What is Sera Reading? The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

Hello, for those who have just met me I’m Seraphim and I am a Worcestershire Library worker. I wasn’t always a big reader but now I can’t stop. Sometimes it’s hard to pick your next book as it’s a lot of time and energy you are giving to another world. So to help folks out I’m posting what I think of the titles I’ve tackled.

This week in honor of the LGBTQ+ Month I picked up an new title from a debut novelist.

Sera with Tenbury library’s copy of The Sweetness of Water.

The Sweetness of Water is Nathan Harris tribute to the lost history that most or at least for many Black Americans is missing. “All Black writers are drawn to filling in their past,” he says. The Main theme deals with the end of the Civil War in America and with the newly emancipated slaves. Harris really gets you thinking about the repercussions of the enslaved suddenly becoming free, and what that freedom meant when there were no guidelines to help navigate the change.

Opening with the main character George Walker, a decent, moral man transplanted to the south from New England, wandering in the woods. He is searching for a monster: “A black coat of fur that clung to the shadows, moving fluidly as if it were part of the darkness itself.” Instead, he meets the two brothers, Prentiss and Landry, recently freed from under the yoke of a villainous neighbor.

Parallel to their story runs a forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers. The young men, recently returned from the war to the town of Old Ox, hold their trysts in the woods. But when their secret is discovered, the resulting chaos, including a murder, unleashes convulsive repercussions on the entire community. In the aftermath of so much turmoil, it is Isabelle who emerges as an unlikely leader, proffering a healing vision for the land and for the newly free citizens of Old Ox

A personal and political twin tale, this is a far from traditional renderings of post-Civil War America. Harris is writing with both passion and thorough research, this gives us a compelling story which I really enjoyed.

What’s Sera Reading? The Starless Sea

I fell in love with the author Erin Morgenstern creative style after I read “The Night Circus.” Worlds with mysterious circuses, grand love affairs and beautiful prose are just my ‘cup of tea’.

The Starless Sea is a magical realism narrative, a newish gene, that has picked up a large following very quickly. Morgenstern is known for master crafting words, and I was stunned at the beauty of some of the sentences I read. yet she can leave you lost in a world of description almost forgetting to tell you the story, (not a mistake she made in The Night Circus.) She has a genuine power to create brand new and original sub-plots, stories within stories, that somehow feel like myth. There is also some amazing queer representation in this book. The main character, Zachary Rawlins, is gay, Huzzah! Unfortunately character development in some of the main characters such as Zachary get a bit limp toward the later half of the book and for such a large book this is bad. The role of the main female lead, Mirabel. She is the immortal representation of Fate, but again she ends up feeling much like a minor one because she was not developed to her full potential. Mirabel had a lot to offer, but the author left her alone after a certain point. She felt simply unfinished.

However, for a fantasy novel this is no let down. For those of us who love to visualize new worlds and inter-dimensional layers there is so much to play with here. If, like me, you enjoy deciphering narrative clues, weaving together story threads, and nodding at metatextual nuggets. Read this book!

Young Writer Competition

Poster for WCAF’s story writing comp

Worcester Competitive Arts Festival aims to give  amateur musicians, actors of all ages the opportunity to perform in a friendly and supportive environment. Medals and trophies are awarded to the winners of competitive classes and winners may also be invited to perform at the festival concert.

The next festival will take place on

12th and 19th March 2022.

https://www.wcaf.org.uk/

What’s Sera Reading? The Phone Box at the Edge of the World

Quote from The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina


Inspired by a real telephone box located in the north-east of Japan comes The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina, a novel about Yui, a woman who lost her mother and daughter in the 2011 tsunami and is forced to navigate her grief as well as the life that lies ahead.  A radio host, Yui first heard about the wind phone when she was moderating a discussion on grief. A caller, who had also lost a loved one in the 2011 tsunami, described the phone box with a phone doesn’t work; there’s no connection but the caller says that “your voice is carried away with the wind” Yui is intrigued and makes the drive from Tokyo.

The writing style is different to normal English writers. First written in Italian and published as Quel che affidiamo al vento, the English translation was done by Lucy Rand. Rand’s translation is fluent and seamless; she captures the lyricism and meditative quality of the writing with care. Longer chapters are punctuated by shorter ones, some written as lists (“Ten things plus one that Hana and Akiko loved doing together”), others as fragments, a single word, or an in-depth look and what had otherwise seemed like a secondary observation. These ultimately add to the experience: revealing a relationship through quieter moments, serving as a break in the tension or offering a different lens to reflect upon the previous chapter.

There is a stillness and quietness to the book that makes each movement all the more meaningful. The words carry a weight that makes each sentence feel intentional; there’s no fat to trim. Moving and heart-breaking, Yui’s story, and that of the Wind Phone, is equally uplifting and heart-warming.