Night Train to Lisbon

First of all, I want to get out of the way that I had no real problem with the translation, being hooked almost right away into the premise of Gregorious abruptly jettisoning his academic rut to pursue the "mystery" of an obscure Portuguese author's story. Nor did I mind the narration, which I felt was fine. The first half went by quite quickly, with our protagonist deciding spontaneously to leave for Lisbon, traveling by train for a couple of days, and then settling down there to look into the background of Dr. Prado, author of the book. I liked the description of the city, and Gregorious' sense of wonder at the places he sees and new people he meets.
Part Two nearly lost me entirely. The 3rd quarter of the story consists almost entirely of flashbacks to Prado's past, with Gregorious nearly absent altogether, except as a catalyst for Mercier to provide all that backstory; I ended up fast forwarding through correspondence between Prado and his father. That issue eased up later when Gregorious decides to head for Finisterre, Spain based upon Prado's obsession with medieval concepts of the land beyond the end of the (known) world. Didn't really fit in with the overall story to me, but anything to get us back to the present day! Ending was a bit unresolved to me, but I was left feeling that the adventure had, indeed, changed Gregorious' life.

I cannot believe the quality of this narration... Just because David Colacci can read in English and Portugese doesn't mean he is qualified... His narration is SO monotonous and borring - I find myself no longer willing to be discrete about it... It simply sucks! I made sure to remember this name to avoid any future troubles. This supposed to be an artistic performance. Do not underestimate the importance of a beautiful narration - it ruins the entire experience of the book.

nothing