The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman - Denis Thériault

I'm going to really struggle to portray the beauty of this book, the many layers of storyline, the amount of times it surprised me, what it taught me and how it left me. But. I will try.

Firstly, I think this book is seriously mis-named. Unless you look at the very first layer of storyline. If you read it and focus only on the superficial, then yes, this is a story about a lonely postman, job done.

But this is not about a lonely postman. It is about yearning for life. It is about obsession. It is about betrayal. It's about learning. It is about the better you and the better me. It is about love. It's about connecting with someone on the deepest level, to where circumstances happen that could only occur because it was pre-destined. Meant-to-be. Fate.

It is about inevitability.

I'm not a big poetry fan, (although everyone should know E.E. Cummings' poem 'I carry your heart with me'), so at times I struggled a bit with the Japanese poetry. If you struggle with poetry, persevere. This is a book not to give up on. It has a purpose, trust the author he's a true storyteller.

The most beautiful part of the book is in the reader learning about and falling into the world of an 'enso'. And I can't explain this without ruining the book for you.

I'm torn with actually reviewing this book and telling the story, which will then rob you of the experience of the surprises and could never do the book the justice it deserves. Or just saying READ THIS BOOK. It is only 100 pages. I don't know how he fitted it all in. 

I'm going to do something in between. I'm going to just shower you with words that the book made me feel, think, learn, in the hope that I convey a scent of the book without exposing it's secrets.

Curious. Intimate. Stalker. Friendship. Trust. Passion. Immersed. Jealousy. Betrayal. Secrets. Uncomfortable. Raunchy. Tender. Oblivious. Intrigued. Poetic. 

Enough already. Just read it! Ok?

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson

If you knew how the choices you make would shape your future, would you change it if you could? How could you be sure your alternative future would be better, more fulfilling, less painful than your current future? You couldn't.

Ursula is born. It's snowing outside, the doctor cannot reach her through the snow, he is not there to untangle her cord from around her neck, and Ursula dies.

Reset.

Ursula is born. It snowing outside, the doctor makes it through the snow and he arrives just in time. Ursula lives. Life moves on, younger siblings arrive, seasons change. Still Ursula's future is fragile. A family outing to the beach ends in tragedy after Ursula is caught in the current, Ursula dies.

Reset.

Snow, doctor, Ursula Lives. Beach, stranger saves girl caught in the current, Ursula lives. 

Ursula's many futures play out before our eyes, revealing life's delicacy. Somehow, eventually, one life leads to adulthood. However, Ursula's adulthood coincides with living in London during the Second World War. You want her to be able to save progress, like a computer game, so when another life is lost she doesn't have to start over. But she can't.

Reset, Reset, Reset.

Ursula becomes aware of the shadow of her previous lives, a haunting déjà vu which encroaches upon her, bringing with it a silent terror. She becomes able to dodge previous deaths, to push the boundaries of each life. Her adult lives diverge from their normal paths faster than her young lives. 

She lives several adult lives in London during the blitz. Then one in Germany, where she becomes known to an Eva Braun and her boyfriend, Adolf Hitler. 

After further London lives, and the loss of friends and families from the continued bombardment of England, a plan seeds in Ursula's mind, she is going to control her next life, and take it to Germany.

She chooses a life to choose another's death to choose to save hundreds of lives.

Ursula lives, Hilter dies, London lives.

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

The Boy, a shepherd, learns to speak the language of the world, to listen to his heart and in doing so meets a king, a caravan leader, an alchemist, talks to the desert, the wind, the sun and to the soul of god. In doing so he learns that he travelled the world to discover that his treasure lay beneath his feet all along, but without following the omens to fulfil his destiny he would never have found it, his heart would never have been heard, and he would never have found Fatima, his love, a desert woman whose scent he catches of the distant winds, and whom looks to the desert each day for his return.