Book of the Week: A Training School for Elephants by Sophy Roberts
Beautifully reviewed by our great friend, Gustav Groot 🙏

“I always try my best not to judge a book by its cover, but in this case, I must admit that I decided to buy the book even before reading the blurb. The beautifully minimalistic design, featuring an African elephant at its center, made it a must-buy for me. I later discovered that the story within was even more captivating.

Sophy Roberts has a remarkable ability to convey her travels with both vivid detail and strong storytelling, transporting the reader directly to the places she explores—whether it’s Siberia or, in this case, East and Central Africa. She tells the fascinating story of King Leopold II’s bold, brutal, and ultimately delusional vision for what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Leopold had dreamed of training African elephants to be used in agriculture, mining, and even warfare. The age-old tale of Hannibal crossing the Alps with elephants may have inspired what, at the time, seemed an impossible plan. The goal was to bring four trained Indian elephants to Tanzania and march them to Congo, where a training school was to be established.

Sophy retraces these steps and shares the incredible and often horrifying journey these elephants undertook alongside their human companions. With care and precision, she recounts the bold colonial ambitions that motivated Leopold’s men and the death and destruction it ultimately brought. She describes a Central Africa far more developed and organized than what we typically hear about in Denmark and shares personal stories—both historical and contemporary—that guide the reader through what are, at times, harrowing accounts of disregard for human and animal life.

Usually, when I pick up a non-fiction book, it’s to deepen my understanding of a topic I already know something about. This time, I was told a story I had never encountered before—which is something Roberts excels at. And even if the story itself doesn’t captivate you, the book may still illuminate your own knowledge gaps or inspire you to visit Central Africa. Either way, it’s a stunning volume to keep on your shelf.‘”

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Book of the Week: I Who Have never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Reviewed (and adored) by our very own Franca 🌸

“‘I Who Have never Known Men’ follows the life of a young woman, who, from childhood, has been imprisoned in an underground bunker along with 39 grown women. None of them know how they got there, why they’re being kept there or what is happening in the world outside. The guards that patrol the cage won’t speak to them but are always watching, making sure they don’t harm each other or themselves. One day, an alarm sounds, and the guards flee but the key to the cage is still in the lock and so the women, for the first time in what they assume must be around 13 years, leave the bunker.

The world outside is nothing like they remember it. They must now learn to live in nature, build their own houses, look for food and water and decide whether or not they can live with never knowing what happened to them.

Our unnamed narrator, who cannot remember a time before the bunker, is more restless than the others, more eager to go and explore. She sees the world with fresh eyes, letting us, the reader, question our own morals, values and reality.

I cannot even begin to express how much I loved this book. It is beautifully written, full of fleshed out character descriptions and never boring. I spent thirty minutes one morning crying at a certain passage and had to take another thirty to contemplate what I had just read. It’s a deeply touching story without being too emotional or trying too hard. There’s nothing pretentious about it and although the story takes place in a world so far from our own, there is something incredibly human about in every single character, every single action.

It’s a story about the importance of female friendship, of respect, trust, and honour. And though it seems dark and dystopian, it is most of all a story about love.

Truly one of the most surprising, inspiring, and moving books I’ve read. I cannot recommend it enough.

5/5 🌟”

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Book of the Week: The Tell by Amy Griffin
Reviewed by the one and only Isabella

“I read ‘The Tell’ in one sitting. It is hard not to.

This is the story of Amy Griffin, a successful business woman, and happily married mother of four. Born and raised in West Texas, Griffin spends her childhood and youth pursuing all that is expected of a young girl. She is a good athlete, a good student, a good friend, a good daughter. Doing everything right all of the time in a culture that praises young girls for fitting in, for doing as they are told, for understanding that they will never be as strong or as powerful as the boys whose admiration they should seek - and that that makes sense.

This cultural framework is never really questioned, or if it is, the answers come so quickly and with such conviction, that it is easier to accept than to keep questioning. Amy Griffin succeeds, even shines, in the eyes of her loving parents and her community, goes off to a dream college and a dream life in New York City. There are difficult and defining experiences along the way, poor decisions that seem fine in the moment, disastrous in hindsight.

All seems fine (on the surface) except for the fact that she keeps experiencing injuries due to excessive exercising that started back in middle school. She has several surgeries, including on her back, yet she can’t stop, not even when told that her body is breaking down, that it is trying to tell her something she doesn’t want to hear.

No spoilers (there are some huge ones), but suffice to say that the revelation of suppressed memories and a triggering MDMA experience changes EVERYTHING. As is so often true of real life, this turns out to be only the beginning of a very long, arduous healing process. It is truly amazing what the mind can choose to ‘forget’, and what the body will always reveal.

The Tell is the story of one woman’s survival of experiences unique but sadly not limited to her, and the power of truth-telling as a way of getting through trauma. The book is also the wider story of societal expectations of girls and women, and how so many are taught to seek external validation that so often leads to a tragic loss of sense of self.”

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Book of the Week: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Reviewed by our own birthday girl Franca (first time, but looks like not last time, Emily Henry reader 😉)

“Celebrity biographer Alice Scott has figured out the whereabouts of newspaper heiress and american sweetheart Margaret Ives, who has been gone from public eye for twenty years. margaret has now invited her to interview her for a potential tell all book about her family, her life, her loss, her secrets. the only catch? Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Hayden Anderson has been invited for exactly the same purpose. and he’s the most unapproachable and unlikable man Alice has ever met. Will the two find some common ground? Who will Margaret choose? And what secrets about the Ives family is Alice about to uncover?

I have to admit I was sceptical at first. I had never read an Emily Henry book before and this just sounded like the wish version of ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ to me. In some ways it was very similar to Evelyn Hugo but in other ways it wasn’t at all.

While Margaret’s story plays a large part, it is not the centre of the novel. After a few chapters I was completely invested in Alice & Hayden’s love story, rooting for them, being upset with them, yelling at them when they just DIDN’T COMMUNICATE PROPERLY!! I was truly giggling and kicking my feet the whole time.

I would definitely recommend this if you liked Evelyn Hugo but also if you just love a good rivals to lovers and American dynasty story.”

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