The Final Solution - Hardcover

Chabon, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007196024 ISBN 13: 9780007196029

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2005

Synopsis

Eagerly awaited new novella by the much -acclaimed Michael Chabon, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Advertures of Kavalier and Clay.

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, prose magician Michael Chabon conjured up the golden age of comic books; intertwining history, legend, and storytelling verve. In The Final Solution, he has condensed his boundless vision to craft a short, suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that re-imagines the classic 19th-century detective story.

In deep retirement in the English countryside, an 89-year-old man, vaguely recollected by locals as a once-famous detective, is more concerned with his beekeeping than with his fellow man. Into his life wanders Linus Steinman, nine-years-old and mute, who has escaped from Nazi Germany with his sole companion: an African grey parrot. What is the meaning of the mysterious strings of German numbers the bird spews out – a top-secret SS code? The keys to a series of Swiss bank accounts perhaps? Or something more sinister?

Is the solution to this last case – the real explanation of the mysterious boy and his parrot – beyond even the reach of the once-famed sleuth?

Subtle revelations lead the reader to a wrenching resolution. This brilliant homage is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.

About this title

Review

"On par with the best, most tightly written sections of Chabon's last novel, the marvelous The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay...exceptional." New York Times Book Review

"One of the best-written American novels published this fall...an experiment by a master." The New York Sun

"A profound pleasure." New York Magazine

"Chabon writes with plummy luxury...the language is luscious enough to lap up." The Washington Post

"Delightful...and deceptively profound...Chabon shows his greatness." The Courier-Journal

From the Back Cover

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, prose magician Michael Chabon conjured up the golden age of comic books; intertwining history, legend, and storytelling verve. In The Final Solution, he has condensed his boundless vision to craft a short, suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that re-imagines the classic 19th-century detective story.

In deep retirement in the English countryside, an 89-year-old man, vaguely recollected by locals as a once-famous detective, is more concerned with his beekeeping than with his fellow man. Into his life wanders Linus Steinman, nine years old and mute, who has escaped from Nazi Germany with his sole companion: an African grey parrot. What is the meaning of the mysterious strings of German numbers the bird spews out - a top-secret SS code? The keys to a series of Swiss bank accounts, perhaps? Or something more sinister?

Is the solution to this last case - the real explanation of the mysterious boy and his parrot - beyond even the reach of the once-famed sleuth?

Subtle revelations lead the reader to a wrenching resolution. This brilliant homage is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0007196024
• ISBN 13: 9780007196029
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128