Salamander - Softcover

Wharton, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743444159 ISBN 13: 9780743444156

Publisher: Washington Square Press, 2002

Synopsis

Nicholas Flood, an unassuming eighteenth-century London printer, specializes in novelty books -- books that nestle into one another, books comprised of one spare sentence, books that emit the sounds of crashing waves. When his work captures the attention of an eccentric Slovakian count, Flood is summoned to a faraway castle -- a moving labyrinth that embodies the count's obsession with puzzles -- where he is commissioned to create the infinite book, the ultimate never-ending story. Probing the nature of books, the human thirst for knowledge, and the pursuit of immortality, Salamander careens through myth and metaphor as Flood travels the globe in search of materials for the elusive book without end.

About this title

Review:

Montreal Gazette Witty, elliptical and provoking...Delightful.

Edmonton Journal This novel cannot help but connect deeply with its readers...[It is] a sprawling, lush fable that is equal parts adventure, romance, treatise, and history...[Wharton] strikes off across an exotic terrain already brilliantly traversed by such figures as Umberto Eco, Jorge Luis Borges, and Italo Calvino.

Quill & Quire A vigorous, imaginative novel about the power of reading and invention.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Salamander leaves an exotic flavour in the mouth, and will reward its readers with the sense that they have been taken on a strange journey.

From the Publisher:

Praise for Thomas Wharton:
‘Everyday things blossom with wonder in Thomas Wharton’s 'Salamander'... a vigorous, imaginative novel about the power of reading and invention. Each of the criss-crossing storylines is a cinematic epic on its own.’ Quill & Quire

‘Wharton’s poetic passages betray a slow flame beneath the cool prose, a raw intense curiosity which fascinates and lays everything bare.’ Ottawa Citizen

‘Wharton writes with a prose style as clear as glacial waters, tempered with brilliant imagery and lucid dialogue.’ Calgary Herald

About this edition

• Publisher: Washington Square Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0743444159
• ISBN 13: 9780743444156
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384