Alentejo Blue

This book is more a series of short stories with recurring and interconnected characters than it is a novel. Here in a tiny town in Portugal, the poorest province in the poorest nation in (Western) Europe, are assembled a cast of characters who are locals, tourists and émigrés, mainly from Britain.......more

I really liked Monica Ali’s debut novel ‘Brick Lane’ but I was worried before I started reading this. It often happens that writers who had a popular debut novel decide to stick to the formula and produce book-club-riendly watered down versions of their debut. Luckily, that’s not the case here. Moni......more

I wanted to like this but all through the book, I struggled to see the point of it. Set in small town Portugal, the book moves from character to character to character and I never got a grasp on the storyline, nor did I like any of the characters.......more

Not a bad book, but not my cup of tea. Did enjoy the innkeeper deciding wether to eat a piece of cake for ten pages, and the couple getting two different existential crisises after visiting a skull-and-bones-chapel.......more

Ufff, me ha costado, la verdad. Lo elegí porque estoy enamorada de la zona en la que se ambienta y decidí leerlo en un viaje al Alentejo. Es una recopilación de relatos cortos con personajes entremezclados en un pequeño pueblo ficticio, pero me ha resultado demasiado fragmentario, de ritmo muy lento......more