About reading

Ricardo has written an article from the point of view of Clare, the main character in this story of human interest.

Huw is one of the main characters in “Two Lives”, by Helen Naylor.
I don’t know for sure what he looked like but I guess he probably looked like the young man in the picture on the right.

After you have read the book you can click here and see what other readers have written about Huw’s personality and background, his past and his future. However, you’d better  finish the book first because some of the comments contain spoilers.

He was born in a Welsh mining village and lived there all his childhood but when he was in his teens he had to leave Britain and travel to Toronto, Canada, in search of a better life. When he was in Toronto he wrote some letters to his beloved Megan, the girl he had to leave in Wales, so far away. In the book, we can read the beginning of one of them:

My lovely Megan
I still haven’t received a letter from you. I can’t believe it takes four months for letters to cross the Atlantic. What’s happened? Is something wrong? …

Some 2nd year Basic Level students have used their imagination to find the missing words. I’m sure Huw’s letters can’t have been very different from these :

I’ve found a very nice house near the sea. It’s very nice to live in Toronto and to know that you’re fine at the same time! The only bad thing I have to tell you is that I haven’t found a job yet. But don’t worry, I’ve met a very important businessman who has promissed me to help me with that task.
The only thing I want to know is if you are all right. I only need that to live. I promiss I’ll go to Britain as soon as I have some money to spend on the journey, but now you have to be patient. Please, Megan, wait for me!
Looking forward to your answer,
yours truly,
Huw

(By Adrián Rodríguez Ares)

My lovely Megan
I still haven’t received a letter from you. I can’t believe it takes four months for letters to cross the Atlantic. What’s happened? Is something wrong?…
I really need to see you again but I’ve started to think you have forgotten me. I hope you haven’t because I´d be very sad.
What happened with the things that you and I talked about? I don´t know what to think…I´m confused.
I´m in this big city working to be able to return to you and then you and I will be able to get married. My father has given up drinking and I´m happy for him. He has met a woman and he´s very happy.
I don’t know what else I can say except that I hope you write back.
I´ll always love you.
My best wishes,
Huw

(By Vanessa Peña)

This is very different from Tredoland but I think that you’d like it. Sometimes I go walking along the street and I imagine that you are here and I’ll find you after turning the corner or when I get into a shop. However, I soon realize that it won’t happen and that makes me feel sad. How I wish you were here! I remember every single day we spent together in Tredoland. They were the happiest days of my life. I wonder if I made the right decision.
Please, write to me,
Huw

(By Franciso González)

My lovely Megan
I still haven’t received a letter from you. I can’t believe it takes four months for letters to cross the Atlantic. What’s happened? Is something wrong?…Maybe your family?
I miss you every day. I always dream you are here with me.
This city is wonderful, you’ll love it. I sold some pictures and my father is better. He met a woman whom he likes. This can be good for him. As I’ve earned some money here and I’ve saved some, you will be able to come with me, if you haven’t changed your mind about our plans for the future. Please, answer me soon because this is diving me crazy. I’m not sure if you keep loving me or you have forgotten me.

With all my best wishes,

Huw

(By María García Saceda)

I don’t understand … why don’t you write to me? Every day I look at your face on the wall of my studio and I feel alone, I’m waiting for your letter.
I love you so much !

(By Arantxa García Barrenechea)

Sometimes I wonder if you still love me like you did before.
I don’t understand why you haven’t replied yet.
Do you have any problems with you father?
Please, I need to know if you want to marry me.
Now I’m working hard and I think in three months I’ll have the money for your ticket, but I must know if you want to leave Tredonald.
I’m anxiously awaiting news from you.
Love,
Huw

(By Aurelio Braz Viana)

My lovely Megan,

I still haven’t received a letter from you. I can’t believe it takes four months for letters to cross the Atlantic. What’s happened? Is anything wrong?

I think that you might have another person in your life so if I don’t have any news from you in the next days I’ll take it for granted that you don’t want to keep in touch.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you

Love,

Huw. 

(By Evelia R.C.) 

Title: La sombra del viento

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Genre: Fiction

Summary: After the Spanish civil war, Daniel’s father takes him to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a huge library of old forgotten titles. According to tradition, everyone initiated to this secret place is allowed to take one book from it, and must protect it for life. Daniel selects a book called The Shadow of the Wind

Personal opinion: It´s a very entretaining book and sometimes hilarious. This book is a good read because it has action, humour, mistery and when you start reading it you can´t put it down.

TWILIGHT  by Stephenie Meyer is a book about vampires, humans and werewolves but it’s a romantic story.

Bella is a very shy girl who moves house to Forks (a little village in Washington) with her father, Charlie, the sheriff.
When she goes to school in Forks she meets Edward, a handsome tall and thin boy that all the girls love but he wasn’t out with any of them. When he sees Bella he hates her because he’s a vampire and he wishes to bite her and drink her blood although he and his family drink animal blood.

Bella doen’t know anything but soon after she gets to know his secret and she tells him. Edward falls in love with her because Bella is the only  person whose mind Edward can’t read.

They love each other and they  have a lot of adventures when another vampire, called James, smells Bella and tries to kill her but Edward helps her and kills James.

Finally Bella and Edward live their romance freely until the next problem, which takes place in the second book, called New Moon.

 VISIT STEPHENIE MEYER’S WEBSITE

And this is the trailer of the film.

Title: Marina

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Genre: Thriller

Publisher: Edebé

Marina is a brilliant book. I love this novel because I think it’s very unpredictable, you don’t know what is going to happen so it surpises and shocks you. Although the end is tragic it’s an enjoyable book. It has a lot of descriptions of the people and the places where the main characters go . It’s not a very long book so it doesn’t bore you.

The White Tiger offers a story of complicated wit, blistering suspense, and questionable morality, told by the most volatile, captivating, and utterly inimitable narrator of the new millennium. The theme immerses the readers deep into the story due to the intrigue that goes with you during all the chapters. Clearly captured is the difference between the called, Two Indias. (The Dark one and the Light one). His life started in Blaxmangarh, where he was born. He entered at school in spite of the fact that her mother had died because his father wanted to make him a really successful man in the very next future. Unfortunately, his father died and he was obliged by her grandmother to work in her teashop with his brother Kishan. Surprisingly for the main character of the story, Kusum, her grandmother, lent him some money to get his driving license and start carrying out a new job, although he would have to give his full wage back to her. After some time, he started working for one of the richest families in New Delhi. Soon, he wanted to be promoted and he advanced rapidly in his career as a chauffeur. Later, he began driving a new boss, called Mr. Ashok, who was corrupted like the whole Stork’s family. He finally felt into their illegal business secretly, just pumping some petrol from the car. Suddenly, one day he unintentionally heard that his boss would take a large amount of money with him. He thought that it was his opportunity to give a twist to his monotonic life. During the route he stopped the car and pretended to have a mechanic failure, murdering his boss who had always trusted him, straight afterwards.Then, he picked out his cousin, fleeing from the police and travelled to Bangalore. After some dubious agreements he was able to establish his own taxi company. To sum up, Balram Halwai was a complicated man. A servant, an entrepreneur and a murderer almost at the same time. Over the course of seven nights, Balram told us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life, having just his own wits to help him along. Also, including the situation that takes place in India, which is apparently moved by envy, disloyalty, avarice, money… The White Tiger has received really positives reviews from experts and journalist from all over the world. Remember; don’t lose the chance to read it as soon as possible!

Aravind Adiga, a correspondent in India for prestigious magazines such as Time, has won the Man Booker Prize 2008 owing to his first and successful novel: “The White Tiger”. This piece is a false autobiography organized as an epistolary novel in seven letters.          The whole story is a criticism of contemporary India. The letters are addressed to China’s Prime Minister, and through them, Balram Halwai tells him how he got to where he is now from the darkest of India.          Following quite a chronological order, his life-story is told from his wretched birth, to his current state of successful entrepreneur in Bangalore, “The White Tiger”. First of all, he wasn’t even named by his parents. Then, he calls himself “half-baked” because he couldn´t finish school, instead, he started working in his early years. And coming from a poor family, he couldn´t be anything but a servant, doomed to stay in the dark India of poverty forever. This attachment is due to what he calls the “Rooster Coop”, which means that a servant will never take advantage of his master unless he doesn´t care for his family at all. However, as years go by, Balram slowly manages to distance himself from his manipulative family. And although he ends up being a driver for Mr.Ashok, the son of one of his hometown landowners, and his wife, Pinky Madam, this doesn’t prevent him from seeking for success.          In general, the story sounds really credible, full of tricky details. However, I must say that it is a little ironic how Balram criticizes India’s society to end up as another wealthy corrupt by abandoning his family. And the book is also biting owing to the fact that the author is a pretty wealthy man who has never had any economic problem. Nevertheless, I would recommend it to people looking for the realest view of India, with no censorship.          In my opinion, “The White Tiger” is an interesting book to learn more about the realities of the poor in India, as well as enjoyable because of its satirical adventures.

The white tiger, Avind Adiga’s novel, is the best example which shows the real Indian society, and the big differences, both social and economic, between the Darkness and the Light (“the two Indias”).  The white tiger tells the story of Balram, an important entrepreneur in Bangalore, who tells Mr Jiabao, who was the Prime Minister of China and was coming to India in the very following days, how he became such a successful entrepreneur, so he told Mr Jiabao his whole story, which is divided in seven nights (except the sixth morning). Balram’s story begins in a little village in the Darkness, called Blaxmangarh, where Balram was born, and lived with his family. After the death of Balram’s mother, his father sent him to school, though Kusum, Balram’s grandmother, had not accepted the decision. While he was at school, Munna (Balram’s real name) was renamed and his day of birth changed. An inspector came to the school too, and discovered Balram’s flairs, and called him “white tiger”, because it is really difficult to find somebody like Balram in the Darkness. But, after some time, Kusum finally took Balram out of school, and made him work in the teashop in the village with his brother Kishan.Balram’s father did not like this decision, but he could do nothing owing to the fact that he died of tuberculosis in hospital due to the fact that there were no doctors there.Balram finally understood that he did not want to live like his family; he wanted to go to the Light and have a good life. So he asked Kusum for some money in order to learn to drive and get a driving licence. Kusum agreed, but, when he got a job, he had to send back the money he had earnt. Subsequently, Balram asked in all New Delhi wealthy families’ houses, and at the very end he got a job as a second driver in the Stork’s family. But Balram wanted more, so he spied and blackmailed, and became the first driver. Later he had to be Mr Ashok’s driver, who was Mongoose’s brother (Mongoose was his first master). After some time being Mr Ashok’s driver, Balram realized that the Stork’s were a corrupted family, like the politicians who were controlling the fate of India. But, consequently, Balram finally got corrupted too, and started by stealing a little amount of money selling some petrol that he pumped from the car, or deceiving with the bills of the mechanic in order to steal some money. One day, while he was eavesdropping he heard that Mr Ashok was coming to bribe the new government of India with a huge amount of money put in a red bag. While Balram was driving Mr Ashok in order to meet the politicians, he stopped the car and pretended to show Mr Ashok a mechanical failure, and murdered him with a broken whisky bottle while he was looking for the failure, took the bag, came back to pick up his nephew Dharam to flee to Bangalore, but he had to be zigzagging in order to not be caught.When Balram arrived in Bangalore, three days after he fled Delhi, he went to the police office to remove his “wanted” poster and investigate a taxi company with the aim to dissolve the company by bribing them.After that, he started his own taxi company, with 26 cars and 16 drivers, and managed to be one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Bangalore.To sum up, The white tiger defines Indian society like a huge group of human beings ruled by poverty, hunger, blackmailing, bribery, envy, loyalty, death and sex. The white tiger has also received many prices, like the Man Booker Prize in 2008, and has very good reviews from newspapers like The Times. So, do you want to know the whole story? Then you have to read it.

Although this book was the winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize, I had not heard about it or its author until I got the news this was the book we would have to read this year. After surfing the net I found it is an Indian writer first novel who was born in Madrás, which is one of the biggest Indian cities, and who, obviously, knows what he is talking about and has a lot to say about it.This book is a kind of biography; it is a letter collection the protagonist writes to the Chinese prime minister. The protagonist is called Balram Halwai. He was born in The Darkness, which is the name Indians use to refer to the poorest areas in their country. It tells us about his youth, how, after being the youngest in his school in being able to read or write, a peculiarity that made him win the nickname of “White Tiger”, he had to give up his studies and start to work in the local tea shop to help his family. After that, the book shows us how he was restless in his village, how he looked forward to finding something better for himself, and how he fought to get it.Using these letters, Aravind tells us lots of things about Indian reality. He is able to show us the differences between the two modern castes, the Darkness and the Lightness. He shows us how the progress is changing its old way of life, their stronger traditions, how Darkness inhabitants fight to get out of their poverty… Furthermore, he gives us a clue of how far people can go to get out of poverty. Even though the story is quite interesting and makes you learn a lot about India, I sometimes found that giving so many details makes the plot a bit slow, a bit boring. However, it is a good window to show us real life, human feelings and situations: poverty, envy, family, loyalty, violence… Maybe that is the main reason why this book has got such encouraging reviews.