by Elena Mauli Shapiro
American academic Trevor Stratton discovers a box full of artifacts from World War I as he settles into his new office in Paris. The pictures, letters, and objects in the box relate to the life of Louise Brunet, a feisty, charming Frenchwoman who lived through both World Wars. As Trevor examines and...
This book was lovely and enchanting and mysterious and erotic and truly unique. Jeffrey picked it out for me because he thought it looked like my kind of book. He was right. It's interesting that I read this book back to back with "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" because both are inspir...
A very strange story with an awkward writing style. I did like the characters even though at times I wasn't sure who was the narrator. This is one of the most bizarre past/present stories I have ever read.
I wanted to like this book. Clever layout and design. The concept is absolutely genius having pictures as a participating element to the artistry of the writing. The pictures are the story. The problem with the book is that the plot itself is ho hum run of the mill love story.
W G Sebald did this way better with greater finesse and more 'fiction' and certainly didn't happen to have all those material dropped into his lap and then weave such a boring book out of it either.
I was a little apprehensive when I picked up 13, rue Thérèse by Elena Mauli Shapiro, due to the unique presentation of the book itself. Images of scanned photos, letters, and other ephemera are interspersed with the text, and on the last pages, there were special barcodes for use with a smartphone, ...
I gave this book 2 stars not because it is a poorly written book. This type of book is outside what I normally read and I found it a tad strange and "artsy". The book is actually really well written. I found the story line couldn't keep my interest though. Still worth the read though.
This is a beautifully illustrated story that forces the reader to use their imagination. The author uses an immense imagination by taking a box of found objects and creates a tale around them. You can see all of the items at www.13ruetheres.com I received an advance copy of this from the publishe...