Codex - Hardcover

Grossman, Lev

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151010668 ISBN 13: 9780151010660

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004

Synopsis

An investment banker is sent by his firm to organize a collection of rare books for a mysterious, important client and realizes that there may be a medieval codex hidden among the volumes that surprisingly parallels a computer game's addictive virtual reality world. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

Review

The cerebral thriller Codex drops up-and-coming investment banker wunderkind Edward Wozny into the musty realm of medieval literature, where he finds an unexpected break from the rat race--a powerful client's commission to uncrate and organise a library. The diversion quickly becomes an obsession after he enlists the help of the quirkily attractive scholar Margaret Napier. Together they discover his employer, the mysterious Duchess of Bowmry, is in a race with her husband to locate an apocryphal codex that could destroy the Bowmry name. Meanwhile, Edward becomes engrossed in an addictive computer game that bears an uncanny similarity to the object of his search and accelerates his transformation from Wall Street wizard into shiftless dreamer.

For the most part, Edward moves through his adventure merely following Margaret's dedicated lead. As each new twist unfolds, he slips further into the comforting daydream of a life that isn't his but is as thrilling as the race for the codex. Codex wrestles with notions of dreams and reality that commingle as Edward finds himself adrift in a sea of passionate scholars and Old World plots. Lev Grossman's novel is an excellent entry point into the emerging genre of literary history thrillers with an added twist for the technophile. --Jeremy Pugh, Amazon.com

Review

"A compulsively readable novel" (Iain Pears)

"A genuine treat, with its sneaky plot and richly textured storytelling. It also moves so fast that readers won't realize how smart it is" (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Codex takes its place on the shelf [with] The Name of the Rose, Possession and A Case of Curiosities, and it's as entertaining as any of them" (New York Times)

"Fabulously entertaining ... By turns fascinating, compelling, and deliciously disturbing. It's an intelligent thriller that truly is just that: intelligently thrilling" (Boston Globe)

"Mesmerizing from start to finish ... A fabulous double-helix of a novel" (Baltimore Sun)

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0151010668
• ISBN 13: 9780151010660
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368