(#gifted @oneworldpublications) If you’re looking for a charming, translated summer read then I have the book for you! Three Apples Fell From the Sky is such a quaint little read, set in a remote village in the Armenian mountains. Even though the book is set across several years, including brutal winters, the charm of it just gave me summer vibes, and I felt just very 😌 while reading it!
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Told in the style of a fable or fairytale, and beautifully translated from Russian by Lisa C Hayden, this book will whisk you away to a village seemingly stuck in an older time, where superstitions and even hints of magic still linger. In three sections, we follow the lives of some the villagers who make up the sparse population. The main two are Anatolia, the youngest old woman who’s beset by a strange illness, and Vasily, a grumpy yet tenderhearted blacksmith who’s lost after the death of his wife. But there is a whole host of residents, all of them delightfully curmudgeonly and cantankerous.
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There isn’t that much in the way of plot. It’s more a series of little vignettes, documenting the day-to-day of the villagers, revelling in their domesticity and old ways. The interactions between them were so funny, even if they all are set in their ways. Traditional gender roles in terms of occupations still reign in this mountain village, but the women take no shit from their husbands.
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I loved the little hints of magical realism sprinkled here and there, and it was just a lovely book to sit down and get lost in! I don’t think I’ll remember it for years to come, but I’m happy with the time I spent with it!