The frightening reality of life in communist Romania, which I admit to being largely ignorant about, plus some magical realism makes for a pretty fresh and unique novella. You also get some nicely complex, or in my mind, realistic, relationships developed too. There is something a little disjointed(?) about the chapters, they feel almost separate from each other in a way? I don't even think that is necessarily a bad thing but just different.

This novella takes place in 1970s Communist Romania. It is a short and fast-paced book and the shifting viewpoints from chapter to chapter were okay, but the magical realism in the final few chapters was not for me and felt too disconnected from where the story was going up to that point. I would still recommend this book for anyone interested in the topic as it does capture the absurdity and terror of living under the regime.

Bottled Goods follows Alina who grows up in communist Romania; everything is fine until her brother in law goes on holiday to France and doesn't return. Being related to a defector but Alina and her husband under great suspicion from the authorities as well as affecting their societal rank. This was very quick based, covering something like 40 years in under 200 pages but despite this, it didn't seem to skim over things, I still felt you were able to develop a connection to Alina and I found I was really rooting for her throughout. The format makes it really quick to read, very short chapters some of which are in list format so I definitely ended up telling myself I'd just read one more chapter, before realising I was practically done, 4 stars.

Bottled Goods is a simple tale of life in the Socialist Republic of Romania during the late 1960s and ‘70s. Or is it? What starts out as the story of schoolgirl Alina growing up in Bucharest with her somewhat eccentric family morphs perplexingly into full-blown magical realism three-quarters of the way through, after which elements become unexpectedly surreal.

Alina is a twentysomething school teacher when she and her husband Liviu find themselves of significant interest to Ceaușescu’s secret police following his brother’s defection to the West. To make matters worse, Alina attempts to protect one of her pupils spotted with a contraband magazine and is reported to the authorities for doing so. Suddenly the bad coffee and black-market apple strudels seem insignificant trifles when compared to being persona non grata with the regime, former-friends, neighbours and colleagues – and the situation isn’t alleviated by Alina’s self-centred, interfering mother, who has never approved of her daughter’s marriage to a peasant boy.

Bottled Goods is part of the Fairlight Moderns series, which aims to introduce readers to modern literary fiction from different parts of the world via an ever-expanding collection of multi-genre novellas. Printed in smaller format and with striking jacket covers created by Sara Wood and illustrated by Sam Kalda, these appealing little books are designed to be convenient travelling reads and will make ideal book club choices for those seeking contemporary themes combined with quality writing.

Sophie van Llewyn was born in south-eastern Romania but now lives in Germany. She has previously won awards for her flash fiction and short stories. In this, her “debut long fiction work”, she has created a chilling piece of absurdist fiction, which (often comically) depicts the depressing and troubled lives of those attempting to subsist under the constant watch of a distrustful authoritarian state.

Review: Bottled Goods by Sophie Van Llewyn
PUBLISHED ON June 14, 2018
A novella by Fairlight Moderns

Genre: Historical Fiction, magical realism

Similar to: An Eastern European Barbera Pym

Could be enjoyed by: Fans of short, kitschy, fantastical tales but with a dark side.

Publication date: 11th July 2018

Whilst browsing through NetGalley, I came across four or five flash fiction novellas by Fairlight Moderns. I’d never heard of the publisher or any of the authors, but the books looked so cute and interesting that I chose one to read without even checking the blurb – something I never ever do. However, I’m really glad that I did because Bottled Goods is a tiny little gem of a book (with great cover art).
Set in 1970’s Romania, Alina grinds out a living as a teacher under a communist regime. Her loveless marriage and difficult mother compound the oppression of living in a dictatorship, so when Alina becomes a Person of Interest to the Secret Services it all becomes too much. After asking her Aunt for help, Alina uses the old ways to invoke the magic of her people to deal with her mother and make good her escape. Part terrifying portrayal of a communist regime, part Grimms fairytale, this pressure cooker of a novella is richly evocative of a history that is seldom talked about in mainstream literature.

I loved the way that Sophie Van Llewyn built the tension in this book. Although a fairly short story, Bottled Goods was so atmospheric I was completely taken in from the first few pages. The writing was brilliant; emotional but precise. Oddly, I found it reminiscent of The Bottle Factory Outing or perhaps something by Patricia Highsmith – there was something about the way that the tension was layered in with the mundanity of everyday life that was very reminiscent of those mid-century female authors. However, this book brings it’s own distinct Eastern European flavour that really worked with the almost dystopian theme – especially if your knowledge of the Eastern Block has been informed by the terrifying kids tv programmes that were shown in the 1970’s and 80’s (and which was parodied so well by The Fast Show).

I really sympathized with Alina and appreciated how the author didn’t shy away from the horrors of investigation by the Secret Service. I also enjoyed learning a little about Romanian history and culture, as it’s not a country that I’m familiar with. The book really brought home what it must have been like to try to live an ordinary life under a communist regime and the reality of not being able to speak freely (even in your own home) or trust anyone (even your family). I loved how informative it was even though some elements were clearly fantastical.

I have to say that I did find some of the chapters slightly disjointed, especially in the beginning and the ending did feel a little rushed. I can absolutely see how some parts were published seperately, as they almost felt like stand alone stories within themselves.

Although short, this is an oddly charming, terrifying, interesting little book. Brilliantly written, I’d love to hear more from Sophie Van Llewyn – and I’m definitely going to check out some more Fairlight Moderns *watches NetGalley review percentage tumbling*.

This novella-in-flash is striking, mesmerising, and purely brilliant. I was drawn in by Alina and her mission to escape communist Romania, and the magical realism elements made this novella all the more powerful and memorable.

When Liviu's brother defects to the West, Liviu and his wife Alina are hounded by the Romanian Communist authorities. We are in the 1970s, at the height of the Cold War, and not even well-connected Aunt Theresa, who practices the forbidden old folk ways even whilst her son works for the regime, can save Alina and Liviu from the unwelcome attentions of the Secret Police. The constant danger blights a relationship which could, and should, have been a special one.

Totalitarian rule casts a shadow on the history of the last century. Bottled Goods is neither the first nor the last novel to be inspired by the horrors of authoritarian governments. What distinguishes this novel from many others is its stylistic and narrative approach.

It is, first of all, a "novel-in-flash" - written in the form of short interrelated vignettes which can, and in some cases have, been published as standalone pieces. Moreover, the narrative sometimes wanders into the territory of magical realism. These flights of whimsy give the novel a light touch, even whilst it's presenting us with the terror of a communist regime and its tragic impact on ordinary lives. The novel is permeated with a sense of fear and dread, yet the pill is sweetened by the fairytale narrative.

This is an original début from a distinctive literary voice.

After reading Noah Could Never (write-up for that is here), I fell into a bit of a reading slump. For several days, I kept picking books up, reading a chapter or two, then putting it down and going "Nope". So, when Katharine Corr (co-author of the Witch's Kiss trilogy) suggested I try reading a novella or flash fiction or a reread (something I am currently doing now as real life is going to get a little nuts for next few weeks), I went "I do have one or two I could try..."

And I read them both. It was a slow trek - a week prior novella, which is bad for me as I could usually hammer a novella or flash fiction out in a day or two. But I think I need the time to break the water's surface, so to speak, with my reading of late.


One novella is The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles by Kij Johnson and the other was Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn. The prior I bought several years back and the other I was given for review via NetGalley a week or two back and both are very different from each other.

The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles is set in Ancient Japan and follows Small Cat, who after her garden burns in a fire and the colony scatters, decides to find the home of her ancestor, the Cat from the North, and try and make a name for herself along the way...

Whereas Bottled Goods is set in communist Romania in the 1970s, and it follows Alina who, after her brother-in-law defects to the West, she and her new husband become people of interest to the secret services. As this strain takes root in their marriage, Alina turns to her aunt for support, not her mother...

So why, I hear you ask, have I decided to put these two very different novellas together in one review? Is it because I am a lazy so&so? Is it because I am going through a slump with reading and blogging? Is it because real life, like I have previous mentioned, is going to go crazy the next few weeks? Is it because both stories have very similar pros and cons? You decide...

Both stories held my attention, even though am going through a reading funk. I really liked the writing styles in both, which is the main reason why I kept reading (though I do have faults with both). In Bottled Goods, each chapter's writing style is different from the previous - first person, third person, diary entry, list, first person of one chapter, first person of a second chapter, third person. Both stories, also, always had something happening. Each chapter ended with a cliffhanger of sorts so, of course, I had to keep clicking on my kindle to find out what happened next.

Plus, the chapter art of The Cat is wonderful. Shame my kindle is black and white, as I'm intrigued to see these in colour.


But because am in this reading funk, I did have problems. Problems I would normally get over very quickly, but in this mindset, all I could see were these problems. As I mentioned earlier on, the writing styles of both novellas were good, but both had problems. At times, The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles felt... off. I can't really explain it. There was something that held me back from being full invested within the story. This is the same with Bottled Goods, but with this, I do think it's the style of writing, how each chapter changed how it was written. I liked this, but it does take a little while for you to get use to. Plus, when there were two chapters told in first person but from two different chapter and you have no indicator of who it is in the chapter title, it's throws you out a little bit.

Plus, both have an element of magic, but I kinda wanted more. With Cat, the animals do speak to each other but I wanted something more. As for Bottled Goods, the magic element comes quite late in the story, and with the story's blurb hinting that it's there from the start, it got annoying waiting for it to come and, when it did, it was a side step. I do wonder on if the magical element was completely removed from Bottled Goods, if the story would have still worked (barring one element, I think it might have).

I did like both of these, don't get me wrong, I did. But because of my reading frame-of-mind at the moment, am super nit-picky. Maybe if I reread these in the future, these won't bother me so much, but it was nice to read something not over 300 pages long and yet still packed a punch, which both still did.

This delightful novella blends historical fiction and magical realism, and it so captivated me, I read it in a single sitting. From the start, we get a sense of the claustrophobic world in which Alina lives. The short chapters move us swiftly from one moment to the next, the gaps in time mirroring the disjointed nature of Alina's life following her brother-in-law's defection. Alina came across wonderfully as a character; I was with her every step of the way. The prose is lyrical yet simple, and I loved the way the fantastical elements seeped effortlessly amidst the dire and mundane. Definitely one to read if you enjoy magical realism, or if you are interested in what life was like in communist-era Romania.

This is a bittersweet novella that reads as part magical realism and part historical fiction, being set in Romania in 1975, during the Communist regime of Ceaușescu.

The book is broken up into sections, some of which may well have been standalone written pieces previously that have been neatly tied together here. The sections cover topics such as family, Communism (and defection), marriage and fear.

The sections of the book that feature the main character Alina's aunt reminded me very much of Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel, in that this version of "reality" within the text is both darkly humorous and wonderfully kitsch. Similarly, in the sections where Alina is forced to meet with a man from the Secret Services, she appears to be blasé - having cake and coffee with the man... and then things get much darker.

Having listened to a BBC podcast with the author, I understand that this novella is party based on her family's history and woven in is a story based particularly on her godparents who were kept at border control for 24 hours and searched while they waited to head to the West. The underlying reality and pain of the characters sits nicely and in stark contrast with the dark comedy and absurdity of the text.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Fairlight Books and Sophie van Llewyn for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.