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)

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.

Monotone

Got to the 2nd section of the book and had to quit listenting. Story wasn't bad, but I couldn't liten to this reader any more.