Differing perspectives

Two books - tackling with the same topic - Immigrants to a wealthy nation (UK) with two different point of views.

It was a coincidence indeed that I ended up reading these two back to back. The first one was 'The Other Hand' by Chris Cleave, and the other was 'A short history of Tractors in Ukrainian' by Marina Lewycka. 

The Other Hand was very sombre and had a serious tone to it, where the protagonist was the illegal immigrant narrating her extraordinary journey from Nigeria to UK under abnormal circumstances. Parts of it were deeply disturbing and kept me that way for many days after reading the book. Sometimes when we read books that talk about human tragedy and the other humans who are responsible for it, it feels too overwhelming to be believable. Our lives in contrast, look so safe, stable that it appears almost ridiculous. 

A Short History.. on the other hand is narrated by an Ukrainian British woman whose father, post the death of his wife, is besotted by a much younger Ukrainian woman and wants to marry her. The younger woman, obviously, is taking advantage of this whole situation to immigrate to UK and lead the glamorous life of the West. The narration is not too heavy, and there are quite a bit funny parts in there, especially the conversations between the two worried daughters. What was not funny was the torture and the loneliness the old man goes through. It was sad, and highly reflective of older population in such highly individualistic societies. 

I liked both the books, though the first one is more serious and probably better written.