The Book of Air and Shadows

A Novel

By: Michael Gruber

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

Length: 18 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

"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?"

Those 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 400 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, in which no one - not family, not friends, not lovers - is to be trusted.

Moving between 21st-century America and 17th-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 17th 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.

©2007 Michael Gruber (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"A wonderful story" ( Kirkus)
"A wild story....Engrossing." ( The Washington Post)
"[With] intelligence and engaging style...Gruber raises the thriller stakes." ( Booklist)

A ruined book

This book had a very promising beginning. The plot was intriguing and well laid out. All this was ruined by the constant sexual talk and liaisons. Bordering on pornographic. All too much for me and I finally gave up on it a few hours into it.
Such a waste of a promising story.

Boring

I listen to a lot of audio books. Some are good, some are bad and I've been able to live with both. This is the first book that I have seriously not enjoyed. While the plot idea was! interesting enough, it was not enough to to allow me to get past the drowsy narrator's style. The personal escapades of the main character are repetitive and just flat out uninteresting.

a good listen

Good tale.

Awful Narration

I stayed with this book because of the quality of the background research and the plot. But derar Lord! The narrator was the worst i have ever heqrd - every sentence ending with a sad, dying fall, although the character (if you listen to the text) is actually an energetic, extremely active man. This is the only narration i have actually disliked.

Post-Modern Pollution

This is some of the most self-indulgent prose I've seen (heard) in a while. He has the elements of a good story buried in the whiney narration. Because of the self-conscious feel, it seems like it was written by the Lit. professor rather than the attorney.

Annoying narration, unlikeable characters

I rarely ever stop reading, or listening to, a particular book, but I just couldn't get past the narration on this one. His looong, slooow inflections made the story more pretentious, if possible, and made the characters even less likeable. That's the other thing -- even without the narration issue, the only character in this book who is remotely likeable is Albert the computer guy who discovers the letter. Admittedly, I only got about a quarter to a third of the way through, so I suppose someone might have grown on me if I could've stuck it out. I don't have any problem with flawed characters, or anit-heroes, but most of these characters are just annoying.

owwwch!

the title promised great things... as did the description.... but jeez! THIS IS LONGWINDED! I tried, TRIED to get into this, but it just droned on - and the narration was painful! no voice inflections, no difference between speakers, if I turned my head for a second I had to rewind just to see who was talking because I did not know which character was up! maybe it is a better read, that way you can skip ahead to the good parts

Boring

Boring, boring, boring. The narrator put me to sleep except when he read the jacobian letters. It took too long to progress the plot

Sleepytime Narrator

I echo the opinion of "Pat from Salinas" et al. re:narration. I may at some point in the future try to read this book, if I can erase the narrator's influence from my memory. Perhaps if I turned up the speed option on my ipod? I'm trying to push through, but presently think that Mr. Hoye should convert to reading bedtime stories. That should work well. Hard to overlook the narrator's influence in rating the book isn't it?

Dull throughout

I had high hopes for this book - it came with good recommendations but I found it very difficult to find any character that one could care about enough to sustain interest in the novel. I did get through it, found mild interest in the actual mystery and supposed social aspects of Shakespeare, but would not recommend it to a friend. The reader is fine but could not carry the story. All a bit too contrived, convenient, and the shifting timeline and character perspective was confusing on audio-read.