I read it at the best possible time (before and after a trip to southern Spain), but unfortunately it was a huge disappointment for me. The whole style is extremely affected (pretentious); after a while it became downright irritating, not to mention all the run-on sentences.

I had the feeling that the author couldn’t decide what to focus on: the historical events - which were the premise: an Arab uprising against the Spanish around 1500 - the presentation and celebration of Arab culture, or the dynamics and family history of the central family of the story. In the end, he included everything, which, however, caused the story’s pace to falter frequently; the military/political threat didn’t feel serious, and I often found myself bored by the overly polished dialogue and contrived descriptions.

I’m particularly sensitive to anachronisms in historical novels, but fortunately, my eyebrows only raised once here, when one Arab character described another as “depressed”… Aside from that, the historical accuracy was fine, and the culture came across well. The characters themselves were not particularly deep, and of course the Christians were portrayed in a rather black-and-white, unflattering way. However, considering that the story is written from an Arab perspective, I would not necessarily count this as a flaw. That said, it is worth noting that among the characters we get to know, almost everyone comes across as somewhat irritatingly impeccable: overly generous, wise, and loyal to a fault. It felt a bit like when I reread a beloved childhood adventure/historical novel as an adult and smiled indulgently at its simplicity…only with a lot more irritation.

I don’t know where I got the preconception that this would be a lighthearted, cute little story. I suspect it was the colorful cover, combined with the fact that the title strongly reminded me of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In any case, nothing could be further from the truth.

We follow three generations of a family from the 1940s to around 1995. This period partly coincides with the Trujillo era, under the Dominican dictator, which was obviously no laughing matter. The initially wealthy, intellectual Cabral family is marked by the fact that they fall out of favor with the Trujillos, until eventually a branch of the family flees to America, where Oscar and his sister, Lola, grow up in far more modest circumstances.

I really appreciated that this book offered so much to learn about Dominican history and customs. The Cabrals’ lives are overshadowed not only by the dictatorship, but also by the toxic Dominican macho mentality and everyday racism. Despite all the suffering and physical violence, the narrative style is what saved me from being dragged down into the swamp of depression. It was just so cool! Endlessly sarcastic, often outspoken, yet somehow lighthearted? It mixes Spanish and English throughout, while making plenty of references to historical facts. For example, I really liked that it referred to Columbus only as “the Admiral,” and the narrator uses many such made-up code words.

It took me quite a while to read it, because I had to take breaks from all the suffering, but I’m glad I picked it up; it’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way: I learnt so much about a culture while also following a high-quality literary story. I recommend it to everyone!

p.s.: I mostly listened to this via audio and Jonathan Davies was a phenomenal narrator! I am new to audiobooks but this was such a marvellous first encounter, the guy is a genius, and it obviously helps that he is fluent in Spanish.

p.s. 2: Major trigger warnings for brutal physical violence, minor warnings for racism and fatshaming.

A multifaceted, thought-provoking, and truly excellent work of science fiction.

The story centers around the establishment of contact and communication between intelligent species: not only between humans and octopuses, but also with the android Evrim, who is neither human nor robot.

As our scientists try to get to know the octopuses, they’re not just trying to understand their communication and society, but are also forced to examine their own (human one) in the process. What is the self? What constitutes self-awareness, existence? Where is the line between animal and human? At what point can a species be recognized as a unique, intelligent one, if humans are capable of disregarding their own kind and treating them as slaves? (One POV is a man who is a victim of human trafficing)

The dark side of interracial coexistence also comes to light: cooperation versus self-serving individual interests; fear of the unknown; the constant search for connection, followed by a renunciation of it: misunderstanding, loneliness, indifference toward others.

The story unfolds against the backdrop of an environmental catastrophe, where overfishing and the exploitation of nature have reached their final stages, with every technological advancement being deployed, to the point where it is no longer clear who is human, who is a robot, or who is an animal, and who is making whom work.

It’s an extremely layered, thought-provoking read; I particularly liked its structure: everything is dosed just right to be sufficient, while still presenting varied perspectives and leaving room for character development. This is more of a contemplating type of sci-fi, not action-based, but it excels at it. Truly worth a read, I was quite impressed.