REVIEWS PENELOPE DEBELLE, DIANA CARROLL, ROBYN DOUGLASS
In Iraq under the terrifying dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, three childhood friends grow up as close as brothers, steeped in family, religious and village life; easy-going Tariq is adaptable; Abdullah becomes a POW in Iran; and then there is Ibrahim, whose head is found in a banana crate as the story opens. We stay closest to Ibrahim whose daughter, Qisma, brings him great joy, but she is slightly ashamed of her father, who tends the magnificent gardens at the President’s palace. In the dark of night he must also do much more and later, in Qisma’s eyes, a simple man of no great intellect becomes a national hero. Set during the last 50 years of Iraqi history, this is the tale of ordinary people affected by extraordinary events. At 52, Susi Prescott was a wife and mother, enjoying a comfortable life in Sydney and teaching French at the local school. Almost without warning, her 30-year marriage disintegrates. Finding solace in bushwalking, Susi goes first to Tasmania with friends, and then alone to the Himalayas, Africa, and Peru. With her mother’s aphorism “Make the most of it, Susi, it passes in a flash”, echoing in her mind, she moves to Peru to teach at Colegio Elohim, a struggling school at the foot of the Andes. This is an illuminating memoir about taking chances and finding the path to a life well-lived. Prescott writes with a delicate touch and a warm heart. This is a murder mystery more intriguing than anything you could make up. Jordi Magraner, adventurer and self-taught zoologist, was obsessed with yeti, or barmanu, believing them to be a remnant population of Neanderthal humans. A Spaniard raised in France, he moved to the remote west of Pakistan in the 1980s where he was entranced by the people of the Hindu Kush. He was assassinated in 2002. Gabi Martinez has pieced together Jordi’s story from family, friends and witnesses in Europe, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It’s an intriguing and complex mix of Taliban, drug kingdoms and Jordi’s own unorthodox lifestyle.