By Night the Mountain Burns – Juan Thomas Avila Laurel

Read as leg 8 (Equatorial Guinea) of the Bookpacking reading journey as it makes landfall in Africa.  Or not quite; as this book is set on a remote Atlantic Ocean island off the continent’s west coast.

It is a story told of a boy’s experiences growing up there.  And told is the key word as it is reads as a monologue from skilled storyteller with the rhythms and repetitions that give that style its distinctiveness.

What happens matters less than how it is told and the various events within the narrative intertwine and are frequently, if temporarily, abandoned whenever a tangential happening or thought interrupts the storyteller’s mind to distract him.  But he returns to them all eventually and loose ends are tied up by the end.

The culture of the Atlantic Ocean island and its inhabitants suffuse the narrative giving a richness that draws the reader in.  There are no chapters and precious few breaks in the text, but that matters not as the narrator’s voice is beguiling.  He is in the room with you and to walk away almost seems impolite.

A different and memorable reading experience.

Beartown – Fredrik Backman

Beartown: a Scandinavian town slowly dying in the northern forest, its industry in decline and the glory days of its ice hockey A-team well past.  The one bright spot is the youth team, spearheaded by a rare talent, backed by teammates willing to put their bodies on the line, coached by an ex-player with an unquenchable thirst to win, supported by intimidating fans, and financed by the few local businessmen still making money.

Then there is general manager, Peter Andersson; another ex-player who made good, getting into the NHL in Canada before injury and a personal tragedy brought him back to take charge of the club he loves.  He has to respond to all those competing interests; keep the lid on the pressure cooker; balance current needs with past loyalties and future prospects.  Quite a task, but he is not the only one with such choices.

The book starts slowly; there is no need to rush in Beartown, unless you have your skates on.  So we meet a large cast of characters, but it is done at a steady pace and with such skill as to enable easy assimilation.  Each has distinctiveness and depth.  We come to understand the players and their roles on and off the ice; the coaches, parents, friends and teachers who, push them on or pull them back; the movers and shakers in the boardroom with their manoeuvring and plotting; and others on the fringes, resentful at their exclusion from, or dismissive of the folly of, the town’s obsession.

But these undercurrents are suddenly brought to the surface when a shocking incident polarises opinion.  Compromise and accommodation goes out of the window as sides are taken and violence threatens to spread from the rink to the streets and the forest.

It is atmospheric and absorbing, told mainly with the immediacy of the present tense with the odd flashback and occasional foreboding future reference.  By the end the reader knows Beartown as well as anyone living there, and cares just as much as anyone about the fate of the town and the prospects of its residents.