La casa del propósito especial / The House of Special Purpose (Paperback)

from adpaton

Have you noticed even the most trivial books are getting increasingly long? At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, writers are using twice as many words to tell a story only half as good as one written, say, 50 years ago. The generalization does not apply to John Boyne who showed us how well he co...

from tloeffler

As his wife Zoya lies dying, Georgy Daniilovich Jachmenev reviews his life, from the small town where he spent his childhood, to the palace of Tsar Nicholas II to be a companion for the Tsarevich Alexei.The story travels back and forth in time, to the Russian Revolution, to Paris with his young w...

from adpaton

Have you noticed even the most trivial books are getting increasingly long? At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, writers are using twice as many words to tell a story only half as good as one written, say, 50 years ago. The generalization does not apply to John Boyne who showed us how well he co...

from Castlelass

In 1981, narrator and protagonist Georgy Daniilovich Jachmenev, now in his eighties, sits by the hospital bed of his wife and reflects back on their eventful life. As a teen living in Kashin, Russia, he takes a bullet intended for the commander of the czar's troops. As a result, he is invited to ...

from LadyAmbrosia

First posted on Fire & Ice I really wanted this book to blow me out of the water, alas it did not. That said I did enjoy it over all. I think it was just the tone of the main character who tells the story that kept me from being blown away. I could not warm up to him much at all. That said the st...