The Stranger (L’étranger) by Albert Camus – Book Review

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Publisher’s write-up (translated / paraphrased as necessary):

‘When the bell rang again, when the door opened, the silence in the room approaching towards me, the silence, and this strange feeling I had when I notice the young journalist before turning my eyes away. I didn’t look towards Marie. I did not have the time because the president had told me in a strange way that my head would be guillotined in a public place on behalf of the French people…’

Note: I read the book in French

I had come to know that The Stranger is a classic in French from Albert Camus from the owner of a bookstore in a lovely small town in Côte d’Azur where I bought this book. Unfortunately, I had never heard of this book or the writer but I found the subject and the plot to be interesting when I had heard it.

Our society has a lot of rules, some of them unwritten and very often, a person ends up on the wrong side of the society if these rules are not followed. The plot concerns Meursault, a person who is very different from the average person in the society. This did not affect his life till the day he needed to face the law.

The story starts with the death of his mother who is in an asylum. However, what concerned Meursault more than his mother’s death was whether it would be appropriate to smoke a cigarette in front of his mother’s corpse and was simply annoyed that most guests around were old. He returned to normalcy immediately after the funeral, be it his work, his relationship with his new girlfriend, etc. He then accepts to be a witness to testify against an Arab girlfriend of his neighbour Raymond following a discord between the two. Following these events, Meursault eventually ends up committing a murder, and problems over his attitude and indifference in general start to become a problem in front of the judge.

The author has created an interesting character in Meursault, who is an anti-hero with whom the reader does not share much sympathies from the outset. Even if he is not like the other people in the society (for example, he doesn’t cry for his mother’s death), one can only think if it is a reason good enough to be condemned, especially where a lot of people think that his indifference is an even bigger issue than the murder he had committed. The author made me think on this aspect, and of course, I did find the attitude of Meursault bizarre but at the same time, not following a societal convention the violation of which harms nobody else should not lead to condemnation – and I found it very interesting that these aspects made me regain sympathy for Meursault during the course of the plot which he had lost immediately after the start.

I liked the manner in which the author brought out how Meursault’s detached himself from every dire situation, and what had in fact helped was his indifference with people and the world at large. He remained complex as much as he was indifferent, he was not someone who could be termed a misanthrope either. Much as he was a character very well created by the author, he was also the only character and no other character in the book had even a reasonable level of depth.

The plot took place in Algeria, before its independence and even though the Arabs have a rather important role in the plot, I did not like the manner in which the author had dehumanised them – none of the Arab characters had names, no witness was an Arab (which I found to be odd), etc. One could argue that perhaps that was not the intention of the author, considering the second part was narrated by Meursault, it merely brings about the divide between the native population and the French settlers. However, I struggle to arrive at giving a benefit of doubt to the author in this case. I understand that there is a novel from Kamel Daoud – ‘The Meursault Investigation’ – where the author has given a character to each of the Arabs in the plot of The Stranger and retells the plot, and right now, I am inclined to try out this novel. Coming back to the location of the plot, much as it was in the city of Algiers, whether it was Algiers or any other city in the world, there would have hardly been a difference to the plot as the author hardly used any facets of the city in his plot.

To conclude, it is a deep and interesting novel, I am sure that a person with an excellent level of French (unlike the pidgin French I muster) might enjoy Meursault’s defence of his positions and views better. I hope it is not lost in translation in the English edition. On that note, I award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating – 7/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari – Book Review

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Publisher’s write-up:

‘100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?

In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, palaeontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come?

Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future.’

Based on the material I have read so far (Richard Dawkins in particular), the human species is around 200,000 years old. However, we have very little data the history of our species beyond 10,000 years (which is a very generous estimate). In this book, Yuval Noah Harari, a historian and professor tries to explain the history of our species – from the time homo sapiens coexisted with other human species till the era as we know today.

The book is split into four parts – the cognitive revolution, the agricultural revolution, the unification of humankind, the scientific revolution and a conclusion with the author’s insights into the future. Through these phases, the author explores how the species evolved, how we learned to cooperate, and more importantly, how they learnt to adapt to different conditions and scale up our abilities without any significant modifications to the DNA structure. The author challenges several traditionally held views – such as ‘agriculture being the greatest invention of humanity’, how myths are essential for the survival of the society as it is today (eg – for instance, we all believe that a piece of paper printed by an authority has a value, the moment people stop dissociating themselves with the myth, the society as of today would collapse), inter alia.

Much as this is a book discussing a scientific topic, the author has not used technical terms and has written in simple language. I took a week to complete this book (with most of my reading being during transits from home to work and vice versa) and that is perhaps that’s a personal record for me when it comes to completing a non-fiction work of this size (almost 500 pages). I liked the fact that the author strictly maintained the sequence and at several points – regardless of whether you’re a conservative or a liberal, religious or an atheist, the validity of your firmly held convictions would be strongly challenged by the author. It was interesting as to how I was initially shocked at some of the statements but when we think of it deeply, it was true; and still we come to the conclusion that these are very necessary inventions. I’d quote one such instance which challenges some of my strong convictions on equality and human rights

‘Advocates of quality and human rights may be outraged by this line of reason. Their response is likely to be “we know that people are not equal in biologically! But if we believe that we are all equal in essence, it will enable us to create a stable and prosperous society’. I have no argument with that. This is exactly what I mean by by “imagined order”. We believe in a particular order not because it is objectively true, but because believing in it enables us to cooperate effectively and forge a better society.’

-          Page 123

With that said, there were also instances where I felt his arguments were a little shallow, where he argues how a lot of principles we have today, be it equality or respecting individual freedoms is a revamped version of monotheist conventions (that all are equal before god) (page 258); which seems an extreme conclusion to infer. This is arising from the idea that individuals cannot arrive at the same idea independently; and it contradicts with one of the very findings of the author’s – where he explained how different communities developed similar agricultural societies without ever contacting each other. Just to quote my own example, much as I hold strong views on equality, I am an atheist and was neither raised nor been associated with any monotheistic religion in anyway.

The other highlights of the book included how the author established differences between humans and other animals – especially since the cognitive revolution. He also makes the case as to how our ancestors were in peace with nature to be a myth and in fact, what we have today is one of the best times in the history of humankind (contradicting the ‘good old days of our ancestors’ argument).

I cannot comment on the technical aspects of the book and from what I understand, most academicians do not have a very positive view on the book, but as always, if you can either satisfy the scholars or the public at large but impossible to satisfy all at once. On that note, I would award the book a rating of eight on ten. It is a book that would make you think, and thus, one could say that the author's manner of narration is the greatest highlight of the book. 

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder - and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family.

He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history.

But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.’

Afin de lire ce commentaire en français, cliquez ici

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first book in the Millennium series from Stieg Larsson. It is said that one should never judge a book by its cover, but that is exactly what I did with this book for several years. Much as I always saw this in the bestseller category in bookstores, judging by the title, I always thought it was going to be a novel under the genre romance (maybe if the Swedish title had been translated word for word – ‘Men who hate women’, it might have attracted my attention). This perception would have continued till I was recently forced by a colleague to start reading the book with it being described as a ‘page-turner’.

The plot has two principal characters – Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist recently convicted for defamation against a leading Swedish investor and Lisbeth Salander, a private detective. The conviction led to Blomkvist having to leave the magazine he founded, and at the same time – receives an offer from the 82-year-old chairman of Vanger Corporation to solve the murder of his niece Harriet – in what was a typical ‘locked room murder situation’ with both the murderer and the victim vanishing without a trace. Blomkvist, at first was not convinced moving up north to a remote island north of Stockholm but agrees as he wanted a break and also how Vanger offered a compensation more than sufficient to cover the compensation he needed to pay as libel damages. Lisbeth Salander on the other side, is working as a private detective in a security services firm and while she does not have any formal training regarding the same, proves to be extremely accurate and detailed in her analysis. The only connection between Blomkvist and Salander to begin with was the latter doing a background check on the former for a client of her firm. 

The book is almost 560 pages long and it never felt that way owing to both, the pace and the manner in which the story was narrated. The plot fell in place one after the other – Blomkvist’s conviction, Salander’s investigation, Blomkvist’s appointment by Vanger; happening within the first fifty pages with the plot seamlessly moving from thereon. Blomkvist’s character was completely revealed at the outset to the reader through Salander’s investigation but then, her own profile is hardly revealed – which also contributed to the page turner effect. Another key character is Henrik Vanger – the chairman of the Vanger Corporation, the ailing businessman whose only obsession in life is to find out what happened to his niece. He does not have a very positive view on his family and is shown to be a suave and achieves what he wants without displaying aggression. The Vanger family has a murky history with its members having had connections with the Nazis during the war and neo-Nazi organisations much after the war, another reason for Henrik’s antipathy towards his clan. 

It is interesting to note that unlike other whodunnit novels, this features a murder, or so believed by both police and Vanger, was committed forty years ago – which adds a complexity to the case. The number of names and characters might be a difficulty to some of the readers but not quite if you have prior experience reading stories with several characters and in my case, having read novels like The Luminaries and One Hundred Years of Solitude helped. While the novel is not exactly a fantasy novel, the city of Hedestad and the island of Hedeby to the north of Stockholm is fictitious and both the places were described in good detail (including a map). 

While Lisbeth Salander was an interesting character and I could connect to a lot of her adjectives such as introvert, socially aloof, etc., there was insufficient detail on how she acquired those skills (hopefully described in the sequels). Moreover, she achieved her tasks with relative ease that she almost seemed like a superhero. It is true that she has gone through a lot of hardships in her life and it has taken her effort to reach this stage; but during the course of the case, she achieved her ends with relative ease. 

The Salander-Blomkvist was good contrast, while the former focuses more on the ends regardless of the means whereas Blomkvist often takes stands on principle, even if it is to his disadvantage. The unravelling of the whodunit was certainly the best part of the novel – the multiple characters they interact with. With that said, the novel was 560 pages long and the final quarter felt like a drag, and in most cases seemed unrelated to the plot. 

I also have a bone to pick with the English title - as I felt The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was neither the principal character nor the central theme of the book - a direct translation of the Swedish title would have been more appropriate (which I understand was the case in French, for instance).

I judge books by their cover and I have often selected books on that basis. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not, but this is a case where I missed out on a good book by this approach. I do have a fascination for crime stories from this region – having read Karin Fossum as well as having followed TV dramas such as Broen and Forbrydelsen. It was just that in this case, I was not aware that it was a crime novel and judging by all that I have had to say on this book thus far, I would rate this book an eight on ten. 

Rating – 8/10


Have a nice day,
Andy

Soul Matters by Shreyas Shankar – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘The book Soul Matters is built on the writer’s lifelong fascination for the human psyche and answers to humanity’s great questions. What started as timely observations of life’s intricacies collected in a bookshelf that screamed to be heard in some form. From being one of the thousand voices yearning to be heard, it now stands to be read in the shape of a series of 18 wisecrack quips and befitting explanations.’

Soul Matters is a short collection of thoughts from the artist Shreyas Shankar. In this, the author has presented a few quotes and given his interpretation for the same.

The quotes are largely philosophical covering the topics of life - such as the process of learning and also certain one's relationship with the soul. On any such book, I try my best to not let my personal opinions get in the way - for instance, I don't consider the body and soul to be different or independent of each other. The same disclaimer appears here as well before I get into the review. 

I liked the way in which the author presented his book - a full page allowing you to fully read the quote before getting into the chapter to read his take on it. If it was on the same page, we could be tempted to immediately get into the interpretation rather than read a vague quote. I enjoyed reading some of his thoughts, especially on aspects such as silence, perfection, expertise, inter alia. This book was also a very ideal short read and could be ideal to spend to read during your regular commute - for I took just half an hour to complete the book. 

That could perhaps be annoying to some of the readers as they might feel that the book finished as soon as it started. Considering that the author is quite young, both in age and in his career as an artist, this is a first step and I hope in future, this book is expanded by the author. There was an interesting excerpt of a fantasy novel that the author is in the process of writing and I look forward to the publication of the full novel. 

As aforementioned, this is a great short read, but at the same time, could have been much more enjoyable had there been more of his wisecracks and a deeper plunge into each of these thoughts. On that note, I shall award this book a rating of six on ten. 

Rating - 6/10 

Have a nice day,

Andy

Moneyland by Oliver Bullough – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Investigative journalist Oliver Bullough reveals the obscene dark side of globalised finance, a shadow realm of oligarchs and gangsters, unimaginable power and zero accountability. It’s a place you are unlikely to visit, buy you can see its effects everywhere. Just look around. 

How did we get here? In the 1950s, a small group of bankers in London had a clever idea: ‘offshore’, an imaginary zone where money could flow free. Their breakthrough created a vast reservoir of secret wealth, one that bends the laws of every nation on Earth in order to protect its masters. 

Thanks to offshore, for the first time thieves could dream big. They could take everything – which is exactly what they will do, unless we stop them.’

Moneyland is a book with the subtitle – Why Thieves & Crooks Now Rule the World & How to Take it Back, from the investigative journalist Oliver Bullough. Moneyland is the term the author uses for describing the current financial structure. The case is built over nineteen chapters in the book as to how in this hypothetical country sans physical presence, those with money can legally enjoy their wealth, regardless of its source. 

He begins building the case with Ukraine – and this is taken as the prime example of kleptocracy throughout the book where corruption is so rampant and still; how their former President Viktor Yanukovych had large amount of wealth in London. He also describes how even most basic healthcare services cannot be obtained in Ukraine without bribery. He then describes the problem in most developing nations in Africa or former Soviet states as to how; there is extreme inequality with those in power holding unusual amounts of wealth, all hidden in offshore assets and with properties all over the world, expensive clothes and watches (for which he gives the example of Angola), etc. It was an interesting observation he made that in the Corruption Perception Index from Transparency International; while countries like Angola or Ukraine have a very low rank, their wealth is stashed away in UK, Switzerland, Cyprus, etc. who rank very high on the corruption index and in a way, they are guilty. 

He also talks about how corruption can completely destroy the economic prospects of a country and criticises Western complacency over developing nations that they would eventually transform themselves into economies similar to that of the developed world. However, he explains how it is against the interests of those in power to be more transparent and so long as they are able to hide their assets, they prefer maintaining the status quo. 

The author writes about various financial instruments and how they have been misused, be it the Eurodollar bonds, or the offshore companies in Cayman Islands or Saint Kitts and Nevis, how even diplomatic immunity is available for purchase, the misuse of libel laws in London and so on for if I keep going, I would be listing all the chapters. While I appreciated the deep research involved in all of these topics – it was evident considering the sources mentioned at the end of the book; however, I had an issue with some of the sweeping statements, an example of which I am giving below:

‘You may have read how millions of dollars have been sent back to Nigeria, Indonesia, Angola or Kazakhstan, and that is true. But they represent less than one cent of every dollar that was originally stolen.’ Chapter – Aladdin’s Cave, Page #13

While I am not defending the record of any of these countries but when such statements are made in a book of this kind, it must be backed by sources and number. How many millions went back to the countries (some references are made in future chapters) and what is his basis for making the less than one cent for every dollar allegation? He probably has a basis for this claim but I expected a footnote or some such detail and considering this was something I read in the very first chapter, it put me off. 

I appreciate the author for building the case against corruption and I could relate to most of the examples considering I lived most of my life in a country which ranks 78 in the Corruption Perception Index and many of the problems he cited in Ukraine are very similar. His fundamental basis for making the case was ‘money could move borders, but laws do not’ and thus, how the corrupt manage to move their stolen wealth to countries with favourable laws and exploit the same.

The author admits that there could be genuine reasons to use offshore accounts to hide their money from vindictive governments but the issue of laws being different is fundamental to the very fact of us having so many different jurisdictions in the world. The reason why I am saying jurisdiction instead of country is because the author explains how within US, they exploit favourable laws in Nevada making it a de facto tax haven. 

The author also cracks down on the ability to purchase passports and while it is true that many exploit it, it is also a very practical solution in many cases. Imagine a business person holding a passport and is called for a meeting by the client; someone holding the right passport just needs a ticket, otherwise, you need to apply for a visa and prove your credentials and tell your client to wait till then which simply isn’t practical. The author being someone who holds a British passport would never be able to understand the pain of a visa application process; I can even cite a personal example where I once joked with a HR in one of their random questions – ‘what would you do if you win a lottery?’ to which I responded that I would secure a Maltese nationality. Much as I would like to satisfy requirements in a proper way, if there is a legal alternative available, I would take it in a heartbeat; a lot of opportunities are denied for the sheer lack of a passport and thus, several countries are definitely going to offer schemes to overcome this ridiculous system currently in the world which has no logic whatsoever.

To end the digression, I would say that I certainly enjoyed reading the book but the author did mention ‘how to take it back’ and all he did was dedicate one chapter to it; that too mentioning that he does not have a very clear solution. I am fine with that, the author I understand is not from a banking / financial services / legal background and has presented the case well; but in that case, he should have refrained from promising the sky in the cover page.

To conclude, the book is informative, and can be read by those who are not finance professionals as well (no unexplained jargons); and my hint is do not be deceived by the title. I shall not let what I disagree with on a personal level get in the way of my review (like the passport issue) and so, I award the book a rating of six on ten.

Rating – 6/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Relic by Eça de Queiroz – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘Teodrico Raposo, the novel’s anti-hero, is a master of deceit; one minute feigning devotion in front of his rich, pious aunt, in order to inherit her money, the next indulging in debauchery. Spurred on by the desire to please his aunt, and in order to get away from his unfaithful mistress, he embarks on a journey to the Holy Land in search of a holy relic. The resulting fiasco is a masterpiece of comic irony as religious bigotry and personal greed are mercilessly ridiculed.’

The Relic is a novel set in the late 19^th century from the Portuguese author Eça de Queiroz. It features Teodrico Raposo, a well-educated man who wants to inherit the wealth of his rich aunt. How I stumbled upon this book is something similar to what I mentioned in my review of The Unbearable Lightness of Being – that is, buying an English version book of a local author as a souvenir; in Porto (incidentally in JK Rowling’s favourite bookstore).

Teodrico is a brilliant young man, who lost his parents when he was seven but under good care from his rich aunt. He was sent to study law in the best university in Coimbra; but spent most of his time in taverns and with women while feigning piety through the letters to his aunt. This goes on till Teodrico asks permission to go to Paris; and the conversation turns around with eventually Teodrico agreeing to go to the Holy Land and seek a relic which will cure his aunt of all his ailments. However, the intention with which he agrees to go is solely to ingratiate his aunt and get the inheritance, which she might well bequeath to the church.

The book attempts a humorous take on religion and bigotry and it is a bold piece of work for the period in which it was released. The parts of the novel where Teodrico and his German friend - Dr. Topsius spent in the past was hilarious and was well made satire. The book could also be described as a good 19^th century travelogue where the lead character travels to Alexandria and eventually to Jerusalem, giving you a glimpse of how these cities were in the 19^th Century (Jerusalem, which Teodrico agreed was worse than Braga).

However, with that said, when you are writing a novel based on an anti-hero, the story needs to be character needs to be convincing. It is not exactly a good example when I shift to manga and anime but then, to me, Yagami Light from Death Note was a very convincing character for an anti-hero.

Coming to Teodrico, he wants to enjoy the pleasures of his youth but at the same time, is extremely keen on his inheritance; while he knows that he cannot have both at once. Much as Teodrico hated going to the church and detested feigning being pious in front of his aunt and her friends, he was not exactly an atheist either. Very often, especially in Alexandria and even in Jerusalem, he had the feeling of superiority because he was a Christian even though he was not too keen on his Portuguese identity – he even claims himself to be a citizen of the world unlike his German companion who bordered on jingoism when it came to Germany. Moreover, Teodrico genuinely looked a relic rather than falsifying that too (if I reveal how he got around it, it would be a spoiler).

While I enjoyed the satire, I felt it was a tad too much and that it got boring beyond the first 12-15 pages. Had the lead character been built better, this book could have been a lot more enjoyable but then, all we have is Teodrico and as a result, the book enjoys a rating of four on ten.

Rating – 4/10

Have a nice day,
Andy

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera – Book Review

Publisher’s write-up:

‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a story of irreconcilable love and infidelities in which Milan Kundera addresses himself to the nature of twentieth-century ‘Being’, offering a wide range of brilliant and amusing philosophical speculations. First published in 1984, Kundera’s masterly novel encompasses extremes of comedy and tragedy and was hailed by critics as a contemporary classic.’

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a narrative written by Milan Kundera which covers various philosophical aspects such as connection of an individual with their body, misunderstood words, human relationships and infidelities with a touch of politics. The political aspect is made interesting by the fact that the plot is based in the backdrop of a Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia.

This is based on two couples during the Soviet era in Czechoslovakia – and 3 of the principal characters involved are Czech. The story features Tomas, a married man whom I believe to be anywhere between mid-30s to early 50s as the story progresses. He is a womaniser and has strong views about love and sex – wherein, he loves his wife Tereza but at the same time, has multiple sexual partners and sees no contradiction in this position. Tereza does not object to Tomas’ behaviour and instead sees it as her own weakness; she herself has strong views and is a photographer – often involving in dissident photography. Then there is the character of Sabina who is an artist and Tomas’ mistress and the story mainly revolves around these three characters.

It is not often that a book completely gets me gripped within the first twenty pages, but this was one such book. The fact that I had very little expectations was another factor – where I have the convention that my souvenir in any place is normally an English translation of a book from a local author and after a long search for a book from a Slovak author in Bratislava, I settled for this book originally written in Czech (from a writer of Czech heritage who prefers be identified as French).

It started with a very interesting character – Tomas; and threw in a lot of ideas which are revolutionary even in today’s time that it was interesting to read. The best aspect of the book was the complex characters the author built – Tomas and Sabina with the characteristics as mentioned earlier and Sabina herself, had very strong views on love and commitment. The story also deals with other aspects such as homesickness such as homesickness, where Tomas and Tereza settle in Switzerland and longed to return to Prague despite the regime. Being someone who enjoys Greek mythology, the allusions to the myth was another highlight of this book (like the story of Oedipus).

The book had a proper blend of politics, romance while retaining the philosophical nature of the book. My bone to pick might be the fact that the author went back in time so late into the plot; wherein, there is a point where sub-plot involving Sabina goes way ahead of time and then it returns to the past (which for large parts of the novel is the present from the reader’s perspective). The book was also not free from repetition when it came to the repeated mention of destiny and coincidence – the repeated reference to the Beethoven symphony I felt was one too many.

This book is an excellent read unless the reader is a person who already has strong views on a lot of these subjects where a conflicting view strongly disturbs them. Rather than just penning down a non-fiction philosophy book, the author has made an interesting plot with complex characters and political backdrop while sticking to the larger objective.

On that count, I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating – 8/10

Have a nice day,
Andy