Andrew Crofts

In dit verhaal beschrijft de schrijfster haar eigen ervaringen van haar jeugd. Vanaf haar vierde tot haar eenentwintigste is ze lichamelijk en geestelijk mishandeld en seksueel misbruikt door haar stiefvader. Haar moeder en broers hebben het laten gebeuren ook al waren ze er vaak getuige van. Als ze eenentwintig jaar oud is, voelt ze zich eindelijk sterk genoeg om het tegen haar stiefvader op te nemen en dient een aanklacht in. Zal er nu eindelijk een einde komen aan alle ontbering? Het is een in en intriest verhaal over mishandeling in een gezin. Het is af en toe moeilijk om door te lezen, vanwege de gruwelijke feiten die worden beschreven. Toch kan je het boek moeilijk weg leggen. De schrijfster hoopt met dit verhaal anderen tot steun te zijn en misschien iemand anders ook zo ver te krijgen om te vertellen wat er gebeurt.… (mehr)

Secrets of the Italian Gardener is a novella but for a short read it certainly packs plenty in. The ghost writer is in the Middle East in what he knows could be a dangerous place, trying to help a dictator to write his autobiography. It doesn't take much to imagine the situation, the surroundings, the regime and then the violent uprising as we've all seen this kind of thing unfold in the news.

The book surprised me. It started out having me wondering if it was going to be too dry for me and then completely drew me into the story. The Italian Gardener of the title is an interesting man whom the ghost writer meets at the palace. Seemingly living a simple life in the middle of his friend, the dictator's regime, there is much more to him than meets the eye.

Told in the first person by the ghost writer (who remains nameless), there is a sense of foreboding throughout. There is also a moral question here: one of how far will you go for money?

I found this book to be totally absorbing. Interestingly the author has been in similar situations to the ghost writer in the story which adds another dimension to it for me in that I'm wondering how much of the events he actually experienced himself.

This book is not quite my usual sort of read but one which I found fascinating, interesting and compelling.… (mehr)

This was a very hard book for me to read. At first I did not really understand why she let him do that to her even when she was an adult but then I started thinking of her family. Real white trash. They terrorized the neighborhood and everyone was scared of them.
We have families like that in The Netherlands too and people do not dare to complain cause they know they will be punished for it later.
What annoyed me mostly was that the mom got off free. No punishment at all while in truth it was mainly her fault. A mom is the one that should protect a child when there is no father or if a dad is abusive. if you cannot count on your mom, who can you trust?… (mehr)