The Book of Speculation: A Novel, by Erika Swyler
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The Book of Speculation: A Novel, by Erika Swyler
Read Online Ebook The Book of Speculation: A Novel, by Erika Swyler
One of BuzzFeed's 24 Best Fiction Books of 2015
"As Simon, a lonely research librarian, searches frantically for the key to a curse that might be killing the women in his family, he learns strange and fascinating secrets about their past. A tale full of magic and family mystery, The Book of Speculation will keep you up all night reading."―Isaac Fitzgerald, BuzzFeed
Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone in a house that is slowly crumbling toward the Long Island Sound. His parents are long dead. His mother, a circus mermaid who made her living by holding her breath, drowned in the very water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, ran off six years ago and now reads tarot cards for a traveling carnival.
One June day, an old book arrives on Simon's doorstep, sent by an antiquarian bookseller who purchased it on speculation. Fragile and water damaged, the book is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, who reports strange and magical things, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Since then, generations of "mermaids" in Simon's family have drowned--always on July 24, which is only weeks away.
As his friend Alice looks on with alarm, Simon becomes increasingly worried about his sister. Could there be a curse on Simon's family? What does it have to do with the book, and can he get to the heart of the mystery in time to save Enola?
In the tradition of Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, The Book of Speculation--with two-color illustrations by the author--is Erika Swyler's moving debut novel about the power of books, family, and magic.
The Book of Speculation: A Novel, by Erika Swyler- Amazon Sales Rank: #47979 in Books
- Brand: St Martins Press
- Published on: 2015-06-23
- Released on: 2015-06-23
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Format: Deckle Edge
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.47" h x 1.28" w x 6.39" l, 1.00 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of June 2015: Water shrouds the fascinating, often doomed characters of The Book of Speculation. Featuring mermaids, swarms of horseshoe crabs, deadly floods, and the silent secrets of an ancient tarot deck, The Book of Speculation is split like a savory peach between the odd ventures of a traveling carnival in the late 1700s and the modern-day discovery by librarian Simon Watson of an old, handwritten volume containing his grandmother’s name. The water-damaged book may reveal the root of certain mysteries in his family, such as why the women can hold their breath far, far longer than normal, and the inexplicable reason they have all drowned while young women on the exact same date—a date that is only a few days away as the book begins. When Simon’s sister, Enola, unexpectedly returns home, vibrating with an angry sadness Simon has never seen before, Simon dives deeper into the book and the dark waters of their family history, hoping to change what he fears is her destiny. Erika Swyler has written an engrossing literary tale-spinner with an assurance rarely mastered in debut novels, allowing a well-placed detail or a lyrical phrase to paint a character or sketch even as she builds tension like a pro. As Simon grows obsessed with unraveling the secrets in his book, so will you become bewitched by The Book of Speculation.--Adrian Liang
Review ""The Book of Speculation "is a luscious experience--dark, sweet, and wild." --Katherine Dunn
"In this dazzling novel, the immensely talented Erika Swyler sweeps seamlessly through generations and centuries, moving deftly back and forth and weaving the strands into an exquisite tapestry. I was immediately swept up in this quirky, raucous, and bewitching family saga. Swyler's prose is so polished and elegant it reads effortlessly, even as her distinct voice shines through--her rendering of the sea and its savage appetite rivals that of Annie Proulx's in "The Shipping News." I absolutely loved this book, and consumed it whole. My only complaint is that I am already on the edge of my seat waiting for her next." --Sara Gruen ""The Book of Speculation "is a luscious experience--dark, sweet, and wild." --Katherine DunnIn this dazzling novel, the immensely talented Erika Swyler sweeps seamlessly through generations and centuries, moving deftly back and forth and weaving the strands into an exquisite tapestry. I was immediately swept up in this quirky, raucous, and bewitching family saga. Swyler's prose is so polished and elegant it reads effortlessly, even as her distinct voice shines through--her rendering of the sea and its savage appetite rivals that of Annie Proulx's in THE SHIPPING NEWS. I absolutely loved this book, and consumed it whole. My only complaint is that I am already on the edge of my seat waiting for her next.--Sara Gruen, author of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS and AT THE WATER'S EDGETHE BOOK OF SPECULATION is a luscious experience--dark, sweet, and wild.--Katherine Dunn, author of GEEK LOVE
While a book whose narrative hinges on drowning might not seem like a great beach read, Swyler's debut effort, redolent of salty ocean air, is just that...Its clever plot--fueled by a musty book and a powerful set of tarot cards--and Swyler's wonderful descriptions keep the pages swimming along. "Entertainment Weekly"
A good book is magical. A piece of our heart stays tucked inside its lines when we return the book to its place on our shelf. Good novels about good books can be even more special, doubling the fun with two tomes to love. And when the book within the book is actually magical, as it is - or may be - in Erika Swyler's "The Book of Speculation," well, let the wild read start. "Star-Telegram"
Mermaids, tarot card readers, a wild man and other carnival characters work their literary magic in this debut novel...packed with fresh, unexpected marvels. "Oprah.com"
A wonderful novel, full of mystery through the centuries [with] great details about carnival life, similar to "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern. "The Daily American"
In this dazzling novel, the immensely talented Erika Swyler sweeps seamlessly through generations and centuries, moving deftly back and forth and weaving the strands into an exquisite tapestry. I was immediately swept up in this quirky, raucous, and bewitching family saga. Swyler's prose is so polished and elegant it reads effortlessly, even as her distinct voice shines through--her rendering of the sea and its savage appetite rivals that of Annie Proulx's in THE SHIPPING NEWS. I absolutely loved this book, and consumed it whole. My only complaint is that I am already on the edge of my seat waiting for her next. Sara Gruen, author of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS and AT THE WATER'S EDGE
THE BOOK OF SPECULATION is a luscious experience--dark, sweet, and wild. Katherine Dunn, author of GEEK LOVE
Debut author Swyler creates a melancholy world with hints of magic at the edges. . . Fans of. . . Erin Morgenstern's THE NIGHT CIRCUS, Katherine Dunn's GEEK LOVE, or Katherine Howe's THE PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE, won't want to leave this festival. "Library Journal"
Illustrations by the author add even more atmosphere to her prose. "Booklist""
About the Author ERIKA SWYLER is a graduate of New York University. Her short fiction has appeared in WomenArts Quarterly Journal, Litro, Anderbo.com, and elsewhere. Her writing is featured in the anthology Colonial Comics, and her work as a playwright has received note from the Jane Chambers Award. Born and raised on Long Island's North Shore, Erika learned to swim before she could walk, and happily spent all her money at traveling carnivals. She blogs and has a baking Tumblr with a following of 60,000. Erika recently moved from Brooklyn back to her hometown, which inspired the setting of the book. The Book of Speculation is her debut novel.
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Most helpful customer reviews
46 of 49 people found the following review helpful. dark and intriguing By Kat Heckenbach I debated about giving this a full five stars. I'm not sure it's 100% there, but close enough. There were small issues, like jumps in point of view that bothered me. But the fact is, I found the story intriguing from start to finish. Sometimes dual story lines are frustrating because you enjoy one but not the other. In this case, I kept going back and forth between which I liked better. Both were dark and deeply personal. The idea of a generations-long curse borne from a family of circus performers--very cool.The story of Simon is told in first person present, while Amos's story is told in third person past tense. I thought it was really effective and worked well to separate the voices of the two. I loved the detail of the circus life in Amos's story. And the way his story was told was perfectly paired with the reveal of information in Simon's story. The characters were all fully-fleshed and believable. No one too perfect, no one so flawed you couldn't empathize. I admit I had the ending figured out, at least most of it, but that did not leave me feeling unsatisfied. It progressed naturally.Anyway, I am not sure what else to say about this book. It was one that kept me thinking about it when I wasn't reading, that I felt the itch to pick back up. The writing is very good and the pacing and placement of clues was just right.Now...for the thing that absolutely bugs me: The cover. I normally don't mention book covers--you know the old saying--but this one just bites. It's so generic. It does nothing to reflect the depth and tone of the story inside. It looks like a cover for a YA novel, which this most definitely is not. The advanced reader copy I have has a MUCH better cover that's actually representative of the story and its genre. Dear Publisher, what were you thinking? Gah. I hate this cover. It does not deserve the book inside it.
46 of 52 people found the following review helpful. Dark magic, whimsy, mermaids -- and fate By S. McGee Out of the blue, librarian and archivist Simon Watson receives a battered and water-stained book in the mail from an antiquarian dealer in Iowa, determined to reunite the odd volume with someone to whom it might have some kind of link. The link to Simon? A name it contains: that of his grandmother, Verona Bonn, a traveling performer whom he never knew. In fact, as he peruses the book's contents and shares memories of his mother with his younger sister, Enola, who has returned home from her own wanderings to spend July by Long Island Sound in the family home with home, he rediscovers some family stories of how their mother met their father while wearing a mermaid's costume, shares tragic memories of the July day that she simply walked into the ocean and disappeared -- presumed drowned -- and discovers links between the chronicle of the 18th century traveling circus whose adventures are contained in the logbook Simon received in the mail. Most worrying of all is the family history of deaths by drowning of women in the family, all on the same July day -- what will happen to Enola?I loved the backdrop (the watery setting; the historical context) and there are echoes here of several books that I read and enjoyed, such as The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, but I found this novel lacked the latter's charm. Above all, its characters were so utterly predictable that even when the plot underwent some exotic twists and turns, I could usually predict precisely how either Simon or Enola would respond to those or to each other. The elements of magical realism felt almost too carefully structured and set out for the reader to contemplate, in the same way that they were in Brunonia Barry's The Lace Reader, which was equally imaginative (and set against a similar Northeastern backdrop, with elements leading back to earlier times in history.) Ultimately, in spite of all the bravura flourishes, it left me cold, and I never became caught up in suspense about what might happen to Simon and and Enola. The novel's climax and conclusion simply left me with the response of, "OK, well, now I know", and I closed the book and put it away. It all felt a bit too ... self evident.I can quite see that this is one of "those" books: the kind whose charm captures one reader while eluding the next, for reasons that defy description. I didn't respond to it emotionally on any level, although I did think that Erika Swyler's descriptive writing can be quite good, in spite of her inability to turn Simon into anything more than a bit of a well-meaning bore and Enola into a grumpy sister, venting all over the place. Again, without the mermaids, the magic and the Tarot, this wouldn't have had much appeal. While the writing is one reason this earns a third star, I'd still hesitate before reading anything else of hers: if the exotic elements are required to distract from otherwise ho-hum characters and plots. There are plenty of other authors turning to whimsy as a selling point -- with or without magic -- these days, and this is far from the best example I've read.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful. The Journal of Peabody's Portable Magic and Miracle Show holds all the clues By Miss Barbara The Book of Speculation opens with Simon Watson losing his job and possibly his historic home. He’s a reference librarian in a small coastal town who has known a lot of loss in his young life. His father has passed away and he lost his mother, a mermaid performer in a carnival, to drowning.One day a parcel is delivered to his door. It is the journal of a traveling band of entertainers, Peabody’s Portable Magic and Miracle Show, who wandered the countryside in the 1800’s. Martin Churchwary, a dealer in antiquarian books, had found it in a box and traced it via the name of Simon’s grandmother.This novel is now told in two voices: that of the long past traveling show with its cast of intriguing characters who somehow hint of an impending tragedy that will come to fruition on July 24, next; and to the current life of Simon who becomes aware that he must solve the mystery and save his sister.The characters are colorful and well fleshed out if the reader is willing to suspend reality between the covers. Simon must use all his skills as a researcher to avoid the long ago foretelling of Madam Ryzhkova when she turns the tarot cards and tells the former Wild Boy “Water comes, strangling what it touches…..”
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