Strange book. ( )

Too challenging for me. ( )

Oh my goodness...saw this in a bin at Strand Books in NYC and had to have it. The story is about an odd Englishman who moves to Arizona to live in a trailer and has his life turned upside-down by a pregnant Slovakian shoemaker and her ice cream man lover. My name, Zmrzlina, means ice cream in Slovak and Slovakia is one of my favorite places in the world.

Well, I can't say this is a favorite read, but I did enjoy most of it. Theobald Moon leaves England for life in the Arizona desert, a solitude broken by the arrival of a Slovak shoemaker and her ice-cream (zmrzlina) man boyfriend. I love the descriptions of the desert and Theobald's adaptation to it, as well as the very realistic description of Slovakia in the winter. And I love all the Slovak language scattered through the book. And the transition between Theobald's story, the couple's story and Josephine's, the other main character, narration is most smooth, until about 1/3 the way through the book. The time goes too quickly and the story is rushed. I did like the ending, it is one that begins the story from the beginning. ( )