Thursday Tea is a weekly feature hosted by Anastasia at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog.
" To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the willingness to answer some very simple questions: What tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together."
The tea:
Yunnan Black Tea. Described on the packet thus: "Smooth, sweet honey flavour with an elegant flowery aroma. Highly prized by tea connoisseurs."
The book:
The Disappeared by Kim Echlin (2009) 235 pages HC
Set in Montreal and Cambodia during the 1970s, this love story plays out during the post Pol Pot era when Cambodia was getting back on its feet after terrible years of war and brutal oppression. The outside world was just discovering the extent of the deaths from the killing fields and democratic process was being promised but was not being delivered in any serious ways. Anne goes to Cambodia to find her boyfriend Serey after his return to his country and a silence of years that she has never been able to accept or understand. They were in love so what happened to him? Did he find any of his missing family? Is he even alive? Her heart tells her that he would never have deserted her if he could have returned to Canada. She will fight against a uncooperative bureaucracy that has much to hide, with nothing but her persistent love for this man. And she will find him but things do not always turn out quite the way we hope. A haunting tale, The Disappeared "is a remarkable consideration of language, truth, justice, and memory that speaks to the conscience of the world, and to love, even when those we love most are gone."
Do they go together?
A dark tea, Yunnan Black seemes appropriate to this story with its heartbreaking questions, deep loss and shadows of the past.
What are you drinking/reading today?
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