The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
Jenny Wingfield, 2012
Random House
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385344098
Summary
Every first Sunday in June, members of the Moses clan gather for an annual reunion at “the old home place,” a sprawling hundred-acre farm in Arkansas. And every year, Samuel Lake, a vibrant and committed young preacher, brings his beloved wife, Willadee Moses, and their three children back for the festivities. The children embrace the reunion as a welcome escape from the prying eyes of their father’s congregation; for Willadee it’s a precious opportunity to spend time with her mother and father, Calla and John. But just as the reunion is getting under way, tragedy strikes, jolting the family to their core: John’s untimely death and, soon after, the loss of Samuel’s parish, which set the stage for a summer of crisis and profound change.
In the midst of it all, Samuel and Willadee’s outspoken eleven-year-old daughter, Swan, is a bright light. Her high spirits and fearlessness have alternately seduced and bedeviled three generations of the family. But it is Blade Ballenger, a traumatized eight-year-old neighbor, who soon captures Swan’s undivided attention. Full of righteous anger, and innocent of the peril facing her and those she loves, Swan makes it her mission to keep the boy safe from his terrifying father.
With characters who spring to life as vividly as if they were members of one’s own family, and with the clear-eyed wisdom that illuminates the most tragic—and triumphant—aspects of human nature, Jenny Wingfield emerges as one of the most vital, engaging storytellers writing today. In The Homecoming of Samuel Lake she has created a memorable and lasting work of fiction. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Jenny Wingfield lives in Texas with her rescued dogs, cats, and horses. Her screenplay credits include The Man in the Moon and The Outsider. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake is her first novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
A deeply personal story, yet it has universal appeal.... Swan Lake absolutely has the same plucky spirit as Scout Finch.... Wingfield also has the same mesmerizingly graceful way with words [as Harper Lee].
Forth Worth Star-Telegram
Wingfield hooks the reader with her opening sentence.... The reader is thoroughly caught up in the family saga.
Abilene Reporter-News
A lovely debut.... A bittersweet, inspirational tale.
Dallas Morning News
It’s all here. Faith. Honesty. Sin. Redemption.... Anyone who loves Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird will delight in Swan, the Lakes' eleven-year-old daughter.
USA Today
Set in 1950s Arkansas, screenwriter Wingfield's restrained, sometimes dark debut novel tells the story of preacher Samuel Lake and his family and how they are all affected by their move back to his wife Willadee's hometown. After Willadee's father kills himself and Samuel finds out that there's no church post waiting for him in Louisiana, the Lakes' decide to stay with Willadee's mother, Calla, on the farm in Arkansas and help out with the family store. Samuel's gorgeous but delusional sister-in-law (who's also his former fiancee) Bernice, is delighted: she only meant to teach Samuel a lesson by marrying Willadee's brother, Toy, a decent guy who came home from the war and killed Bernice's lover with his bare hands. Toy fruitlessly hopes to regain his wife's affections, but he's gladdened by the presence of the three Lake children: Bienville, 9; Swan, 11; and particularly Noble, 12, whom he takes under his wing after an encounter with school bullies. Swan, meanwhile, befriends the neighbors' abused son, Blade, and the children witness a horrible scene in which Blade is disfigured by his violent father, Ras, who also reveals his sadism with the horses he trains for a living. Wingfield writes complex, believable heroes, although her villains are straight from central casting, but the writing is good and the story well done, with redemption trumping tragedy in scenes ripe with tension and dread.
Publishers Weekly
In 1950s Arkansas, 12-year-old Swan Lake does what she thinks is right—she hides an eight-year-old friend whose father has been beating him mercilessly. Alas, Swan's preacher father has different ideas. This debut from screenwriter Wingfield (e.g., The Man in the Moon, starring a young Reese Witherspoon) is getting a big push, including a nine-city tour. A good bet, especially for regional libraries.
Library Journal
Movie viewers who remember the 1991 tearjerker The Man in the Moon know what to expect from screenwriter Wingfield's first novel, a rural Christian heart-warmer set in 1956 southern Arkansas.... Wingfield's film experience shows in her flair for dialogue. But the simplistic division between good and evil characters and her apparent approval of righteous killing going unpunished may trouble some readers.... Hefty helpings of corn-pone charm become leaden with down-home sanctimony.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What would you sacrifice for your family? Did Toy do the right thing? Did Sam?
2. What purpose did Swan and Uncle Toy have to each other and to the other characters in the story?
3. In what ways does The Homecoming of Samuel Lake remind you of other Southern Gothic style literature? Give examples.
4. How does the character Swan Lake compare to Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird? How does Atticus Finch compare to Samuel Lake?
5. Compare the characters of Willadee and Bernice. How were they different? How were they similar?
6. What role does the church play in the development of the story? Why does Swan wish that her father was anything but a preacher?
7. Explore the difference between the Moses' Truth and the Honest Truth. Both present their own challenges. Discuss how in the end the Honest Truth supports the Moses Truth.
(Questions from publisher.
The Twelve (The Passage Trilogy, 2)
Justin Cronin, 2012
Random House
592 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345504982
Summary
In the present day, as the man-made apocalypse unfolds, three strangers navigate the chaos. Lila, a doctor and an expectant mother, is so shattered by the spread of violence and infection that she continues to plan for her child’s arrival even as society dissolves around her.
Kittridge, known to the world as “Last Stand in Denver,” has been forced to flee his stronghold and is now on the road, dodging the infected, armed but alone and well aware that a tank of gas will get him only so far. April is a teenager fighting to guide her little brother safely through a landscape of death and ruin. These three will learn that they have not been fully abandoned—and that in connection lies hope, even on the darkest of nights.
One hundred years in the future, Amy and the others fight on for humankind’s salvation—unaware that the rules have changed. The enemy has evolved, and a dark new order has arisen with a vision of the future infinitely more horrifying than man’s extinction. If the Twelve are to fall, one of those united to vanquish them will have to pay the ultimate price.
A heart-stopping thriller rendered with masterful literary skill, The Twelve is a grand and gripping tale of sacrifice and survival. (From the publisher.)
The Twelve (2012) is the second in the planned trilogy. The Passage (2010) is the first installment.
Author Bio
• Birth—1962
• Raised—in New England, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard University; M.A., Iowa Writers'
Workshop
• Awards—PEN/Hemingway Award; Stephan Crane Prize;
Whiting Writer's Award
• Currently—lives in Houston, Texas
Justin Cronin (born 1962) is an American author. He has written four novels: Mary and O'Neil and The Summer Guest, as well as The Passage and The Twelve as part of a trilogy. He has won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Stephen Crane Prize, and the Whiting Writer's Award.
Born and raised in New England, Cronin is a graduate of Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He taught creative writing and was the "Author in-residence" at La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA from 1992 to 2005. He lives with his wife and children in Houston, Texas where he is a professor of English at Rice University.
In July 2007, Variety reported that the screen rights to Cronin's trilogy was purchased by Fox 2000. The first book of the series, The Passage, was released in June 2010. The second book, The Twelve, came out in 2012. (Adapted from Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Bestseller Cronin’s bloated apocalyptic thriller, like many a trilogy’s middle book, falls short of the high standard set by its predecessor, 2010’s The Passage. The struggle for survival between humanity’s last hope, personified by Amy Harper Bellafonte, and vampire-like virals comes across as watered-down Stephen King, short on three-dimensional characters as well as genuine scares. The action shifts from the “present”—five years after the First Colony, a refuge, has fallen to the virals—to Year Zero, when the virus that caused the catastrophe was unleashed, but the value added by the flashbacks isn’t obvious. A prologue surveys the events of The Passage in biblical prose (“And a decree shall go forth from the highest offices that twelve criminals shall be chosen to share of the Zero’s blood, becomingdemons also”), but fails to bring readers adequately up to speed. A dramatis personae at the back listing more than 80 names is scarcely more helpful.
Library Journal
Cronin continues the post-apocalyptic—fior, better, post-viral—fisaga launched with 2010's The Passage. The good citizens of Texas might like nothing better than to calve off into a republic and go to war with someone with their very own army and navy, but you wouldn't want to wish the weird near-future world of Cronin's latest on anyone, even if it means that Rick Perry is no longer governor.... Cronin serves up a largely predictable high-concept blend of The Alamo and The Andromeda Strain, but his yarn has many virtues: It's very well-paced. It's not very pleasant ("A strong smell of urine tanged in her nostrils, coating the membranes of her mouth and throat"), but it's very well-written, far more so than most apocalypse novels, and that excuses any number of sins.... A viral spaghetti Western; it's not Sergio Leone—or, for that matter, Michael Crichton—but it's a satisfying confection.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Come back later. LitLovers is in the process of developing our own questions for The Twelve.
The Passage (The Passage Trilogy, 1)
Justin Cronin, 2010
Random House
800 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345504975#
Summary
An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl—and risks everything to save her.
As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.
The Passage was named one of the 10 Best Novels of the Year by Time and Library Journal. It was named one the Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post, Esquire, U.S. News & World Report, NPR's On Point, BookPage, and the St. Louis Post. (From the publisher.)
This is the first book of a planned trilogy. The Twelve, published in 2012, is the second installment.
Author Bio
• Birth—1962
• Raised—in New England, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard University; M.A., Iowa Writers'
Workshop
• Awards—PEN/Hemingway Award; Stephan Crane Prize
Whiting Writer's Award
• Currently—lives in Houston, Texas
Justin Cronin (born 1962) is an American author. He has written four novels: Mary and O'Neil and The Summer Guest, as well as The Passage and The Twelve as part of a trilogy. He has won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Stephen Crane Prize, and the Whiting Writer's Award.
Born and raised in New England, Cronin is a graduate of Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He taught creative writing and was the "Author in-residence" at La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA from 1992 to 2005. He lives with his wife and children in Houston, Texas where he is a professor of English at Rice University.
In July 2007, Variety reported that the screen rights to Cronin's trilogy was purchased by Fox 2000. The first book of the series, The Passage, was released in June 2010. The second book, The Twelve, came out in 2012. (Adapted from Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
While it relies at times on convention, The Passage is astutely plotted and imaginative enough to satisfy the most bloodthirsty reader.... Cronin leaps back and forth in time, sprinkling his narrative with diaries, e-mail messages, maps, newspaper articles and legal documents. Sustaining such a long book is a tough endeavor, and every so often his prose slackens into inert phrases.... For the most part, though, he artfully unspools his plot's complexities, and seemingly superfluous details come to connect in remarkable ways.
Mike Peed - New York Times
A postapocalyptic vampire trilogy, which Stephen King has hailed as a captivating epic.... A potential commercial blockbuster by an award-winning literary novelist.
Wall Street Journal
By the third chapter, trash was piling up in our house because I was too scared to take out the garbage at night. It's a macabre pleasure to see what a really talented novelist can do with these old Transylvanian tropes.... Cronin has stripped away the lurid religious trappings of the vampire myth and gone with a contemporary biomedical framework. Imagine Michael Crichton crossbreeding Stephen King's The Stand and Salem's Lot in that lab at Jurassic Park, with rich infusions of Robert McCammon's Swan Song, "Battlestar Galactica" and even Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
Ron Charles - The Washington Post
A literary richness that rivals Stephen King's The Stand.
Time
Addictive, terrifying, and deeply satisfying. Not only is this one of the year's best thrillers; it's one of the best of the past decade—maybe one of the best ever.
Men's Journal
Magnificently unnerving.... A The Stand-meets-The Road journey. A-
Entertainment Weekly
Fans of vampire fiction who are bored by the endless hordes of sensitive, misunderstood Byronesque bloodsuckers will revel in Cronin’s engrossingly horrific account of a post-apocalyptic America overrun by the gruesome reality behind the wish-fulfillment fantasies. When a secret project to create a super-soldier backfires, a virus leads to a plague of vampiric revenants that wipes out most of the population. One of the few bands of survivors is the Colony, a FEMA-established island of safety bunkered behind massive banks of lights that repel the “virals,” or “dracs”—but a small group realizes that the aging technological defenses will soon fail. When members of the Colony find a young girl, Amy, living outside their enclave, they realize that Amy shares the virals’ agelessness, but not the virals’ mindless hunger, and they embark on a search to find answers to her condition. PEN/Hemingway Award-winner Cronin (The Summer Guest) uses a number of tropes that may be overly familiar to genre fans, but he manages to engage the reader with a sweeping epic style. The first of a proposed trilogy, it’s already under development by director Ripley Scott and the subject of much publicity buzz .
Publishers Weekly
The first entry in a new trilogy, the book is set in a bleak, postapocalyptic America at a time when the world is overrun by vampire-like humans infected by a virus. Divided into two huge parts—pre- and postoutbreak—the tale is equally gripping and frightening and the characters are very well developed. —Scott R. DiMarco, Mansfield Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib.
Library Journal
[An] apocalyptic epic.... Expect a lot of interest in this title.
Booklist
Literary author Cronin (Mary and O'Neil, 2001, etc.) turns in an apocalyptic thriller in the spirit of Stephen King or Michael Crichton. You know times are weird when swarms of Bolivian bats swoop from the skies and kill humans-or, as one eyewitness reports of an unfortunate GI, off fighting the good fight against the drug lords, "they actually lifted him off his feet before they bored through him like hot knives through butter.".... The young girl as heroine and role model is a nice touch. Otherwise a pretty ordinary production, with little that hasn't been seen before.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Passage:
1. The book opens in the very near future, only several years from now. Is Cronin's portrait of 2018 believable? Does the state of society resemble anything that we might reasonably foresee occurring?
2. Does the military make the right choice in undertaking Noah? When so much of society is under constant threat of violence, is there a moral imperative to do whatever is scientifically possible to save the country from collapse?
3. Why does the military choose the name Project Noah? Talk about the irony behind the name—especially its Biblical reference to the destruction of a flawed race.
4. How far should society let science proceed in its research to alter biology? At what point do we say "no" to the human desire for ever greater knowledge?
5. Inmates on death row are offered a life sentence if they agree to participate in the government's experimental drug program. Is it moral to enroll murderers and rapists in medical research studies?
6. The Passage contains different types of writing, including diary entries, emails, maps, news articles, and academic papers. Why would the author use this technique to tell his story? How do faux documents contribute to the reading experience of the novel?
7. Discuss any or all of the characters in the first part of the book: Amy Bellefonte, Sister Lacey, Brad Wogast, and Carter, or any others. What are they like as individuals? Whom do you find most sympathetic?
8. Did you find it difficult to adjust to the end of Part I and the beginning of Part II? Did you enjoy the second part as much as the first? Some readers said it feels as if they are two separate novels. Others felt they blended well. What do you think?
9. Talk about the way in which the survivors of the colony understand the past—their own history and that of the world that has been lost.
10. What do you think of Peter Jaxson? Is he a satisfactory or disappointing hero? What about the other members of the colony?
11. What does the expression "all eyes" mean?
12. Amy wanders for years alone, and having no use for speech she loses the ability to talk. Can you imagine yourself in Amy's situation, unable to utter the most basic means of communication that all of us take for granted?
13. Members of the colony sometimes question the desire to continue in what appears to be a hopeless situation? What good is perseverance if it ends in futility? They also ask questions pertaining to God and destiny. What are your thoughts on these big issues? How would you answer those questions if you were a member of the colony?
14. Why does Cronin take readers inside the minds of the virals? Talk about the mental emotional processes they undergo—telepathy, memory or connections to one another. How are they like humans...and how do they differ?
15. What about the ending? Is it satisfying, with loose strings tied up? Or does it feel manipulative, purposely left open to make room for the sequel?
16. Will you read the second installment of the trilogy?
17. If you've read other vampire, horror, techno-thriller, or post-apocalyptic works, how does Cronin's compare? Do you see any any similarities? Consider Stephen King's works...or those of Michael Crichton, Cormac McCarthy, Susan Collins, Margaret Atwood, George R.R. Martin...and any others that come to mind.
Mrs. Queen Takes the Train
William Kuhn, 2012
HarperCollins
374 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062208286
Summary
After decades of service and years of watching her family's troubles splashed across the tabloids, Britain's Queen is beginning to feel her age. She needs some proper cheering up. An unexpected opportunity offers her relief: an impromptu visit to a place that holds happy memories—the former royal yacht, Britannia, now moored near Edinburgh.
Hidden beneath a skull-emblazoned hoodie, the limber Elizabeth (thank goodness for yoga) walks out of Buckingham Palace into the freedom of a rainy London day and heads for King's Cross to catch a train to Scotland. But a characterful cast of royal attendants has discovered her missing. In uneasy alliance a lady-in-waiting, a butler, an equerry, a girl from the stables, a dresser, and a clerk from the shop that supplies Her Majesty's cheese set out to find her and bring her back before her absence becomes a national scandal.
Mrs Queen Takes the Train is a clever novel, offering a fresh look at a woman who wonders if she, like Britannia herself, has, too, become a relic of the past. William Kuhn paints a charming yet biting portrait of British social, political, and generational rivalries—between upstairs and downstairs, the monarchy and the government, the old and the young. Comic and poignant, fast paced and clever, this delightful debut tweaks the pomp of the monarchy, going beneath its rigid formality to reveal the human heart of the woman at its center. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
William Kuhn is a biographer and historian, and the author, most recently, of Reading Jackie, a look at the personality of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis through the books she chose to edit at Viking and Doubleday. He has written three previous books: Democratic Royalism; Henry and Mary Ponsonby, a double biography of two key people at the court of Queen Victoria; and The Politics of Pleasure, a life of Britain's most royalist prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Mrs. Queen Takes the Train is his first novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Poignant and sweet, Mrs. Queen Takes the Train is a comic study of the British class system, an unusual testament to the possibilities of friendship outside normal comfort zones and an affirmation of the humanity within all of us
Richmond Times-Dispatch
You’ll come away thinking Her Majesty, at least this fictional one, charming, caring, thoughtful and brave.... A delightful escape. We can only hope there are more train rides in Her Majesty’s future.
USA Today
[A] charmer of a first novel.... This Elizabeth is delightful, slyly funny company. You’ll never look at the real one the same way again.
People
In his first novel, historian Kuhn (Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books) attempts yet another imagining of the inner life of Queen Elizabeth II. Royalty is a lonely-if-privileged existence in the 21st century, and the queen has endured years of sordid scandals and stoic service. When she hears that the former royal yacht, Britannia, is moored in Scotland, she decides to visit, hoping to relive some happy memories. Disguised in a hoodie, she slips from the palace unnoticed. Upon discovering her gone, a motley crew of palace servants forms a search party. Included are the Queen's down-on-her-luck lady-in-waiting, Anne; a dedicated butler; an equerry just back from Iraq; a young mistress of the Mews; the queen's longtime dresser, Shirley; and a cheese shop clerk and sometime paparazzo. All are hoping to coax the monarch to return before the tabloids, or MI5, get wind of the adventure. Kuhn explores not only the queen's inner life, but the Downtown Abbey style-tensions between servants and royals, the old guard and the new. The servants are the real stars here, distinguishing this from other Elizabethan imaginings. Royal watchers and students of class alike will enjoy this smart, if familiar, tale.
Publishers Weekly
What if, once upon a time, Queen Elizabeth II did a runner? That's the fantastic, unlikely premise of this debut novel by nonfiction author Kuhn (Reading Jackie). Beset by troubles with her computer, austerity budgets, and, let's face it, family problems, the monarch thinks of magical moments aboard the royal yacht Britannia, now decommissioned and a tourist attraction in Edinburgh. Outfitted with stout shoes, her ever-present handbag (the contents of which are revealed), and a blue hoodie borrowed from a palace employee, Elizabeth heads to Scotland. In an effort to protect her, a gaggle of six ladies-in-waiting, palace staff, and common folk help steer her adroitly but inconspicuously from the sidelines. No one outside the royal circle seems to recognize her, although there are a few murmurs about Helen Mirren. Verdict: Expertly timed to capitalize on the glow emanating from the Diamond Jubilee, the satire here is featherweight (Kuhn is no Sue Townsend) in this 60-gun salute to the establishment that perpetuates the institution of the monarchy, including, of course, the queen herself. Long may she wave. —Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO
Library Journal
This book is the perfect cup of tea for the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Give it to lovers of all things British. It’s also a good bet for fans of Alexander McCall Smith.
Booklist
An imaginative glimpse into the queen of England's psyche as she rebels against her routine. Historian and biographer Kuhn's first novel ought to find an avid readership among the filmgoers who flocked to The King's Speech and The Queen.... An affectionate, sympathetic but also unstinting look at the woman inside the sovereign.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Specific discussion questions will be added if and when they are made available by the publisher.
The Stockholm Octavo
Karen Engelmann, 2012
HarperCollins
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780061995347
Summary
Life is close to perfect for Emil Larsson, a self-satisfied bureaucrat in the Office of Customs and Excise in 1791 Stockholm. He is a true man of the Town—a drinker, card player, and contented bachelor—until one evening when Mrs. Sofia Sparrow, a fortune-teller and proprietor of an exclusive gaming parlor, shares with him a vision she has had: a golden path that will lead him to love and connection. She lays an Octavo for him, a spread of eight cards that augur the eight individuals who can help him realize this vision—if he can find them.
Emil begins his search, intrigued by the puzzle of his Octavo and the good fortune Mrs. Sparrow's vision portends. But when Mrs. Sparrow wins a mysterious folding fan in a card game, the Octavo's deeper powers are revealed. For Emil it is no longer just a game of the heart; collecting his eight is now crucial to pulling his country back from the crumbling precipice of rebellion and chaos.
Set against the luminous backdrop of late eighteenth-century Stockholm, as the winds of revolution rage through the great capitals of Europe, The Stockholm Octavo brings together a collection of characters, both fictional and historical, whose lives tangle in political conspiracy, love, and magic in a breathtaking debut that will leave you spellbound. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Karen Engelmann lived and worked in Sweden for eight years. She has an MFA from Goddard College in Vermont. She currently lives in Dobbs Ferry, New York. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[A] deliciously sly first novel...The Stockholm Octavo is an irresistible cipher between two covers—an atmospheric tale of many rogues and a few innocents gambling on politics and romance in the cold, cruel north.
New York Times Book Review
A full deck of piquant pleasures...elegant and precarious...Engelmann captures the lost enterprises and values of another time, the weird customs that strike us as alien and foolish....[and] craftily unfolds her fictional story pleat by pleat within the real history of 1792.
Washington Post
A dizzying story of political intrigue and forbidden romance, all played out in an array of lost arts, from the reading of cards to the language of ladies’ fans to the healing power of plants. Each has its own delicious vocabulary and in Engelmann’s debut, each word is savored.
Boston Globe
Blends political intrigue, fortune-telling, alchemy, skullduggery, high treason and love. The plot is so compelling it will keep you up at night, and the characters so well-crafted you will gladly follow them through the streets and alleys of 18th-century Stockholm
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Karen Engelmann’s absorbing debut doesn’t traffic in mystery so much as Mystery with a capital “m.” . . . . As she deftly shuffles characters, Engelmann’s hand moves faster than a reader’s eye in a thoroughly engaging story of intrigue and gamesmanship.” (Christian Science Monitor )A juicy page-turner.... Engelmann’s intellectually playful take on the mathematics of love and power proves irresistible.
O, The Oprah Magazine
Layered, absorbing, and rife with interesting fictional characters and genuine historical detail, Engelmann’s work kept me in suspense from this first page to the last.
Real Simple
(Starred review.) Political and social intrigue are merged through the medium of the mystical card layout called the Octavo in this debut novel of maneuvering aristocrats and striving tradesmen in late 18th-century Stockholm. In the reign of the alternately enlightened and autocratic King Gustav III, his brother Karl and the society doyenne known as the Uzanne scheme to return control of Sweden to the nobility.... Neatly mixing revolutionary politics with the erotic tension and cutthroat rivalry of the female conspirators...Engelmann has crafted a magnificent, suspenseful story set against the vibrant society of Sweden’s zenith, with a cast of colorful characters balanced at a crux of history.
Publishers Weekly
The Stockholm Octavo, Karen Engelmann’s impressive debut, is as marvelously and intricately constructed as the mysterious form of divination it’s named for. A true pleasure from beginning to satisfying end.
Shelf Awareness
(Starred review.) In her debut novel, set in 1790s Stockholm, Engelmann features a card game called Octavo. When the fortune-telling Mrs. Sophia Sparrow foresees a golden future for smug bureaucrat Emil Larsson, she lays an Octavo so that he can find the eight people who will help him realize that vision. Soon, it's evident that his search is linked with the fate of his country.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Mysterious, suspenseful, and, at times, action-packed.
Booklist
Elegant and multifaceted, Engelmann's debut explores love and connection in late-18th-century Sweden and delivers an unusual, richly-imagined read. Stockholm, "Venice of the North," in an era of enlightenment and revolution is the setting for a refreshing historical novel grounded in a young man's search for a wife but which takes excursions into politics, geometry (Divine and other), numerology, the language of fans and, above all, cartomancy—fortunetelling using cards.... The setup is wonderfully engrossing; the denouement doesn't deliver quite enough. But this is stylish work by an author of real promise.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. THE OCTAVO
The Octavo indicates that much of life is pre-determined but the Seeker has the opportunity to influence outcomes. Which characters in the book embraced this philosophy and took charge of their destiny—with or without the Octavo? Which didn’t, and let fate takes its course? How does the OCTAVO help to advance the story? Did you find yourself wondering about your own Octavo?
2. DIVINATION
Mrs. Sparrow claims to have the gift (and burden) of the Sight. Have you ever had an experience with divination? Were the predictions relevant and accurate? Do you believe in fate, free will, or (like the Octavo) a combination of both?
3. STOCKHOLM
The entire novel (aside from backstory and some exposition) takes place in the Town. How does the setting enrich the story? What smells, tastes, and other details bring the setting to life? Do you think the city of Stockholm acts as a character in the novel? If yes, what affect does it have on the other characters?
4. FOLDING FANS
Possession of the fan Cassiopeia is a major motivation of the novel. What power and symbolism does the fan have and why? What other tools did women have at their disposal in this period? What did you think about the way fans are used by the Uzanne? Do you think the handling of the fan could be taught and used in the way that The Uzanne proposes? Why do you think the fan disappeared from use? Is there a modern equivalent of this must-have 18th century accessory?
5. THE EIGHT
Once the Seeker identifies the eight and their role in the Octavo, they have the opportunity to influence their significant event. Did you know who Emil’s eight were before he did? Who are your favorite characters among Emil’s eight? What are their flaws and strengths? Which of their actions reveal the most about them? What event do you believe comes as a turning point for that character? Could you identify the eight from a significant event in your own life? Has a person with only a peripheral connection to you ever played a part in a significant event?
6. HISTORY
Do the historical facts enhance your enjoyment of the story? After reading this book, are you more interested in the history of Sweden and the events of this period? What did you think about King Gustav III? Do you read historical fiction to be informed or entertained? Do you expect a work in this genre to be 100% accurate? Did the book change the history or did the history change the story?
7. MAGIC
In the 18th century, magic was broadly accepted as a part of life—astrology alchemy, divination, séances, conjuring the devil and more. Do you think many people today believe in various forms of magic? How many would admit their belief? What magic practices remain? Describe the influence of herbs and potions—both magical and medicinal—used in the novel. What about the use of herbs and potions—magical and medicinal—today?
8. LOVE & CONNECTION
How does the meaning of love and connection change for Emil over the course of the novel? Does it change for other characters? How did you feel about the conclusion of the novel? Does Emil find love and connection? What is the role of isolation (personal, cultural, geographical) in the novel? Do you think that the actions we take and the choices we make have a ripple effect? How far might that ripple spread?A READING GROUP GUIDE for
(Questions found on the author's webpage.)