Gilgamesh

Went for my second physiotherapy session yesterday. Had electrodes connected to my shoulder to give it some electrostimulation as I attempted some simple movements with my right arm. Then, I was taught a few exercises using a Thera-Band. It's an elastic fabric, polymer-based, and I'm supposed to use it in a variety of configurations to move my arm and shoulder. The bands come in many colours, each one representing a different level of resistance. Mine was red which stood for the least resistance.

Read my 7th novel, "Gilgamesh", by Joan London, an Australian author. It is a fascinating story, and reads like a movie with its clever interplay of scenes and points-of-view.

The protagonist is a woman named Edith Clark, and the story begins with how her parents, Frank and Ada, in a post-World War I clime, marry and leave the UK for Southwest Australia after signing up for a government scheme to be pioneers in the opening up of the harsh wilderness there. Edith and her sister Frances soon become fatherless when Frank dies from the hardship and illness. In the wake of his demise, the Clark family briefly receives two unexpected visitors - Leopold Stubbs, the son of Ada's former neighbour in London and an archaeologist keenly interested in the Middle East, and his driver, an Armenian named Aram Sinanien. The teenage Edith is drawn to both men and becomes pregnant with Aram's seed, but the two men leave Australia as the threat of another global war draws near. Soon after she delivers her baby Jim, Edith makes a perilous journey to Armenia in search of her lost love, while deeply struggling inside if it is Aram or Leopold that she really loved. However, once she reaches soviet Armenia, war descends and she finds herself on enemy territority, without a home, without a man, with a child and herself to keep alive, with her search unfinished...

I rate the book 4/5.