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Rayner, Richard The Cloud Sketcher ISBN 13: 9780007128310

The Cloud Sketcher - Softcover

 
9780007128310: The Cloud Sketcher
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504 pages. Book appears to have hardly been read and is in Fine condition throughout. Police Stand Ready To Make An Arrest When The Liner Docks In New York 1929. Everyone Thinks It Will Be Paul Mantilini, The Notorious Bootlegger, But He Goes Free And Esko Vaananen Is Arrested!

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Review:
The Cloud Sketcher is a rich, intricate and satisfying story, and one for which that clichéd term "sweeping historical epic" is probably the most accurate description. Growing up in rural Finland in 1901, 11-year-old Esko bears scars on his face which he received trying to rescue his mother from their burning house a year before. Bereft and meek, Esko is later left by his political activist father with the local priest, who encourages his early interest in architecture by showing him a picture of the very first lift to be installed in Finland.

One morning, out on the ice, not long after my father had given me to Kalliokoski, I understood why this elevator--any elevator--is important. It means a building can be as tall as you like. As tall as you dare to allow it to be. A skyscraper. The Germans call them wolkenkratzers--cloud scratchers. In Finnish, the word is pilvenpiirtaja--cloud sketcher. I'm going to build one.
As the lift transforms Esko's ambitions, so his brief childhood meeting with Russian aristocrat Katerina at a village fete leads to a stubborn pursuit that encompasses decades and continents. It is his blinkered dreams of a skyscraper, and his ephemeral love for Katerina that drive him through his time fighting in the bloody Finnish Civil War, pursuing his career in Helsinki and achieving his ambitions in crime-ridden prohibition New York. The story has a skilful structure, rich prose and an expressive style, although the author's passion for the subject of architecture can lead to passages occasionally becoming somewhat dry and involved. The plot has moments of predictability, but the story is told with enough style and pathos to make this forgivable. Readers will respond to the quality of the writing and be easily drawn into this rewarding saga. --Rachel Ediss
Review:

‘No one who opens “The Cloud Sketcher” will find it easy to stop reading before the last vertiginous page...Passionate and well researched...remarkable [for] its visceral feeling for architecture...Rayner’s eye is excellent.’ Chicago Tribune

‘Irresistible. It delivers surprise after surprise, all the way up to the last page...a complex and absorbing story.’ Time Out New York

‘Breathtaking...a passionate book that threads architecture, war and history through the story of two lovers.’ USA Today

‘A completely engaging read, an impressive meditation on longing and obsession that’s also a searching reflection on the act of creation itself.’ Jabari Asim, Washington Post

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  • PublisherFlamingo
  • Publication date2001
  • ISBN 10 0007128312
  • ISBN 13 9780007128310
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages528
  • Rating
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Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

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ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780060956134
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Rayner, Richard
Published by Harper Collins, London (2001)
ISBN 10: 0007128312 ISBN 13: 9780007128310
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RICHARD RAYNER
ISBN 10: 0007128312 ISBN 13: 9780007128310
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Book Description SOFTCOVER. Spanning two continents and three decades, 'The Cloud Sketcher' is an epic tale of love, murder and revenge. 2000. A trade paperback copy in very good condition. {"length"=>["23"], "width"=>["15"], "units"=>["Centimeters"]}. Seller Inventory # 19250840

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