Review by Booklist Review
Irish writer Hamilton performs a provocative feat: the narrator of his new book is a book, a battered first edition of the 1924 novel Rebellion by Austrian Jewish journalist and writer of conscience Joseph Roth. The narrating book, which describes itself as a "short novel about a barrel organ player who lost his leg in the First World War," explains that it is "a living thing, with human faculties" because it has "accumulated the inner lives" of its readers. It also narrowly escaped a Nazi book-burning in Berlin when a Jewish professor handed the doomed novel to a student who bravely spirited it away. Decades later, the student's son, a German baker in America, bequeaths the book to his daughter, artist Lena, who is so intrigued by the cryptic map drawn on the book's last page, she goes to Berlin to try to solve the mystery. Hamilton meshes Roth's gripping story with that of Lena's family as the book's new misadventures bring Lena together with Armin, a Muslim Chechen; his musician sister, who lost a leg during the second Chechen war with Russia; and the man who is threatening them. By astutely combining a suspenseful quest, a sharply relevant homage to Roth, and intricate stories of persecution, exile, war, censorship, love, and anguish, Hamilton has created a tale of deep resonance.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A first edition of Austrian Jewish writer's Joseph Roth's Rebellion, a "short novel about a barrel organ player who lost his leg in the First World War," serves as the narrator of this intriguing mystery from Hamilton (Dublin Palms). The book, published in 1924, introduces itself in the present as part of the luggage of Lena Knecht, an artist flying from New York to Berlin, the place where Rebellion was written. Lena, who has discovered that someone has drawn a map on a blank page at the back depicting a bridge, a path, a forest, and a farm, hopes to find information in Berlin that will unlock the map's secret meaning. The theft of her handbag with the book inside complicates her quest. Hamilton makes buy-in to his conceit easy as he alternates between sections centered on the intrigue surrounding the map and flashbacks to Roth's life and his experiences under the Nazis, who burned copies of Rebellion and forced him to flee Germany in 1933. The pacing and prose are first-rate. This unusual storytelling choice works better than most mysteries told from the perspective of an intelligent animal. (Feb.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Soon after Hitler rose to power, Joseph Roth's books were burned in the streets of Berlin. But what if a copy of Rebellion, Roth's third novel, were secreted away and handed down through the generations? Here, Hamilton (Dublin Palms; Every Single Minute) muses on that possibility and positions Rebellion itself as the narrator. The story unfolds around Lena, who inherits the book and discovers a hand-drawn map inside. While she is en route to Germany to follow the map's trail, the book is stolen, and her chance encounter with survivors of the Second Chechen War leads to the denouement of the story. The copy of Rebellion narrates this journey while also regaling readers with the story written on its own pages, interspersed with details of Joseph Roth's life. Hamilton parallels and interweaves the lives of these characters to flatten and preserve the conversation between the past and the present. VERDICT Much like Ian McEwan's Nutshell, narrated by a fetus, Hamilton's latest novel conceals a clever literary element with beautiful prose and a deeper meditation on time itself. --Joshua Finnell
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A well-known novel comes to life. Rescued from a Nazi book burning in Berlin in 1933, a copy of Joseph Roth's novel Rebellion--the tragic story of a German soldier who becomes a barrel organ player upon returning to Germany missing one leg after World War I--serves as the unusual narrator of Hamilton's novel. Nearly a century after the book's publication, Lena Knecht, an artist living in New York City whose grandfather received the volume from the professor who saved it from the flames, returns to Germany with the book in hand hoping to discover the significance of a cryptic map sketched by its original owner on one of its blank pages. Hamilton's artful story teems with subplots that include the account of Roth's disastrous marriage to Friederike Reichel, a union destroyed by her mental illness and his alcoholism; Lena's relationship with Armin Schneider, a young Chechen refugee who returns the book to her when it's stolen shortly after her arrival in Germany and then joins her search; and Armin's sister Madina, who lost her leg in a bombing in Chechnya and is stalked by her dangerous former lover, a violent right-wing nationalist. There are disturbing parallels between the world of Roth's novel, published in 1924 as the Weimar Republic began to slide toward the Third Reich, and contemporary Europe, where the growing presence of immigrants like Armin and Madina sparks fear and distrust. The novel neatly balances these realistic storylines with fanciful images described in Rebellion's distinctive, appealing voice, as when the book refers to its "two years on the shelf right next to a small book on insects," recalling how it was "the happiest time of my life, living with all that buzzing, like a constant summer." Lena eventually solves the map mystery, bringing the story full circle to an emotionally satisfying conclusion. A haunting story that provides a welcome reminder of the enduring lives of books. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
