World Book Day means FREE books

Today is World Book Day, which I just learned from reading Helen's Book Blog.  Thanks, Helen!  The good news is that Amazon is offering TEN free Kindle books today.  Just for the record, the children's book is NOT compatible with Kindle, but can be downloaded to read on a Kindle Cloud Reader.  Here's the link to download some of them yourself:

World Book Day 2021

• The Broken Circle ~ by Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller, 2019, memoir (Afghanistan)
• You, Me, and the Colors of Life ~ by Noa C. Walker, 2016, fiction (Germany)
• At the End of the Matinee ~ by Keiichiro Hirano, 2021, fiction (Japan)

• The King of Warsaw ~ by Szczepan Twardoch, 2020, fiction (Poland)
• Return to the Enchanted Island ~ by Johary Ravaloson, 2019, fiction (Madagascar)
• A Single Swallow ~ by Zhang Ling, 2020, fiction (China)

• Amora: Stories ~ by Natalia Borges Polesso, 2020, stories (Brazil)
• The Son and Heir ~ by Alexander Münninghoff, 2020, memoir (Netherlands)
• The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury ~ by Marc Levy, 2019, historical fiction (France)

• Some Days ~ by Maria Wernicke, 2012, children's fiction (Argentina)

Around the World ~ China, Germany, Cuba

Life ~ by Lu Yao, translated by Chloe Estep, 1982 (translation 2019), literary fiction (China)

Lu Yao published only two novels before his untimely death — but their extraordinary influence catapulted the author to the top tier of Chinese contemporary fiction, establishing him as one of the most widely read and respected figures in Chinese literature.  In this first-ever translation of Lu Yao’s Life, we meet Gao Jialin, a stubborn, idealistic, and ambitious young man from a small country village whose life is upended when corrupt local politics cost him his beloved job as a schoolteacher, prompting him to reject rural life and try to make it in the big city.  Against the vivid, gritty backdrop of 1980s China, Lu Yao traces the proud and passionate Gao Jialin’s difficult path to professional, romantic, and personal fulfillment — or at least hard-won acceptance.

The First Mrs. Rothschild ~ by Sara Aharoni, translated by Yardenne Greenspan, 2019, historical fiction (Germany)

It is the turn of the eighteenth century in Frankfurt, Germany, and young Gutle and Meir Amschel Rothschild struggle to establish themselves in the cramped and restricted Judengasse.  But when Meir’s talents as a novice banker catch the attention of a German prince, Meir is suddenly afforded entrée into the European world of finance and nobility, and the Rothschilds’ lives are changed forever.  As proud as Gutle is of her husband’s success, she is also cautious — very much aware of the fact that her husband’s rise is tied to his patrons’ willingness to "see past" his Jewishness.  As their family grows, and a dream of fortune comes true, so does their belief that money will ultimately bring the power needed to establish Jewish civil rights.  This story is told through Gutle’s intimate journals, revealed across decades — from the French Revolution through personal tragedies and triumphs.

The Price of Paradise ~ by Susana López Rubio, translated by Achy Obejas, 2017 (translation 2019), fiction (Cuba)

Havana, Cuba, 1947.  Young Patricio flees impoverished Spain and steps into the sultry island paradise of Havana with only the clothes on his back and half-baked dreams of a better life.  Blessed with good looks and natural charm, he lands a job as a runner at El Encanto — one of the most luxurious department stores in the world.  Famous for its exquisite offerings from French haute couture to Arabian silks, El Encanto indulges the senses in opulent extravagance.  It caters to visiting Hollywood stars, rising politicos, and prerevolutionary Cuba’s wealthiest power players, including the notorious mobster César Valdés.  Falling in love with the mobster’s young wife, Gloria, is suicide.  But Patricio is irresistibly drawn to the beautiful girl with sad eyes, a razor-sharp intellect, and a penchant for both Christian Dior’s clothes and Einstein’s theories.  Within the walls of El Encanto, anything seems possible, even a love that promises to heal them and a desire that thrums with the mambo beat of the city itself.  In a reckless love affair that spans half a century, Patricio’s and Gloria’s lives entwine time and again, challenged by every twist of fate — for in a world of murder, betrayal, and revolution, those who dare to reach for paradise seldom survive unscathed.

These three books are among nine Read the World 2020 books offered free for Kindle through April 24 for World Book Day.

Around the World ~ Argentina, Tanzania, Germany

Out of the Silence: After the Crash ~ by Eduardo Strauch, translated by Jennie Erikson, 2012 (translation 2019), memoir (Argentina)

The extraordinary story of the rugby team who crashed in the Andes mountains in 1972.  One of the survivors breaks his silence to tell a personal story of survival, hope, and spiritual awakening in the face of unspeakable tragedy.  The unfathomable modern legend of the 1972 Andes plane crash and the Uruguayan rugby teammates who suffered seventy-two days among the dead and dying which has become a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.  The harrowing test of endurance on a snowbound cordillera ended in a miraculous rescue.

Four decades after the tragedy, a climber discovered survivor Eduardo Strauch’s wallet near the memorialized crash site and returned it to him.  It was a gesture that compelled Strauch to finally "break the silence of the mountains."  He withholds nothing as he reveals the truth behind the life-changing events that challenged him physically and tested him spiritually, but would never destroy him.  In revisiting the horror story we thought we knew, Strauch shares how surviving on the mountain, in the face of its fierce, unforgiving power and desolate beauty, forever altered his perception of love, friendship, death, fear, loss, and hope.

Hard Rain ~ by Irma Venter, translated by Elsa Silke, 2012 (translation 2020), fiction (Tanzania)

Journalist Alex Derksen’s new assignment in Tanzania should be easy, but he soon finds himself on the wrong side of the news.  It starts when he meets Ranna, a beautiful photographer with something to hide.  Alex stopped believing in love a long time ago, yet here in the middle of East Africa, it’s found him again.  Alex knows a thing or two about chaos — wherever he goes, it follows.  When an IT billionaire washes up onshore after seasonal flooding, he finds himself at the center of an investigation with Ranna as the main suspect.  It turns out she may have a good reason for hiding her past.  Wherever she goes, murder follows.  Alex should be used to these cat-and-mouse games, but this time it’s different.  Should he listen to his heart and help Ranna hide the bloody trail leading to her?  Or should he use his head and run for his life?

Your Perfect Year ~ by Charlotte Lucas, translated by Alison Layl, 2016 (translation 2019), fiction (Germany)

A man consumed by a meaningless life is going to do something he’s never considered doing before.  He’s going to enjoy the day.  For hyper-particular publishing heir Jonathan Grief, the day starts like any other — with a strict morning fitness regimen that’ll keep his divorced, easily irritated, cynical, forty-two-year-old self in absolutely flawless physical condition.  But all it takes to put a crimp in his routine is one small annoyance. Someone has left a leather-bound day planner with the handwritten title "Your Perfect Year" in his spot on his mountain bike at his fitness course!

Determined to discover its owner, Jonathan opens the calendar to find that someone known only as “H.” has filled it in with suggestions, tasks, and affirmative actions for each day.  The more he devotes himself to locating the elusive H., the deeper Jonathan is drawn into someone else’s rich and generous narrative — and into an attitude adjustment he desperately needs.  He may have ended up with a perfect year by accident, but it seems fate has set Jonathan on a path toward healing, feeling, and maybe even loving again — if only he can meet the stranger who’s changing his life one day at a time.

These three books are among nine Read the World 2020 books offered free for Kindle through April 24 for World Book Day.

Around the World ~ Brazil, Turkey, Sweden

Along the Tapajós ~ by Fernando Vilela, translated by Daniel Hahn, 2019, children's fiction (Brazil), 8/10

Cauã and Inaê are a brother and sister living in a small community along the Tapajós River in Brazil.  Here, the homes are on stilts and everyone travels around by boat — even to school.  When the rainy season comes, they must leave their village and relocate to higher ground for a while.  But after moving this year, Cauã and Inaê realize they’ve left behind something important: their pet tortoise, Titi.  Unlike turtles, tortoises can’t swim, and Cauã and Inaê are really worried.  So the pair sneaks back at night on a journey along the river to rescue him.  Will they be able to save Titi?  This picture book, first published in Brazil, offers kids a unique look into the lives of children who live along Brazil’s beautiful Tapajós River.

The Girl in the Tree ~ by Şebnem İşigüzel, translated by Mark David Wyers, 2016 (translation 2020), fiction (Turkey)

A young woman climbs the tallest tree in Istanbul’s centuries-old Gülhane Park, determined to live out the rest of her days there.  Perched in an abandoned stork’s nest in a sanctuary of branches and leaves, she tries to make sense of the rising tide of violence in the world below.  Torn between the desire to forget all that has happened and the need to remember, her story, and the stories of those around her, begins to unfold.

Then, unexpectedly, comes a soul mate with a shared destiny.  A lonely boy working at a nearby hotel looks up and falls in love.  The two share stories of the fates of their families, of a changing city, and of their political awakenings in the Gezi Park protests.  Together, they navigate their histories of love and loss, set against a backdrop of societal tension leading up to the tragic bombing that marked a turn in Turkey’s democracy — and sent a young girl fleeing into the trees.

The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin ~ by Jan Stocklassa, translated by Tara F. Chace, 2018 (English translation 2019), true crime or creative nonfiction (Sweden)

When Stieg Larsson died, the author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had been working on a true mystery that out-twisted his Millennium novels: the assassination on February 28, 1986, of Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister.  It was the first time in history that a head of state had been murdered without a clue who’d done it — and on a Stockholm street at point-blank range.

Internationally known for his fictional villains, Larsson was well acquainted with their real-life counterparts and documented extremist activities throughout the world.  For years he’d been amassing evidence that linked their terrorist acts to what he called “one of the most astounding murder cases” he’d ever covered.

Larsson’s archive was forgotten until journalist Jan Stocklassa was given exclusive access to the author’s secret project.  In The Man Who Played with Fire, Stocklassa collects the pieces of Larsson’s true-crime puzzle to follow the trail of intrigue, espionage, and conspiracy begun by one of the world’s most famous thriller writers.  Together they set out to solve a mystery that no one else could.

These three books are among nine Read the World 2020 books offered free for Kindle through April 24 for World Book Day.

Around the World ~ North Korea, Spain, Russia

A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea ~ by Masaji Ishikawa, 2000, memoir (North Korea)

The harrowing true story of one man’s life in — and subsequent escape from — North Korea, one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian regimes.  Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country.  This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste.  His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society.  But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.  In this memoir translated from the original Japanese, Ishikawa candidly recounts his tumultuous upbringing and the brutal thirty-six years he spent living under a crushing totalitarian regime, as well as the challenges he faced repatriating to Japan after barely escaping North Korea with his life.  This book is not only a shocking portrait of life inside the country but a testament to the dignity — and indomitable nature — of the human spirit.

The Light of the Fireflies ~ by Paul Pen, 2013, fiction (Spain)

For his whole life, the boy has lived underground, in a basement with his parents, grandmother, sister, and brother.  Before he was born, his family was disfigured by a fire.  His sister wears a white mask to cover her burns.  He spends his hours with his cactus, reading his book on insects, or touching the one ray of sunlight that filters in through a crack in the ceiling.  Ever since his sister had a baby, everyone’s been acting very strangely.  The boy begins to wonder why they never say who the father is, about what happened before his own birth, about why they’re shut away.  A few days ago, some fireflies arrived in the basement.  His grandma said, "There’s no creature more amazing than one that can make its own light."  That light makes the boy want to escape, to know the outside world.  The problem is, all the doors are locked.  And he doesn’t know how to get out.

The Gray House ~ by Mariam Petrosyan, 2009, fiction (Russia)

This is an astounding tale of how what others understand as liabilities can be leveraged into strengths. Bound to wheelchairs and dependent on prosthetic limbs, the physically disabled students living in the House are overlooked by the Outsides. Not that it matters to anyone living in the House, a hulking old structure that its residents know is alive. From the corridors and crawl spaces to the classrooms and dorms, the House is full of tribes, tinctures, scared teachers, and laws—all seen and understood through a prismatic array of teenagers’ eyes. But student deaths and mounting pressure from the Outsides put the time-defying order of the House in danger. As the tribe leaders struggle to maintain power, they defer to the awesome power of the House, attempting to make it through days and nights that pass in ways that clocks and watches cannot record.

These three books are among nine offered free for Kindle for another four or five days.

Around the World ~ Chile, Sweden, Turkey

Ten Women ~ by Marcela Serrano, 2011, fiction (Chile)

For nine Chilean women, life couldn’t be more different.  There is the teenage computer whiz confronting her sexual identity.  A middle-aged recluse who prefers the company of her dog over that of most humans.  A housekeeper.  A celebrity television personality.  A woman confronting the loneliness of old age.  Of disparate ages and races, these women represent the variety of cultural and social groups that Chile comprises.  On the surface, they seem to have nothing in common, except for their beloved therapist, who brings them together.  Yet as different as they all are, each woman has a story to share.  As the women tell their stories, unlikely common threads are discovered, bonds are formed, and lives are transformed.  Their stories form an intricate tale of triumph, heartache, and healing that will resonate with women from all walks of life.

Still Waters ~ by Viveca Sten, 2008, fiction (Sweden)

On a hot July morning on Sweden’s idyllic vacation island of Sandhamn, a man takes his dog for a walk and makes a gruesome discovery:  a body, tangled in fishing net, has washed ashore.  Police detective Thomas Andreasson is the first to arrive on the scene.  Before long, he has identified the deceased as Krister Berggren, a bachelor from the mainland who has been missing for months.  All signs point to an accident — until another brutalized corpse is found at the local bed-and-breakfast.  But this time it is Berggren’s cousin, whom Thomas interviewed in Stockholm just days before.  As the island’s residents reel from the news, Thomas turns to his childhood friend, local lawyer Nora Linde.  Together, they attempt to unravel the riddles left behind by these two mysterious outsiders — while trying to make sense of the difficult twists their own lives have taken since the shared summer days of their youth.

Last Train to Istanbul ~ by Ayse Kulin, 2002, fiction (Turkey)

As the daughter of one of Turkey’s last Ottoman pashas, Selva could win the heart of any man in Ankara.  Yet the spirited young beauty only has eyes for Rafael Alfandari, the handsome Jewish son of an esteemed court physician.  In defiance of their families, they marry, fleeing to Paris to build a new life.  But when the Nazis invade France and begin rounding up Jews, the exiled lovers will learn that nothing — not war, not politics, not even religion — can break the bonds of family.  For after they learn that Selva is but one of their fellow citizens trapped in France, a handful of brave Turkish diplomats hatch a plan to spirit the Alfandaris and hundreds of innocents, many of whom are Jewish, to safety.  Together, they must traverse a war-torn continent, crossing enemy lines and risking everything in a desperate bid for freedom, from Ankara to Paris, Cairo, and Berlin.

These three books are among nine offered free for Kindle for another five days.

Around the World ~ Greece, Japan, Indonesia

The House by the River ~ by Lena Manta, 2007, fiction (Greece)

Theodora knows she can’t keep her five beautiful daughters at home forever — they’re too curious, too free spirited, too like their late father.  And so, before each girl leaves the small house on the riverside at the foot of Mount Olympus, Theodora makes sure they know they are always welcome to return.  Having survived World War II, the Nazi occupation of Greece, and her husband’s death, Theodora now endures the twenty-year-long silence of her daughters’ absence.  Her children have their own lives — they’ve married, traveled the world, and courted romance, fame, and even tragedy.  But as they become modern, independent women in pursuit of their dreams, Theodora knows they need her — and each other — more than ever.  Have they grown so far apart that they’ve forgotten their childhood home, or will their broken hearts finally lead them back again?

The Great Passage ~ by Shion Miura, 2011, fiction (Japan)

Kohei Araki believes that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words.  But after thirty-seven years of creating dictionaries, it’s time for him to retire and find his replacement.  He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime — a young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics — whom he swipes from his company’s sales department.  Along with an energetic, if reluctant, new recruit and an elder linguistics scholar, Majime is tasked with a career-defining accomplishment:  completing The Great Passage, a comprehensive 2,900-page tome of the Japanese language.  On his journey, Majime discovers friendship, romance, and an incredible dedication to his work, inspired by the words that connect us all.

The Question of Red ~ by Laksmi Pamuntjak, 2013, fiction (Indonesia)

In this sweeping saga of love, loss, revolution, and the resilience of the human spirit, Amba must find the courage to forge her own path.  Amba was named after a tragic figure in Indonesian mythology, and she spends her lifetime trying to invent a story she can call her own.  When she meets two suitors who fit perfectly into her namesake’s myth, Amba cannot help but feel that fate is teasing her.  Salwa, respectful to a fault, pledges to honor and protect Amba, no matter what.  Bhisma, a sophisticated, European-trained doctor, offers her sensual pleasures and a world of ideas.  But military coups and religious disputes make 1960s Indonesia a place of uncertainty, and the chaos strengthens Amba’s pursuit of freedom.  The more Amba does to claim her own story, the better she understands her inextricable bonds to history, myth, and love.

These three books are among nine offered free for Kindle for another five days.