Between Earth And Water

I want to tell you today about a book that impressed me deeply.  It is called “Between earth and Water” and it was written by Raluca Andreea Chiper.

Published in 2016 at Quantum Publishers, the book presents in almost 400 pages the difficulties a ballerina must face in her way towards success.

Most of the teenagers at 18 only think about having fun, going out, seeing a movie, but Karina Baldin only wants to be a good ballerina. She faces hard words of the trainer, pain in her bleeding toes because of the pointe,  but she doesn’t give up.

She soon becomes a prime-ballerina, despite the envious looks of her colleagues. But her road towards ascension is interrupted by an unexpected event. She falls in love. And she falls in love with no one else but the photographer of the  academy, Dragos Ahtum, a 40 year old man with black and mesmerising eyes.

She tries not to fall into the trap of love, but her heart seems to not be willing to listen. And the situation is aggravated by the fact that he is married and a father of three. She starts being less and less focused on her goal and dances more and more badly.

She feels that her heart is racing every time she is next to him, she feels that she can no longer breath when he doesn’t text her back. But is it all right to date a married man? Frustrations are great, but love is even greater. She starts leaving all her life behind just to feel more deeply the feelings she has for him.

While reading this book, I had an amalgam of feelings one after another: I laughed, I was sad, I was angry, I was happy and even disappointed. I lived the story entirely and I felt like I was part of the character. I don’t know if I have ever felt such a deep feeling when reading a book. It was like my entire soul was one with the one of Karina. It was as if I would have lived the love story.

The book itself is full of useful lessons, like you need to love with all your heart and soul because it is the only feeling that drives you up and down and makes you feel like you are above the sky, but at the same time teaches you that you don’t have to be reckless, because love must not destroy your entire life. Love must be lived fully as long as you are still aware that you have a life if the person you love isn’t there.  The love is always the one that keeps you “between earth and water”. You are as dead as the earth because you cannot breath without the one you love, but as alive as the waves of the water, because you are able to love and to breath the perfume of the one you love, to look into his eyes and tell him that you love him.

I honestly have to say that I cried…greatly. And I don’t think I have cried while reading a book before. I was so sad that a love can be so complicated that I got to wonder why does it have to hurt so much? Why can’t things be so easy, just to say “I love you” and period. You get to live happily ever after. But if it were like this, would we still enjoy the love? Would we still have that joy when we would get the one we love? The answer is probably not. Because this is who we are. We want something and when we get it we don’t like it any more.

But beside that, I found the book overwhelmingly good, and I enjoyed it greatly.

Hope to see more books about the author, as I am starting to get addicted by that felling of sad happiness – if I may call it like this. I admit I am addicted and I don’t want to heal.

© picnicontheshelf, June 20, 2018