Affairs of the Heart by Borislava Borissova

AFFAIRS OF THE HEART

[review on request by author]

Hellllooos !!
yeah I realize I have not reviewd a single book this April ( I read jsut 1.5 books actually)
And a biiiig heartfelt apology to Borislava for this much delayed review !
I do not read romantic genre as a rule ( neither prefer romantic movies ) so for a change , I agreed to review this book. And Am i glad ?
Totallly !!!

"Affairs of the heart" consists of two novellas - A love in time of war & "The last secret of ancient island "

Love in time of war is set in two cities Istanbul (Turkey) and Sofia ( Bulgaria) . Right from the setting of the time zone , the city architecture , the characters and the moods , the story draws you in.

“Yes. First there was the war… the love followed later. Peace was somewhere in between.”
“Yesterday, you could have killed her on the other side
of the front, today you are in love and what about tomor-row?”
“She feels the same way. All our efforts to remain ene-mies appeared to be in vain. The border line between our
ability to hate or to love appears to be a thin one.”
His fellow traveler shook his head distrustfully. “Your story sounds crazy.”

I had a little trouble getting used to the flashbacks and the present narration running parallel but once the plot was set , and you are introduced to Mustafa the soldier and Maria the unique lover , you will not want to leave the tale unfinished. The letters between Mustafa and Maria are one of the sweetest portions in the tale followed by the love they hold even when miles apart.

I shed many a lonely tears as I read this tale and wished from heart to read of their joys ..

Mustafa,
Dreamy? I was taught to give my best in all things so I want to do the same in my personal life. Is
it dreamy? Or too romantic? Perhaps. But I don’t know any other way to express myself. After all, who else would send you messages through the wind, and shiver in the cold rain to get them to you? Who else would wake up every morning thinking of you? Who is the only one who would like to fill the alien world with warmth for your heart to beat?
Maria

From her words, he could tell she needed reassurance.

Dear Maria,
I still keep the amber rosary in my bag. Heaven knows why. For others I have only respect but for you I have heart.
Mustafa


And I wondered , who writes like this now days .. I wish I could .. or some one would ..
I wish to go on and tell a lot more about these two destined lovers but I would leave you to live their tale and feel every emotion of love , longing , duty , honour , pride and pain.

This is one story I am never going to forget this year .


“Yes, everything is so beautiful. We walk in a tale, a very, very beautiful tale…”


"The last secret of ancient island " is a tale of small island , the land of Etna volcano , the most active volcano nearby. Like the volcano , feelings were in action in the hearts of each character of the book - the brothers Mike and Ralph , Mike's love Kate , Kate's husband David , their son Bob , Bob's friend Al  .. Every one contributes to the events that this tale talks about , with a crime linked closely to the town and the people living there.

Its a story of dreams , search for identity and love , of ancient runis and the conversations whispered in and around the town.

Changing his brother’s bandage with a clean one, Mi-chael noticed Ralph’s decisiveness not to show any pain and having mercy on him, replied warily, “Love is natural for God. But for people, it’s a legend coming from Heaven into our life.”
Ralph protested, “That’s simply not true. God is most familiar with the sense of lone liness. He’s unique, and there-fore very lonely. Maybe our loneliness and solitude is an echo of God’s own. Perhaps, he gave it to us involuntarily in the process of our creation.” “Ralph, the Creator is different, so it seems reasonable that his sense of loneliness is entirely different from ours. We are quite imperfect, so we accept this emotion in our way.”

It talks of some one's dream at an age where people do not expect one to fight for their dreams. A bond of brothers to support each other , a person's interest in philosophy and anthropology , a common man's ideas on life around him , teenager's issues and craving for freedom ,  a bank robbery . A very fast paced story , that resonates sentiments , confusions and decisions of many of us in present times. Mysterious  , sprinkled with good action and very heartfelt dialogues , the story mkes for a lovely read till the end.


Unsure of what his brother had mentioned, Ralph hesi-tated before replying. “I simply love being on the summit there. I get the sense that I can touch the line which lay be-tween the world beyond and me. Even if it was Everest, it would not be just a peak for me. It would be a bridge, the highest bridge between Earth and Heaven, between man and his yearnings, between the life in the green fields below and very different kind of emotions above.”
“It’s the same with me. My pictures, Ralph, are the bridges between others and me. That’s why I need to bring them to the world, not just take them to please myself. It’s not simply about success, glory, or money, this is how I express myself to others, my specific channel to them, my lifeboat
from everyday routine when the reality is not enough.”



I totally enjoyed reading these tales though i read them almost a month apart. I infact loved reading the first tale again in bits and bytes as I wrote this review. Romance lovers , do read this if you want a heart warming tale for a lazy sunday afternoon . And others, please read it for the way Borislava narrates simplest of emotions with a grace that touches you immediately ..

My Rating - 4 stars