The Mirror Thief - Rilegato

Seay, Martin

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1612195148 ISBN 13: 9781612195148

Casa editrice: Melville House, 2016

Riassunto

A globetrotting, time-bending, wildly entertaining masterpiece hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "Audaciously well written...the book I was raving about to my friends before I'd even finished it."

Publishers Weekly raved that "with near-universal appeal . . . Seay’s debut novel is a true delight, a big, beautiful cabinet of wonders that is by turns an ominous modern thriller, a supernatural mystery, and an enchanting historical adventure story." Set in three cities in three eras, The Mirror Thief calls to mind David Mitchell and Umberto Eco in its mix of entertainment and literary bravado.

The core story is set in Venice in the sixteenth century, when the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world's most wondrous inventions: the mirror. An object of glittering yet fearful fascination—was it reflecting simple reality, or something more spiritually revealing?—the Venetian mirrors were state of the art technology, and subject to industrial espionage by desirous sultans and royals world-wide. But for any of the development team to leave the island was a crime punishable by death. One man, however—a world-weary war hero with nothing to lose—has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city's terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten . . .

Meanwhile, in two other Venices—Venice Beach, California, circa 1958, and the Venice casino in Las Vegas, circa today—two other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret . . .

All three stories will weave together into a spell-binding tour-de-force that is impossible to put down—an old-fashioned, stay-up-all-night novel that, in the end, returns the reader to a stunning conclusion in the original Venice . . . and the bedazzled sense of having read a truly original and thrilling work of art.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"Seay is clearly a writer of exceptional and eclectic intelligence... highly admirable." --The Guardian

"Seay's debut novel is a true delight, a big, beautiful cabinet of wonders that is by turns an ominous modern thriller, a supernatural mystery, and an enchanting historical adventure story... this is a splendid masterpiece, to be loved like a long-lost friend, an epic with near-universal appeal." --Publishers Weekly

"An ambitious affair: a lushly detailed hybrid that is part cat-and-mouse conspiracy thriller, part historical adventure, part supernatural mystery, and chock-full of uneasy alliances and sinister situations... Hugely entertaining." --Daily Mail

"There's not a boring page in this fittingly chaotic chronicle of our 21st-century oil rush." --Wall Street Journal

"A shape-shifting colossus: it's a crime novel, a piece of intellectual origami, a historical swashbuckler, and a rumination on identity, illusion, and mimesis...nothing short of mesmerizing." --LA Review of Books

"Nimbly hopscotches across five centuries to tell its tale of intrigue." --Chicago Tribune

"For Seay's characters, each on his own ill-fated quest, everything threatens to dissolve into illusion. One potential way out is to embrace the mirror's infinite doubling action, to embrace the thing simulated and forget the original." --Electric Lit

"Audaciously well written... this is the book I was raving about to my friends before I'd even finished it." --New York Times Book Review

"Compared recently to the work of David Mitchell, Seay's big, genre-ish The Mirror Thief is actually better than most novels by that author." --Flavorwire

"As difficult to explain as it is completely original. It's one of the most intricately plotted novels in recent years, and to call it imaginative seems like a massive understatement. The three stories are as different from each other as can be, and the fact that Seay weaves them together so skillfully is almost miraculous." --NPR

"Establishes Seay as an impressive new voice to watch." --Buzzfeed

L'autore:

MARTIN SEAY is the executive secretary for the village of Wheeling, Illinois. This is his first novel.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Melville House
• Data di pubblicazione: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1612195148
• ISBN 13: 9781612195148
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 592