Hi there,  

here are the books I explored lately.

Zusammen ist man weniger allein - Anna Gavalda 

This story is presented in the form of a long dialog. In fact, the whole book seems to be a dialogue. This being the first time I read  Anna Gavalda’s work  - I’ll assume that this is some kind of statement about capturing life’s dynamic nature in a written form, or something like that :) 

My impressions about the story ? 

I am probably not the target audience for this kind of soapy, romantic stories happening in Paris, in the shadow of the Eiffel tower but I did read it out of curiosity. The show “Emily in Paris” of which I only managed to see a few episodes resembles the atmosphere in this book.
If you like something like that, you’ll like this story.

What did I learn from this book ? 

Don’t take drugs, don’t drink alcohol, don’t bury your emotions. Instead, deal with your emotions, listen and let them live and the rest will fall in place. Just like the heroes of the story do.

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Nullzeit - Juli Zeh

Juli Zeh did it again. I was locked in while reading Nullzeit. I didn't want to put it down, that’s how curious I was about the events described in this book. 

The main character is an ex judge who used to work in the intense and nerve-wrecking world of the German justice system, and has moved to an island somewhere to be a diving instructor.  

You’ll not be surprised to know that Juli Zeh herself is a judge. As far as I could see online she used to be doing both,  judging and writing, for a while. The main character knows legal stuff and now we know where from. I suppose, the author’s first hand experience as a judge provided the insight and the emotional intensity needed to create such an interesting character. 

We meet him on the day when a couple of new clients are arriving on the island. A man and a woman are going to spend several days there, learning to dive and having a good time together. As the day progresses, we accompany them to the accommodation - located very close to where the owner lived. In fact, they can see each other through the large windows. An important detail for this story. We can see the water breaking onto the stone walls where the house is located. We can see the blue sky and smell the fresh air. 

Little by little, the instructor and his partner - a woman who seems to be doing everything else that is not related to diving, get to know the newly arrived couple. During their awkward first dinner on the first night there the tension is rising. Among the guests there seems to be some kind of friction, something is not right.

Without revealing too much, something it seems I always say when talking about a story, the tension keeps growing as the story progresses.  

We discover that the ex judge still has a space inside that needs to be brought into light. It’s a place of intense need for sexual attention. He looks at the guest woman. She is an actress, as he discovers, he is attracted to her.  Slowly but surely he is losing control of his actions. 

But wait, why is this happening? Is he that unstable?  Enough to be throwing his whole life out of the window? 

Yes, that seems to be it. 

The clever thing that Juli Zeh did, she gives us the woman’s perspective as well. And you will not believe what you’ll read there. 

As I was reading, I was like - What? No, she did not do this. Really? How can you be so cruel? Wow.

I really enjoyed this story. I don’t know the mechanics of building such a story, if there are any besides talent, but it worked. I suspect that the best results come from engaging the readers emotionally - just like it happened with the manipulated diver. 

We have 2 main perspectives, but we tend to side with the instructor’s perspective, the one closer to us. Then here comes the actress and smacks us over the face with a whole new version of the same reality that we just witnessed, or so we thought! 

The tension escalates and by the end an dramatic event is taking place. A kind of explosion that reveals the truth. 

The instructor closes shop, takes down his site and is faced with a pretty difficult task - build a whole new life, again. 

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Paula - Isabel Allende

This book broke my heart. 

Isabel Allende wrote it while she was sitting by her daughter's hospital bed. She was waiting for Paula to wake up from a very sudden, deep coma caused by a  rare disease. 

It is a real story. 

It is heart breaking and inspiring to read how this mother is going through different emotional stages - hope, rage, anger, acceptance, gratefulness. 

Isable Allende is now a consacred, talented and prolific writer but in this story, we get to see where it all started. She is telling stories about her childhood, traumatic and beautiful experiences that moulded her mind and spirit. 

As you might know, Isabel Allende is close to the spirits world. Not in a woo woo way. But in a way that seems to be real. She has that intense connection to things unseen. 

I loved the stories from her formative years, when she was reading everything. We learn about the persons in her life who gave her power, strength, insight and support. It seems that her mother was a central figure, someone to whom she wrote letters every day, staying connected even through the most difficult times. When Paula fell into this enigmatic coma, the author’s mother, even in her advanced age, came to be by her side. I admired their connection. It is something that only time and real emotional investment will forge. Something rare. 

Given that this is a true story, when you are done reading it, you have to take a moment to think about it and realize the meanings  it bears.

What impressed me was related to the power human beings seem to have, when faced with hard life situations. The love of a mother can heal and endure everything, but can it survive the slow death of their child?  How strong, when directing one’s energy in that way, is the soul and how much can a human being achieve if they concentrate their attention and energy for that purpose? 

This was an inspiring story for me, someone who is dreaming, thinking, rethinking, writing and rewriting in my mind. I have always felt that writing is my element, it’s where I can express myself the best, as opposed to verbal expression but I am afraid of actually using this “interest". It’s very strange for me. But this book reminded me of myself. I have also been writing things down as a way to disarm my emotions and make my inner world a safe place to be. But am I really a writer? Isabel Allende started when she was pretty mature, when she was 40. So maybe I still have time. 

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‍Nobody’s girl - Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Another true story that gave me goosebombs. 

If you are spending any time online and seeing the news nowadays, in 2025 you might have seen the name of Virginia Giuffre pop up, in relation to the Epstein files. 

She is one of the victims who survived and she also wrote this book as a statement of what happened to her.The story has been told by different journalists since Virginia decided to fight back, but they distorted it and used it. So she decided to tell us herself. 

In 2025 Virginia lost her life. She killed herself, according to declarations from her family. 

What can I say about the book?

It made me feel different feelings. Sadness most of all. Horror about the life she had since being a baby when her father condemned her to a life of abuse by abusing his little girl. He even “rented” her to one of his friends. 

This was just the beginning. 

Her life unfolded in disastrous ways. From being sent away to a correctional camp by her own mother who did not bother to ask what caused the erratic behaviour, to being raped and abused by the richest, most influencial men in this world. 

While reading, I saw flashes of memories from my time in the fashion world. My road was less difficult, I was not abused in that way, but  I recognized the heaviness Virginia seems to be talking about.  I used to feel it on my chest, as if I was buried under heavy stones and was trying to breathe. I had drawings from that time where skeletons and dark rooms can be seen. 

Virginia fought against those who abused her, tried to re-connect to her parents, even if they treated her so poorly as parents. She was so courageous. But she died. And the world is still waiting for the Epstein files to be made public and for justice. 

Reading her book opens your eyes to the reality of this world, and for a few hours you get to feel very intense emotions, on a wide spectrum. I am glad that the author allowed for the book to be published even in any eventuality, even if something happened to her. 

Something did happen to her. 

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Adler und Engel - Juli Zeh 

I was looking forward to reading this book. Following Nullzeit, I was used to an intense story that shakes you up a bit and gives you some yummy food though. 

I was shaken but in a different way. 

The book made me feel very uncomfortable, I was praying for it to end. The story is written in a way that was hard to follow, for me at least. You just get glimpses of this and that, and these glimpses are like dreams where weird things are happening, different creatures are appearing, things are distorted and voices as well.

We move through this strange world through the perspective of a drug addict who goes in and out of coma and what I suppose, drugs induced delirious dreams. 

The main character experienced a traumatic experience, he found his girlfriend shot in the head.This sets the hell loose. 

He loses his grasp on reality, his job, the house, the money, everything. We follow him as he wakes up sometimes from delirious thoughts. He goes back in time, together with a radio girl, to trace back the beginning of his story.

It was a painful reading experience. I did not have any way to relate to the story, which in this case is good. 

Maybe I’ll be able to understand it and appreciate it better  if I go back to it in a few years. For now, that was it. 

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