This will be my last Coelho for a while. I’m half way through my stack of ten of his books, so I’m going to put the remainder to one side and read something else for a while. Namely The Book Thief
It’s a bit of a shame that this one came at the half way point, as it was a bit of a dip in the series, I think. The Valkyries
It’s an intensely personal book, a bit of a snapshot autobiography, which says rather a lot about his marriage and his feelings for his wife (and hers for him). They’re often the kind of feelings you ought to keep to yourself. Particularly if your wife is going to read it.
It starts out well enough. His experiences in the desert are quite interesting, and he describes the arid landscape well, putting you right there beside him. After meeting the Valkyries, though, which clearly was a fairly important event in his life, it all gets a bit too intense with long descriptive passages detailing rituals he performs as a part of his quest.
Reviews on Amazon, I see, are equally mixed (although those that liked it tended to love it), so I don’t feel I’ve missed the point entirely. One for the Coelho completists, then, I think.
Price£xx (£xx from Amazon)
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