Habi Fadilah Fadilah itibaren Matobo, Zimbabwe itibaren Matobo, Zimbabwe

This was an ambitious first novel by Kate Furnivall, turning her mother’s experiences as a White Russian refugee in China into an amazing, page-turner of a book. The story revolves around Lydia Ivanova, a teenage girl living in Junchow, China in 1928. Her father has presumably been killed during the Russian revolution and her mother is struggling to make a living giving piano concerts. China is a land in turmoil. Chiang Kai-shek and the Koumintang army are in a power struggle against the Communists, and somewhere in the middle are strong Chinese warlords, getting rich off of the opium trade. It’s a dangerous place to be for young Lydia, and she soon finds herself in serious trouble. I was impressed with the largess of the story Furnivall created. As the story wound itself into the Chinese underworld, I found I could not put it down. Her gift of detail and historical storytelling, found me appreciating this newcomer to my world of historical fiction. Loved it!

An anarchist and academic challenges other anarchic academics to bring it harder in the academy. I love Graeber's approach to theory: approachable, comprehensible, practical, and pure. Pure, not as in uncomplicated, but pure as in grounded in a simple opposition to oppression and embrace of all people as people. Short enough to read yourself. The ending was particularly strong and nice. Full text available here. Discussion from the (A) Book Club on Goodreads here. [read it in Ethiopia]