn't know anything of business because, unfortunately, her father grew her up only with the purpose of seeing her close to a man: her role had to be the one of the devoted wife. After the end of her first marriage, Madeleine becomes the lover of the tutor of Paul, André, a potential journalist, a pretty obscure person, as you will see later...

Paul doesn't want to return to life. He is constantly depressed, till to the day in which a polish nurse pretty talkative, explosive, a sort of factotum, is hired. The girl is a passionate of opera and Paul is curious. He becomes an estimator of the genre, he speaks much more, and Solange Gallinato an opera singer, his heroine. Gallinato is attracted by the sad story of Paul and the two will become great correspondents. 

While Madeleine is living the love-story with André, the sensuality of Leonce, another worker in that big house seems to conquer her...

Gustave Joubert, the most important man in the staff of Pericourt had received from Marcel the blessing of marrying her daughter. Madeleine, in love for André doesn't want to ruin her relationship: she doesn't like Gustave: Gustave suffers for this situation...

Charles is Madeleine's uncle, politician and a man constantly pennieless: he has two ugly twins, a wife with big belly problems; one day will damage the niece, with the blessing and help of other people.

Madeleine loses everything, house, money, everything, but big will be her revenge and all the people who damaged her, at the end of the games, will be completely destroyed. 

The book is sets in Paris in a historical moment where the advent of new dictatorships is a reality.

I don't want to tell more, no spoilers for a reading that will capture you from the beginning to the end.

Anna Maria Polidori 

A Brigit of Ireland Devotional Sun Among Stars by Mael Brigde Foreword by Orlagh Costello Afterword by Morgan Daimler

 A Brigit of Ireland

Devotional Sun Among Stars by Mael Brigde Foreword by Orlagh Costello Afterword by Morgan Daimler is a new book by John Hunt Publishing. I have always been fascinated by Brigit, being a fan of Ireland!

Brigit and Saint Patrick can't be avoided: they are part of the social, religious, human tissue of a land that mixes without too many problems history and mysticism, legends and prayers, magic and reality, knowning that the first word can't exist without the second. 

In particular what I appreciate of Brigit are her prayers for the house, truly suggestive and powerful.

Saint Brigit has also been the saint who rediscovered one of the most hidden apostols of Jesus Christ, Saint Jude Thaddeus, my saint Protector in this existence, so I am grateful to her for this reason as well.

Prayed mainly in Norhtern European Countries let's see who Brigit was.

Daughter of a slave and his master, as writes the author, she was "destined to lead Christian women and help build the church in early medieval Ireland."

Her feast is every February 1, and the blessings dedicated to her are sought for beings and situations, for healing, for safety, for insight, for renewal. Brigit protects the oppressed and the weak.

Brigit is not just a saint but a goddess, a modern woman who fought for her rights, and the rights of other people. Her existence has been tumultous and what  you are experiencing in this existence, probably has been experienced by her as well.

This book, being a devotional can be read with tranquillity jumping throught the pages, searching for the best prayer of the moment.

Written by Mael Bridge, passionate of Brigit from a lot of decades, in these devotionals you'll find her own existence, and of course the words Brigit whispered to her while she was writing the devotionals.

Highly recommended.

I thank John Hunt Publishing for the copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori