The Final Solution: A Story of Detection - Hardcover

Chabon, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006076340X ISBN 13: 9780060763404

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2004

Synopsis

In The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, prose magician Michael Chabon conjured the golden age of comic books, interwining history, legend and story-telling verve. In The Final Solution, he has condensed his boundless vision to create 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 the locals as a once-famous detective, is more concerned with his bookkeeping than 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? Or do they hold a significance at once more prosaic and far more sinister?

Though the solution to this last case may be beyond even the reach of the once famed sleuth, the true story of the boy and his parrot is subtly revealed to the reader in a wrenching resolution to this brilliant homage. The Final Solution is a work from a master story-teller at the height of his powers.

About this title

Review

"Michael Chabon, is, simply, the coolest writer in America."--Christian Science Monitor

"A profound pleasure."--New York magazine

"A haunting novella."--Publishers Weekly

"Brilliant and unswervingly entertaining."--The Forward

"Exuberant...the real mystery is how Chabon managed to fit so much hope and humanity into such a brief tale."--BookPage

"Watching Chabon skillfully zigzag between literary and genre is half the fun of the book...refreshing."--Miami Herald

"Chabon's writing here is elegant and limber...[The Final Solution] is a little mystery story with big ideas."--San Francisco Chronicle (Best Books of 2004)

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

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

"The writing is everything that Chabon's fans expect--gorgeous, muscular, mildly melancholic...wonderfully executed."--Baltimore Sun

From the Back Cover

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 reimagines the classic nineteenth-century detective story.

In deep retirement in the English country-side, an eighty-nine-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 gray 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, which won the 2004 Aga Khan Prize for fiction, is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 006076340X
• ISBN 13: 9780060763404
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 131