Novels for Book Lovers |
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| For the book lovers out there, here are some recent books-within-books, as well as books about books and authors. | |
 | Title: Travels in the Scriptorium Author: Auster, Paul Summary: Elderly Mr. Blank awakens in an unfamiliar room, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. His only clues are found in a stack of photographs of people he seems to recognize and in a fragmented typescript written by another prisoner from a different place and time. Meanwhile, a series of visitors come and go, giving him frustrating hints about his identity and his past. It is a playful and philosophical fable about the importance of stories. |
 | Title: The People of the Book Author: Brooks, Geraldine Summary: This is a fictionalized history of an actual book, the illuminated Hebrew codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. Australian rare-book expert Hanna Heath accepts the enviable task of examining and conserving the Haggadah when it reappears after being missing during the Bosnian war. Artifacts and traces of substances in the book lead her on a quest to reconstruct its biography—from the 1940 German occupation of Yugoslavia to 1894 Vienna to 1609 Venice to 1492 Barcelona and eventually 1480 Seville. Each story is engaging and integrated into the narrative. |
 | Title: Interred with Their Bones Author: Carrell, Jennifer Lee Summary: Kate Shelton, who left academe to direct Shakespeare plays, is approached by her former advisor Roz while she is rehearsing Hamlet at London’s Globe Theatre. Roz gives Kate a mysterious gift and entreats her to “follow where it leads.” Within hours the Globe is burning and Roz has been murdered. Can Kate follow the clues and recover a lost Shakespeare play? Did Shakespeare really write the plays attributed to him? An engrossing and fast-paced literary thriller. |
 | Title: Finn Author: Clinch, Jon. Summary: The Finn in question is not Twain’s Huck, but Huck’s father “Pap.” This first novel meticulously fills in the background of the elder Finn, who is the black sheep of his family, a scarcely literate alcoholic who supports his habit by trading catfish for whiskey. He is also a sociopath and a racist. The author uses details of the floating-house scene, and a good deal of Twain’s plot, characters and themes to create a plausible prequel with surprises. An inspired but disturbing spin-off. |
 | Title: Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress Author: Dae, Sijie Summary: During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, two privileged teenaged boys are sent to a remote mountain village for reeducation with menial labor. They receive a reprieve when their storytelling talents are discovered; the headman dispatches them to the nearest town once a month to watch a movie and then return to recite the plot and dialogue for the villagers. The story takes an unexpected turn when the two meet the beautiful daughter of the local tailor and steal a suitcase full of Western literature in translation from another city boy, whom they befriend and then deceive. This beautifully written short novel communicates the joy that books can offer the downtrodden spirit. |
 | Title: The Eyre Affair Author: Fforde, Jasper Summary: In this bizarre and amusing alternate history set in 1985 England, literature has a prominent place in everyday life. Thursday Next, Special Operative in literary detection, tries to stop Archeron Hades, the world’s Third Most Wanted criminal, from kidnapping characters from beloved works of literature. A clever and whimsical literary adventure. |
 | Title: Mister Pip Author: Jones, Lloyd Summary: He is really Mr. Watts, but he has become so identified with Dickens’s Great Expectations that he is known as Mr. Pip. When civil war tears apart a remote island off the coast of Papua New Guinea, the sole remaining white occupant appoints himself teacher and begins a yearlong reading of his favorite novel. Teenaged protagonist Matilda and her classmates soon become enthralled by the story, and use the power of imagination to survive in the face of the chaos of war. It is an elegantly written coming-of-age novel with surprising plot twists and charmingly eccentric characters. |
 | Title: The Historian Author: Kostova, Elizabeth Summary: A motherless sixteen year old girl stumbles upon a medieval book and a cache of letters in her diplomat father’s library. The book is blank except for a sinister woodcut of a dragon and the word “Drakulya.” Her father reluctantly provides pieces of a chilling story, and she secretly begins her own research into the truth behind the myth of Dracula (sometimes known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Tepes). The novel is told by three main narrators, moves across Europe and back and forth in time as the story progresses. A suspenseful and atmospheric page-turner. |
 | Title: The History of Love Author: Krauss, Nicole Summary: In this book-within-a book, two life stories converge. Leo Gursky is an eighty year old Polish war refugee tending the losses of his true love, his only son—a famous writer, and the manuscript of his first book. Alma Singer is a 14-year old seeking the story behind her name and a remedy for her widowed mother’s loneliness. It is a beautifully written and imaginative novel about love, loss, and survival. The characters are unforgettable. |
 | Title: The Poe Shadow Author: Pearl, Matthew Summary: The truly unexplained circumstances surrounding the 1849 death of Edgar Allan Poe are the basis of this literary historical mystery. Quentin Clark, an idealistic young attorney and Poe enthusiast, becomes obsessed with saving the writer’s reputation when it is reported that he died from excessive drinking. He launches his own extensive investigation, endangering his career and alienating friends and family. Interesting plot twists, the blend of historical and fictional characters, and convincing period detail make for enjoyable reading. |
 | Title: The Thirteenth Tale Author: Setterfield, Diane Summary: Her health failing, the reclusive English author Vida Winter enlists Margaret Lea, a meticulous biographer harboring her own secret, to write the truth about her life. But Ms. Winter, who has been telling outlandish stories about her past for decades, spins a tale full of madness, incest, peculiar twins who speak a private language, a dreadful fire, ghosts, and abandoned babies. Margaret has to discover what is real. This eerie gothic story-within-a-story has frequent plot twists and a surprising ending. |