Incarnations (Barker) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
wildly ambitious…[Barker's] dazzling use of language and natural storytelling gifts shine from every paragraph. As with David Mitchell, whose books can similarly hopscotch through times and places, each episode stands alone as a terrific tale in itself. You can become so immersed in one story that you have to almost physically drag yourself away to commit to the next…Embedded in the large themes is an irresistible mystery…The truth is a satisfying surprise, and it makes us think differently about everything that has come before. There's a bonus, too—the answer to a different puzzle we didn't know existed. It brings the story full circle, in a way, and adds urgency to the notion that in order to live properly, you must understand where you come from.
Sarah Lyall - New York Times


[A]stonishing, amazing…. The book's clever central contrivance involves a series of mysterious letters that are left in Wang's taxicab…it's the small sagas of Chinese history contained in the letters, together with Barker's vivid descriptions of today's China, that set this book apart as a work of considerable, if unnerving, importance. Were I a teacher of Chinese history, I would argue that Barker's novel brilliantly illuminates some of the defining episodes in the nation's long, long story at least as vividly as any of the textbooks available in our school…The letters offer up five such episodes, running from the Tang dynasty to the modern era. Each is a tightly wound, intensely wrought, fantastically exciting novella, detailing the minutiae of imagined lives in the richly perfumed gardens of China's near endless past.
Simon Winchester - New York Times Book Review


[Barker] has smartly structured this intricate tale, and its mystery pulls us forward.... The novel gains in power and polish as it progresses.... Close to the end, I found myself stalling—prolonging suspense.
Boston Globe


Barker makes Wang and his city as vividly real—and disturbing—as any of the other versions of China. . . . One of the novel’s many structural pleasures is watching Barker slowly reveal the connections between Wang’s seemingly simple life and the other lives the letter writer reveals.
Columbus Dispatch


A dazzling tapestry of epic scope.... [An] ambitious, enthralling tale, a deft melding of past and present, myth and reality, longing and torment.
Minneapolis Star Tribune


Highly successful as art and craft… The Incarnations uses its unique premise to combine a series of short stories based in history with a realistic account of a difficult modern life, for much more than the sum of the parts.
Albany Times Union


(Starred review.) [A] page-turning reincarnation fantasy. In modern-day Beijing, Driver Wang receives anonymous letters from a source claiming to have known him in five previous lifetimes.... Driving the narrative is the suspense over the identity of Wang’s stalker and whether the stories are indeed true. A very memorable read.
Publishers Weekly


[E]ngrossing.... Barker's writing is fluid, and the plotlines and characterizations found in her historical tales, while dark and sinister, are nonetheless intriguing. Misunderstandings abound throughout the novel to unravel the past that collides intensely with the present, ultimately leading to a disquieting finale. —Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA
Library Journal


Daring.... The novel’s shifts from the distant past to the present are seamless, and the bittersweet twist at the book’s finale will have readers searching back through the novel for clues to the ending.... Skillfully combines history, the supernatural and the everyday in a novel that suggests that the past is never really past, while providing a cracking good read.
BookPage


(Starred review.) Moving between Wang's many pasts...Barker's historical tour de force is simultaneously sweeping and precise. It would be easy for the novel to teeter into overwrought melodrama; instead, Barker's psychologically nuanced characters and sharp wit turn the bleakness and the gore into something seriously moving.... A deeply human masterpiece.
Kirkus Reviews