![]() ![]() “The faces in the audience looked terrified throughout. Worse yet was the sight of massed thousands marching in a parade for their dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, or listening to him speak for three hours. ![]() “The city had been reduced to a vast echo.” People stood in glum queues for not much heat was scarce and fuel so precious that buses would soon run with methane tanks on top. “The silence of the streets was devastating,” he recalls in the opening pages of this haunting yet ultimately optimistic examination of the human condition as found in Romania. He felt as if he had abandoned the sun and vibrant colours, and entered “a black-and-white engraving in the shivery, November-hued Balkans”. ![]() When Kaplan arrived in Bucharest in the Cold War days of 1981, it was hardly an instant romance. It is an obsession that has led him to plunge into the surrounding Balkans, and farther afield to contemplate Europe in all its historic complexity. ![]() The object of his affection and fascination is not a person, but a country: Romania. Kaplan embarked on what this book portrays as an enduring love affair. In Europe’s Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyondīy Robert D. ![]()
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![]() ![]() We get a chance to see how Claire and Jamie have got word to them about the first and seen what they’re doing in their own time after being gone for a few years. The story is told in multiple time periods with the MacKenzies back in the 20th century. This is a great chance to learn more about the individuals and not just the reactions or appearances that Claire sees. We also get chapters from William’s, Lord John Grey’s, and Ian’s points of view. ![]() There was a break here and there for Christmas and for Outlander Season 6, but we’ve been pretty steady throughout the run.Īn Echo in the Bone focuses on both the Frasers and the MacKenzies. It was a chance to get through the extra long Droughtlander that the pandemic caused. Here are all the chapters we’ve covered so far in one place.Ĭan you beliee we’re onto An Echo in the Bone already? We started reading through the Outlander books back in June 2020. ![]() We’re into Outlander Book 7, An Echo in the Bone. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In the city of Spire Vanis, the surlord, Penthero Iss keeps his adopted daughter (or, as he calls her, his almost-daughter), Ash March, in virtual - if comfortable - house arrest. Some, though, remember that darker days than night lie ahead. and worse, he will later be held responsible for the cruelties the new chief inflicts upon the other clans, the atrocities that force them into an all-consuming war. Raif alone challenges his lies, and ends up fleeing the clan (with the help of his uncle, Angus Lok, member of a mysterious society, the Phage), breaking a sacred oath - he is now an outcast. He is now chief, and is doing everything possible to quell their suspicions. They alone know of the treachery that went on, and that a fellow survivor - Mace Blackhail - was responsible. ![]() When a hunting party for the clan Bludd is viciously attacked, Raif Sevrance and his older brother, Drey, survive. With the recent publication of A Sword From Red Ice, the third part in J.V Jones' fantasy series, Sword of Shadows (originally a trilogy, but now something much larger), I decided it was time I got around to reading this exciting series, especially after her earlier trilogy, The Book of Words. ![]() |