On May 1, the mothers of Spain will receive their gifts sooner than ever. This Sunday Mother's Day is celebrated And we bet that many of you have left for the last moment that gift that you had not thought of either.
We, who are in everything, have chosen reading as a value to promote during such an important date, perhaps as a way to resume old childhood habits and, incidentally, without risking disappointment, especially if it is one of these 7 books to give away on Mother's Day.
Getaway, by Alice Munro
Alice Munro, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Very topical thanks to Almodóvar, the director who has adapted three of the stories in the book (specifically "Destino", "Pronto" and "Silencio") for the film Julieta, this set of stories by the Canadian author is a tribute to all those dear women and heroines who are victims of heartbreak, loneliness or family problems. A masterpiece confirming the status of the 2013 Nobel of Literature as one of the great storytellers of our time.
The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
Although we have spoken several times about this book, the unique work of the activist and writer Arundhati Roy will delight those matriarchs who will recognize in the three generations of the Hindu family of this novel many reminiscences of their own life and work, except for the extra that this Booker Prize-winning book transports, like few others, to a tropical India to which to travel from the armchair at home. Essential.
That was life, by Carmen Amoraga
Yes, we recognize it, giving this book is a risk, but trusting your intuition and getting it right can become the most intimate and special of the gifts that a son can give his mother. This novel, which reported to Carmen Amoraga on Nadal Award in 2014 tells the drama of Giuliana, a widowed woman in charge of two daughters for whom the acceptance of the loss of her husband becomes the most vital of the lessons.
Paula, by Isabel Allende
With the most intimate book by the Chilean author, we find ourselves in the same position as the previous book, except that in this case the risk is reversed. This autobiography, published in 1994, was written by Allende during the months of uncertainty and subsequent acceptance with his daughter Paula, who was subjected to a coma due to porphyria that would end her life shortly after. A heartbreaking story that Allende is responsible for wrapping with subtleties, stories and memories of a life as bittersweet as his novels.
Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
Published in 1857, the work of the perfectionist Flaubert is an ode to the woman of the XNUMXth century, torn between the existence of a boring husband and the adventure and desire of that inaccessible world, full of conventions and social pressures; dilemmas that today are "less" common in the life of Western women. The book, one of the masterpieces of French realism, connects women with a present in which certain universal dilemmas continue to prevail although few recognize it.
A thousand splendid suns, by Khaled Hosseini
The second work by the Afghan-American author to surprise the world in 2003 with Comets in the Sky is another ideal books for Mother's Day. On this occasion, Hosseini replaces two children with two women: Mariam, a bastard and infertile woman, and Laila, a young Afghan woman who after losing her parents is welcomed by the former in her home. The two feminine visions of a devastated Kabul occupy most of a work of eroded, convulsed exoticism.
Women who run with the wolves, from Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Turned to bestseller After its publication in 2001, this essay written by the psychoanalyst Pinkola Estés tries to recover the spirit of the Wild Woman, of that Wolf that lies inside each female through the analysis and exposition of intercultural stories and myths ranging from the curious Woman from Blue Beard to Skeleton Woman. Feminine philosophy with no greater pretensions than using popular culture and mythology as a means of confirming the status of this "repressed" wolf for so many centuries.
Any of these 7 books to give away on Mother's Day It can become a wise option as long as we listen to our intuition. Because more than a postcard or a cake with sugar flowers on the cover, a book is something more; it is culture, sharing and, especially, love, a lot of love.
Will you give a book to your mother on May 1?
Hello Alberto.
I did not give him a book, but something he needed: a crossbody bag for when he goes hiking. I gave him two or three in Reyes. I have always thought that the best gift you can give someone is a book. Or, at least, it's one of the best.
A literary greeting from Oviedo.