The yearning to get out – as if you are bottled goods itself, the meaning of not being able to take bottled goods out of the country, or even aspirations when it comes to perfume or bottles of aerated drinks that aren’t accessible. I have not read any book with Romania as a setting so far, and I am only intrigued to know more about it in the time of Ceausescu and what did normal folk go through, living day by day.īottled Goods as the title has so many meanings to it. I never thought I needed more to hit home. Whether she is talking about Alina’s rocky relationship with her mother, husband, or country, everything is just perfect. Van Llewyn writes brilliantly and with great brevity.

In all of this enters Alina’s aunt Therese who can help her escape the country through the old folk ways. There is torture from the agents – emotional, mental, and physical, eventually taking a toll on their marriage. This is all well and good till her brother-in-law defects to the West and she and her husband come in the eye of secret service. The book is set in communist Romania and at the heart of it is Alina living with her husband, Liviu, quite satisfied, with her head down and going about her life. Bottled Goods wrenches you and takes you to a place where you start wondering about good and bad, right and wrong, and the need to want to leave your home and yet stay. Bottled Goods is the kind of book that makes you contemplate and ruminate over life and its dynamics at the end of every chapter almost, which doesn’t happen very often when you read a book. I have read almost more than half of the Women’s Prize longlist of this year, and hands down this is one of the top 3 favourites of mine.

Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn