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The Book of Air and Shadows: A Novel by…
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The Book of Air and Shadows: A Novel (original 2007; edition 2008)

by Michael Gruber

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,416996,247 (3.41)109
""Tap-tapping the keys and out come the words on this little screen, and who will read them I hardly know. I could be dead by the time anyone actually gets to read them, as dead as, say, Tolstoy. Or Shakespeare. Does it matter, when you read, if the person who wrote still lives?" These are the words of Jake Mishkin, whose seemingly innocent job as an intellectual property lawyer has put him at the center of a deadly conspiracy and a chase to find a priceless treasure involving William Shakespeare. As he awaits a killer---or killers---unknown, Jake writes an account of the events that led to this deadly endgame, a frantic chase that began when a fire in an antiquarian bookstore revealed the hiding place of letters containing a shocking secret, concealed for four hundred years. In a frantic race from New York to England and Switzerland, Jake finds himself matching wits with a shadowy figure who seems to anticipate his every move. What at first seems like a thrilling puzzle waiting to be deciphered soon turns into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, where no one---not family, not friends, not lovers---is to be trusted. Moving between twenty-first-century America and seventeenth-century England, The Book of Air and Shadows is a modern thriller that brilliantly re-creates William Shakespeare's life at the turn of the seventeenth century and combines an ingenious and intricately layered plot with a devastating portrait of a contemporary man on the brink of self-discovery...or self-destruction" -- from publisher's web site.… (more)
Member:BlondeBibliophile
Title:The Book of Air and Shadows: A Novel
Authors:Michael Gruber
Info:Harper Paperbacks (2008), Paperback, 496 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:Fiction

Work Information

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber (2007)

  1. 62
    The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (nicchic)
  2. 20
    Possession by A.S. Byatt (Imprinted)
  3. 20
    Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell (Caramellunacy)
    Caramellunacy: A similar literary thriller plot - a young woman unravels a puzzle that may lead to the whereabouts of a lost Shakespeare manuscript, but she's also being chased by a killer who is murdering Shakespeare scholars and staging them to resemble his plays. I preferred Interred with Their Bones as I found the characters significantly more likeable.… (more)
  4. 10
    The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips (Bookmarque)
    Bookmarque: Another multi-POV, multi-narrator mystery.
  5. 21
    People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (starfishian)
  6. 00
    Gospel by Wilton Barnhardt (BobNolin)
    BobNolin: Gospel was a lot more fun to read, but the two are very similar. There is an ancient text interwoven into the current day story (Gruber does the better job of faking an ancient text, in my opinion). There is a hunt for said manuscript. And the finding of it will change recorded history. Great stuff.… (more)
  7. 00
    The Intelligencer by Leslie Silbert (Caramellunacy)
    Caramellunacy: The Intelligencer is a literary thriller that traces playwright Christopher Marlowe gathering intelligence for Elizabeth I as well as a modern day scholar and PI who is investigating a manuscript that may shed light on Marlowe's untimely demise.
  8. 00
    Codex by Lev Grossman (Jannes)
    Jannes: Mysterious manuscripts, bookish femme fatales, old libraries... if you liked one, you'll probably enjoy the other.
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» See also 109 mentions

English (97)  German (1)  Tagalog (1)  All languages (99)
Showing 1-5 of 97 (next | show all)
I almost gave up on this book because I disliked one of the characters so much, but the plot was intriguing enough for me to keep going. I was wondering up till the end how it would turn out. I enjoyed one of the characters who had a thought-provoking concept of how movies influence society.

There was a section in the middle which had me questioning whether the editors required the author to "insert more sex here". I found this section dehumanizing and clinical.

Overall I'm glad I finished it and I'm glad there was "an answer" that did not leave the reader hanging, but I wish the author had not invested so much time exploring the dark side of the flawed character. ( )
  lbspen | Dec 3, 2023 |
A little too long. Dragged in some places. Author is a good writer, though, great characters. Still don't understand the title. And got confused by the plot. But overall not a bad book. ( )
  MarkLacy | May 29, 2022 |
Only finished because I have to read it to lead the book club. I hated the main characters and couldn't get into the olde-timey language that about 1/4 of the novel is written in. It seemed like a very male-centric fantasy book where the men are schlubs yet they always get the girl. When the mystery came together I did enjoy how it all fit but the last 20 pages couldn't make up for how much I disliked the rest of it. ( )
  readingjag | Nov 29, 2021 |
I found most of the characters to be thoroughly dislikeable, so the first two-thirds of the book or so were a hard slog. When things picked up a bit, making the plot more of a thriller, I found a lot of it implausible. By the time we got to the end, the plot turned farce-like. My overall impression is that the whole book was rather an incoherent and unlikeable mess, and that having it revolve around a Shakespeare manuscript was a particularly poor choice.

I listened to the audio book and disliked the narrator as well. His tone struck me as overly snide, which was probably appropriate for our unpleasant protagonist, but it made me even less interested in what became of him. Nevertheless, I doubt I would have even finished the book had I read it on hard copy. ( )
  Charon07 | Jul 16, 2021 |
interesting read. Mystery with lots of historical context about books ( )
1 vote lindaspangler | Apr 26, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 97 (next | show all)
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Epigraph
Our Revels now are ended: These our actors
(As I foretold you) were all Spirits, and
Are melted into Ayre, into thin Ayre,
And like the baselesse fabricke of this vision
The Cloud-capt Towres, the gorgeous Pallaces,
The solmne Temples, the great Globe it selfe,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial Pageant faded
Leave not a racke behinde: we are such stuffe
As dreames are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleepe ,,,


- WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Tempest, act IV, scene i
The First Folio, 1623
Dedication
For E.W.N.
First words
Tap-tapping the keys and out come the words on this little screen, and who will read them I hardly know.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
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Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

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""Tap-tapping the keys and out come the words on this little screen, and who will read them I hardly know. I could be dead by the time anyone actually gets to read them, as dead as, say, Tolstoy. Or Shakespeare. Does it matter, when you read, if the person who wrote still lives?" These are the words of Jake Mishkin, whose seemingly innocent job as an intellectual property lawyer has put him at the center of a deadly conspiracy and a chase to find a priceless treasure involving William Shakespeare. As he awaits a killer---or killers---unknown, Jake writes an account of the events that led to this deadly endgame, a frantic chase that began when a fire in an antiquarian bookstore revealed the hiding place of letters containing a shocking secret, concealed for four hundred years. In a frantic race from New York to England and Switzerland, Jake finds himself matching wits with a shadowy figure who seems to anticipate his every move. What at first seems like a thrilling puzzle waiting to be deciphered soon turns into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, where no one---not family, not friends, not lovers---is to be trusted. Moving between twenty-first-century America and seventeenth-century England, The Book of Air and Shadows is a modern thriller that brilliantly re-creates William Shakespeare's life at the turn of the seventeenth century and combines an ingenious and intricately layered plot with a devastating portrait of a contemporary man on the brink of self-discovery...or self-destruction" -- from publisher's web site.

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