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ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK - It's been a few years since the brilliant All the Light We Cannot See but this great big hefty novel is well worth the wait. As with Light there are multiple characters' storylines weaving in and out, but as Doerr prefigures the chapters with the location and year, it is very easy to keep all the strands separate. There is Konstance, on board a spaceship travelling towards a planet she will never set foot upon. There is Anna, in Constantinople in 1439 to 1452, and Omeir in the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria in the same years. And there is Seymour in the early years of the 21st century, and Zeno whose quietly uneventful life stretches from the depression years mostly spent in Ohio, but with emphasis on the 20th of February 2020 when he is helping a group of primary school kids rehearse for a play they are performing the next night in their local library.
What links all these characters in their different eras, is a story from the ancient Greek - Diogenes' Cloud Cuckoo Land, which tells of the misadventures and travels of Aethon, a simple shepherd searching for a better life. Extracts of this fabled story introduce each part of the narratives, and it is a testament to Doerr's skills as a writer, that all these elements come together in a satisfying, and ultimately redemptive way. At times the stories are truly heartbreaking, and take place in very dark times, but the power of words and how story-telling (and the guardians of this knowledge - librarians) link people through the ages is the centre of this beautiful novel. I cannot recommend it highly enough - and as the prologue says: "Stranger, whoever you are, open this to learn what will amaze you." Lindy Jones
Love in the Time of Bertie
#15 Scotland St
Hardback
$34.99
Forthcoming
You can preorder this
The Best Short Stories 2021
The O. Henry Prize Winners
Paperback
$27.99
Not in-store but you can order this
The Dalai Lama's Cat
Awaken the Kitten Within
Paperback
$22.99
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The Fox's Tower and Other Tales
A Collection of Magical Short Stories...
Hardback
$29.99
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The Inseparables
The newly discovered novel from...
Paperback
$24.99
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Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth...
'Soyinka's greatest novel'
Paperback
$29.99
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The Lincoln Highway
A New York Times Number One Bestseller...
Hardback
$48.99
Not in-store but you can order this
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