What to read: a selection of books about teachers from the Narva Library

2023-10-07 10:00:45

House of Silk / Kate Nunn
The fascinating story of a mysterious boarding school that keeps a centuries-old secret… 2019. Australian history teacher Thea Rust arrives at an elite boarding school in Oxley. She will have to look after the first batch of girls in the entire 150-year history of the school. Together with her young pupils, Thea is placed in the House of Silk, where the shadows of the past hide many more dark secrets than she could have imagined. 1768 Fourteen-year-old Rowan Caswell gets a job as a maid in the Silk Merchant’s House in the provincial but wealthy town of Oxley. She soon gains fame as a local healer. Only in 18th-century England are the echoes of the witch hunt still too strong for people to leave the girl alone… At the same time, in London, Mary-Louise Stevenson dreams of becoming a silk artist, creating incredible drawings from the poisonous flowers of purple belladonna and spotted foxglove , scarlet poppies and lovely aconite. The woman smuggles one piece of such fabric to Oxley, not suspecting that the dark energy of her pattern has already chosen its first victim…

Miss Benson’s gold bug. Rachel Joyce
One morning, Miss Benson, a schoolteacher, decides to change her life and travel from post-war London to the other side of the world in search of an amazing creature from a book that her father showed her as a child. To implement this idea, she needs an assistant, and the most unsuitable candidate for this role responds to her advertisement in the newspaper. So, two completely different women will cross the ocean in search of the incredible golden Caledonian beetle, not knowing that along the way they will find much more than they were looking for.

A severe test. Kon Jien
There is no worse nightmare than reality. Nothing interferes with justice more than the imperfection of the law. And nothing speaks louder than silence. Kang Inho knows this firsthand. The world as he knows it comes crashing down when he goes to work at a boarding school for the deaf. Nobody thinks that a young teacher will change anything. After all, where despair and hopelessness reign, there is no place for hope. Kong Jiyong’s new novel is a story that will not leave anyone indifferent, because the author masterfully raises such important topics as compassion and love for others. She shows how important it is not to give up and fight not only for yourself, but also for the future of your children.

Clay letters, floating apples. Sukhbat Aflatuni
The worlds of the Uzbek writer Sukhbat Aflatuni are as bizarre as mirages in the desert. They skillfully mimic reality, but as soon as the reader seems to have approached and is ready to immerse himself in an ordinary, specific genre, the author dispels the haze, and it turns out that stereotypes do not work here. The stories presented in the collection are clear confirmation of this. In “Clay Letters, Floating Apples,” a new Teacher comes to a distant village to teach children an ancient, mysterious alphabet and use it to return to the people the water that the greedy Chairman had taken away. In the story “Penuel,” the patriarch, the head of the once large Jacob family, is, of course, the biblical Jacob. On the one hand, he survived the entire controversial and bloody twentieth century and died at the age of one hundred and six. On the other hand, his ordeals and life aspirations are not unique, everything is repeated and has analogies right up to the Old Testament history, and the main thing for a person has always been the prolongation of the family. In the “Year of the Ram,” the story about “new times” turns into a parable about how everyone will be rewarded according to their sins.

Everyday life of a teacher. Pavel Astapov
“Everyday Life of a Teacher” is a collection of real stories that lift the veil of school life. Pavel Astapov talks about his work without embellishment, but with irony, immersing the reader in a world of strict rules and high hopes, a world whose subtleties remain behind the scenes for most people. The author skillfully combines funny stories from school practice and real problems – from educational programs to communication with children, parents, colleagues and administration. What are teachers silent about? You will find out in this book!

Pandora’s Box. Bernard Werber
One evening at the Pandora’s Box hypnosis theater turns the life of an ordinary history teacher, Rene Toledano, upside down. He did not at all expect that the hypnosis session with the red-haired magician, which he agreed to out of politeness, would throw him into the trenches of the First World War. He could not even imagine that just a few minutes after this, through his fault, a man would die on the embankment of the Seine, and he would cowardly throw the corpse into the river. Could Rene have imagined that in just a couple of days he would find out that his soul comes from the legendary Atlantis and he needs to save his ancient self from a destructive cataclysm in order to preserve the memory of the Atlanteans for centuries. Everyone around him tells Rene that he is crazy, but he knows that there is nothing more fragile and powerful than human memory. Now Rene faces a difficult choice – to follow the truth hidden in his past lives, or to admit that he is sick…

Notes from a teacher. Tatiana Mirnaya

This book is like a diary, where the teacher keeps notes about every day he lives, about what happens to him and around him. Laconic stories about joys and sorrows, meetings and partings, love and hate, friendship and betrayal, faith and unbelief, recklessness and prudence, life and death. Each story will make the reader think and draw a conclusion. The stories have no age limit.

Tatiana Krivolap,

Narva Central Library

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