Stephen Dau's The Book of Jonas is a marvelous, lyrical debut that examines the effects of war on everyone involved. Dau weaves together the stories...
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Banville really is a writer closer to Nabakov and Joyce than most of his contemporaries. It's easy to see in this novel of obsession, which follows a former felon turned art historian who is asked to verify the authenticity of a stack of suspicious paintings. Things get complicated, and the narrator falls deep under the spell of a mysterious woman. The language is erotic and sensual even outside of the sex scenes. Various interludes, in the form of brief art reviews written by the narrator, offset the action, provide pacing, and eventually weave themselves into the plot. Stylistically, Athena is masterful, and the detective-novel genre gets a good workout in the hands of a writer able to make every line beautiful, and every word count. Recommended by Jason W., Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
From the internationally acclaimed author of The Book of Evidence and Ghosts comes a mesmerizing novel that is both a literary thriller and a love story as sumptuously perverse as Lolita. "A strange and dreamlike book . . . Banville has a breathtaking style."--Boston Globe.
Product details
240 pages
Vintage Books USA -
English9780679736851
Reviews:
"Staff Pick"
by Jason W.,
Banville really is a writer closer to Nabakov and Joyce than most of his contemporaries. It's easy to see in this novel of obsession, which follows a former felon turned art historian who is asked to verify the authenticity of a stack of suspicious paintings. Things get complicated, and the narrator falls deep under the spell of a mysterious woman. The language is erotic and sensual even outside of the sex scenes. Various interludes, in the form of brief art reviews written by the narrator, offset the action, provide pacing, and eventually weave themselves into the plot. Stylistically, Athena is masterful, and the detective-novel genre gets a good workout in the hands of a writer able to make every line beautiful, and every word count.
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