For Leila, each minute after her death brings a sensuous memory: the taste of spiced goat stew, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women use to wax their legs while the men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that Leila shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends she made at each key moment in her life - friends who are now desperately trying to find her.
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(@PenguinUKBooks, 6 June 2019, audiobook, 9 hrs 11 mins, borrowed from @GlasgowLib via @BorrowBox)
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I really enjoyed 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. This is a powerful, evocative and at times heart-wrenching novel about death, life and the power of love and friendship. The book follow two storylines. One focus is the minutes after Leila's tragic death as she recalls key moment of her life and the people and places that mean the most two her. Running alongside this is the story of her friends trying to find her before her body is found. The book has some powerful, riveting and at times painful and sad.
