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The Book of Air and Shadows
List Price: $24.95Our Price: $16.47 You Save: $8.48 (34%)Prices subject to change.
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780060874469
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0060874465
Label: William Morrow
Manufacturer: William Morrow
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: April 01, 2007
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: March 27, 2007
Studio: William Morrow
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Editorial Review:
A distinguished Shakespearean scholar found tortured to death . . .
A lost manuscript and its secrets buried for centuries . . .
An encrypted map that leads to incalculable wealth . . .
The Washington Post called Michael Gruber's previous work "a miracle of intelligent fiction and among the essential novels of recent years." Now comes his most intellectually provocative and compulsively readable novel yet.
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 center of a deadly conspiracy and a chase to find a priceless treasure involving 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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The Book of Boredom and Dread
What a waste of money and time! I did finish the book but it was torturous. I dreaded reading it but made myself complete it. Never again will I do that! I found the characters to be unbelievable and irritating. This book put me to sleep many times. My advice to anyone thinking of buying this book is a resounding NO! If you still aren't quite sure, at least go the library, check it out and save your money!
Rating: - A review of the first 56 pages
That's because I only managed to slog my way through that many. Phooey on this book. Another author who is paid by the word, not the idea or story telling abilities. Way too many digressions (even the narrator admits to that), and the old manuscript in olde English was a trial as well.
Life's too short to spend on books like this.
Rating:  - Could have been good...
After finally finishing this messy, plodding, self-conscious book, I read reviews by others, including the biggies...Washington Post, etc. It seems that everyone else loved this book that, for me, fell so far short of air and shadows that I was tempted to skip the ending and move on to something better. The topic is compelling. I'm a fan of the literary thriller in general and this could have been really good; that is, if you took out all the dull character studies where, I swear, I could hear ... Read More
Rating: - PLEASE don't waste your time
This book was pretty close to awful. I bought it because there were so many good reviews. One review said it was better than The DaVinci Code which I thought was just okay, so I was really excited about reading this. I was extremely disappointed. This novel is so contrived and clichéd that I could only make it through 100 pages. That was as much of my life as I wanted to waste. Just to be sure I hadn't passed up a slow-starting gem I also read the last few pages and found that the conclusion was ... Read More
Rating:  - Hang on to the End for a Wild Ride with Michael Gruber
If you're hoping for another DaVinci Code, this won't be the Holy Grail for you, but you won't be able to resist the power and humor of the narration in this book! The narrator is an attorney, and with apologies to any attorneys who will read this review, you will no doubt recognize yourself or a colleague or two here. At the very least, you'll easily follow his logic and motivation and perhaps stay one step ahead of the rest of us, who after thinking they've found in him some redeeming quality, mostly ... Read More
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