The Absolute Book

Over a year ago I read one of those reviews that makes you want to drop everything you're doing and rush to the bookstore, even if what you're doing is running a bookstore. Tantalizingly, I couldn't then read the book that inspired such raptures, as it was available only a hemisphere away in New Zealand. It's now been published in the US, and having obtained it at last, I can confirm the initial reports: What a book! The Absolute Book is stuffed full of ideas and images, with enough plot for a series of novels. It starts as a taut thriller, as a young woman stumbles onto a foolproof way to avenge her murdered sister, but it quickly expands across multiple genre boundaries, using myth and fantasy to play a literary game for the highest stakes there are. It's very much a story built out of stories, inspired by similar tales of conspiracies, ancient secrets, and quests for lost objects, but it surpasses almost all of these in scope and style. —James (from the Madison Books newsletter)