A Partisan's Daughter
Louis de Bernieres

In One Thousand And One Nights, Scheherazade was the wise queen who told stories to her king to keep from being executed.
In de Bernieres’ latest work, it is the titular Roza who spins tales to make sense of her own life as she goes from growing up in Yugoslavia to working as a hostess in a pussycat costume to being mistaken by Chris for a prostitute on the streets of 1970s London.
Chris is no king but a middle-aged, unhappily married man in the winter of his discontent. He is enraptured both by the stories and the teller and, as time passes, a genuine affection grows between the two.
The novel alternates between the points of view of Roza and Chris, though you never quite feel that you get a good grip on either of them.
This is partly deliberate as there are hints peppered throughout that Roza is an unreliable narrator who is embellishing her tales in order to shock Chris and keep him hooked.
What happens though when the stories run out? Scheherazade wins over the king and keeps her life, but there is no happy ending in sight for Roza.
Chris has a conveniently timed meltdown and, even more annoyingly, Roza’s voice is unceremoniously silenced.
One is left with an ending that feels rushed and forced.
Fans of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, de Bernieres’ deeply humane and funny novel about love in the time of war, would do well to approach this one with caution.

If you like this, read: If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino. For a bravura rumination on the nature of reading and story-telling, lose yourself in Calvino’s exquisitely constructed literary labyrinth.
(ST)