The Last Testament by Sam Bourne

The Last Testament by Sam Bourne (2007)

Read: August 2012

We had a good trawl of the charity shops in New Malden and Wimbledon one weekend as we realised that we had  returned to the UK without anything much to read for the whole summer!  We had actually brought back a range of books from Cairo, but these were to store in our ”keeping” collection though. This book was found after much browsing of what was on offer and honed in on because of the setting of the story (between Israel and Palestine) and the subject (old artefacts) and the credits (the bloke with the crazy hair and beard at the British Museum was credited because of his help with the cuneiform in the book).

There was not as much on the topic of the artefact itself in the book as I had expected, as for much of the book the tablet is being looked for, rather than being looked at.  It was interesting to see its journey from discovery through looting of the Museum of Baghdad, to illegal selling, transporting and finally translation. 

The real journey that was being followed though was that of Maggie as she tried to trace this object that had caused so much interest.  She, and the reader, had to follow a series of clues, some more obvious than others, that took them from present day to the past, from one country to another and one world to another (I’m still not sure whether the foray in to Second Life was an inspired, or infuriating device)

I was not so interested in Maggie’s love life and personal conflict / attempted redemption in returning to her role of negotiator, but the backdrop of political sensitivity and attempts to bridge the divide between the two countries was good.

I might not rush to pick up another of his books, but this one definitely filled a gap in the summer with something that was engaging and had a little bit of intrigued and mystery in.

Sandstealers by Ben Brown

Sandstealers by Ben Brown (2009)

Read: July - August 2012

This book looked like my cup of tea when we found it in a charity shop in SW London.  I’d enjoyed reading biographies of various journalists in the past (John Snow, Kate Adie and the likes) and this seemed to combine journalism with conflict in areas of the world that we are interested in (the Balkans and the Middle East).

As it was a novel, rather than a biog I knew I’d have to put up with some kind of love story / personal dilemma taking place amongst the characters, but I was able to get over this (even though every character seemed to have their own personal trauma / conflict – much like what people claim with international teaching; that everyone has a backstory).  I found that the book moved with difficulty at first between the present day and the history, but after a while it settled in to a rhythm and pace that I found easy to read.

I did enjoy the settings; the Balkans and then the Middle East, and intense relationships between the journalists, as well as their approaches to their work were well conveyed.  One of the reasons behind buying this book was that the author biog showed that Ben Brown’s alter ego was a conflict correspondent himself.

The twist towards the end of the book was a little disappointing in that everything came back to relationships, rather than the setting itself, but I guess that working in such an intense environment means that relationships are actually important – even though you try not to make them so.