Sarah Broadhurst's view...
Conspiring theories, old manuscripts, people prepared to kill for the secret and the ‘lost’ journal in Elizabethan English presented for you to find the clues, this is intricate stuff, weaving together a contemporary thriller and an historical mystery which eventually turns into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.
Similar this month: None but try Kathleen McGowan.
Comparison: Dan Brown, Kate Mosse, Sam Bourne.
If you like Michael Gruber you might also like to read books by Kate Mosse, Raymond Khoury and Kathleen Mcgowan.
Who is Sarah BroadhurstSynopsis
The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber
Tap-tapping the keys and out come the words on this little screen, and who will read them I hardly know. I could be dead by the time anyone actually gets to read them, as dead as, say, Tolstoy. Or Shakespeare. Does it matter, when you read, if the person who wrote still lives?
These are the words of Jake Mishkin, whose seemingly innocent job as an intellectual property lawyer has put him at the centre of a deadly conspiracy and hunt to find a priceless treasure connected to William Shakespeare. As he awaits a killer-or killers-unknown, Jake writes an account of the events that led to this deadly endgame, a frantic chase that began when a fire in an antiquarian bookstore revealed the hiding place of letters containing a shocking secret, concealed for four hundred years. In a frantic race from New York to England and Switzerland, Jake finds himself matching wits with a shadowy figure who seems to anticipate his every move. What at first seems like a thrilling puzzle waiting to be deciphered soon turns into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, where no one – not family, not friends, not lovers – is to be trusted.
Moving between twenty-first-century America and seventeenth-century England, ‘The Book of Air and Shadows’is a modern thriller that brilliantly re-creates William Shakespeare's life at the turn of the seventeenth century and combines an ingenious and intricately layered plot with a devastating portrait of a contemporary man on the brink of self-discovery . . . or self-destruction.
Reviews
Author Michael Gruber and his publisher have to be thrilled by the comparisons being drawn between 'The Book of Air and Shadowsand
'The Da Vinci Code,'
but
. . the real treasure for the readers is the players themselves. . . Shakespeare might have called them 'poor players who strut and fret their hour upon the stage,
but as they leave the stage at the end of this exhilarating run, you hope you hear from them
- and Gruber - again soon.New York Daily News.
'Bookshelves across the country are cracking under the weight of thrillers... But few will surpass The Book of Air and Shadows when it comes to energetic writing, compellingly flawed characters, literary scholarship, mathematical conundrums and that oh-so-necessary dose of comic relief...(We never had this much fun reading The Da Vinci Code.) Gruber...has raised the stakes in the thriller genre.'USA Today
If all the world's a play, and we are merely players, where do we get our scripts? That's the underlying question in Michael Gruber's smart new thriller, 'The Book of Air and Shadows.' . . . If 'The Book of Air and Shadows,
a contemporary Elizabethan reference to the missing play, sounds overly refined, think again. Gruber
's themes may be lofty, but his people - notably his narrators - are fully fleshed and often funny, with arch senses of humour and irony. . . Only rarely does pop culture, from any century, fail these players. When it does, even that is telling. . . Because ultimately even the wily misfits of 'The Book of Air and Shadows'
realize we are all simply unaccommodated man, the thing itself, looking for the right words to make sense out of our worlds. Boston Globe
.
About the Author
Loading similar books...
Loading other formats...
Book Info
Publication date
1st August 2007Author
Michael GruberMore books by Michael Gruber
Author 'Like for Like'
recommendations
Author's Website
michaelgruberbooks.com/Author's Facebook Latest
Loading facebook updates...
Loading twitter updates...
Publisher
Harpercollins PublishersFormat
Paperback576 pages
Categories
Crime / MysteryThriller / SuspenseHistorical FictioneBook Favourites
Thriller / suspenseAdventureISBN
9780007251902Hooked on books? Give Lovereading a go - for the chance to discover brilliant books, and to see why our members love it so.
Claire Hill
Lovereading does a stella job in promoting both new and established authors.
Iris Clements
It's the first site that I visit when deciding on the next set of books to buy. A particular treat is being able to download an extract.
Tessa Olson
I recommend Lovereading because you get honest reviews on a whole range of genres-there's something for everyone. It's the only site I need.
Sian Spinney
I love Lovereading because of its ability to connect people that love books & unite them in a friendly, stimulating & interesting community.
Megan Olwen William
As for why I'd recommend Lovereading, it's simple - it's a great place to get information and reviews about new books!
Margaret Freeman
It gives a chance to read about new titles, invites comments from all kinds of readers and is run by such a nice bunch of book lovers.
Joy Bosworth
They are bright, breezy and eager to offer a great book, then genuinely listen/respect the review one writes.
Maggie Crane
Share this page
What is this?