Oranges of Dubai

I am so very glad to have come across this original novel by Cristina Costa. It is beyond awesome. I wanted to rate is 10 stars. A fantastic read to start my new year, bringing me the taste of sweet refreshing orangy bliss. The book is translated from Italian, about the memories of a group of Sicilian children now 50years old. Actually more from the narration of Paolo son of village reknown pharmacist, who left Sicily when Italy decided to sell this small southern Mediterranean haven to the Sheikhs of Arab. Paolo went to Boston to master his chosen career of pediatric heart surgeon, and then lives un Paris for most of his life. His perfect lovable other half Teresa who is also his high school sweetheart, with the help from her best friend Anna arrange for Paolo to return to Palermo Sicily for his 50th birthday, to walk again the streets of his childhood, to breathe again the air of his roots. What he experiece during his few days vacation in Palermo is just delicious self discovery amidst small things which further define him as a worthy man. The narration is almost poetic, seamless with beautiful expressions and wonderful descriptions of feelings, thoughts, observations. In a way the story says, your politicians can betrsy you, sell you off yo the Arabs, put you at risk of losing your heritage, culture and identity, but only you can decide if they can succeed. Sometimes life can proof you wrong, the world can choose to let your light flicker off, but only you can decide if you want to live a beautiful live worth living. Does this make sense? Is this reasonable or realistic? Probably not often so O:-) Whatever... I totally love reading this book. Let me know if you'd like to read too, I'll send you a link. Happy hopeful new year friends!