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by: Sam Taylor  List Price: $14.00 Amazon.com's Price: $11.20 You Save: $2.80 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 823.92 EAN: 9780143113409 ISBN: 0143113402 Label: Penguin (Non-Classics) Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics) Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 400 Publication Date: June 24, 2008 Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics) Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: A gripping literary thriller from an exciting new voice in fiction Hailed as one to watch by the UKs Telegraph, Sam Taylor is one of the most imaginative and innovative young writers at work today. With The Amnesiac, his United States debut, he incorporates a murder mystery and a forgotten manuscript into an exhilarating and intelligent novel. When twenty-nine-year-old James Purdew returns to England from his home in Amsterdam, it is to discover what happened during three earlier years of his life that he cannot recall. What he finds, in an old house with a tragic history, is a nineteenth-century manuscript that begins to seem less and less like a work of fictionand more like the key to his own lost past. Memory and amnesia, fiction and reality, destiny and randomness, heaven and hellall converge to form an engrossing gothic story that is sure to appeal to fans of Carlos Ruiz Zafons The Shadow of the Wind. Average Rating:
 Rating: - Strange but goodI liked this novel but it was slow at times, at least for me. It's certainly not a book to speed read through. Rating:  - Interesting but flawedI finished reading the Amnesiac last week, and I'm left with two abiding images. The Magus and 2001: A Space Odyssey. After the first 50 pages I knew the book was reminding me of something, when I realized it was John Fowles' work. I went to the (very helpful) influences section at the back, but no Fowles. However, Nicholas Urfe, the anti-hero of that book is mentioned. Unlike the Magus, the rest of the book does not rise above the 50 pages, but rather meanders and then resolves itself in a rather ... Read More Rating:  - I'll be mulling over this book for a long timeI must admit that when I started this book, I almost put it down - it reminded me of what a bad trip on LSD would be like. But the story slowly pulls you in and I thought the author walked the fine line of effectively blurring reality and fantasy with excellent writing. I finished the book today after reading it over two weeks, I think I didn't want to miss a detail or a clue - but it is less than 400 pages. I am still not sure what exactly happened and I don't think I like the ending. ... Read More Rating: - Deep!I have to say as I began this read I wasn't quite sure where it was going. I met James Purdew, a young man who definitely had a dark secret in his life that he desperately needed to expel, but what was it? Three years of his life are missing, what darkness is there to be found? When James returns to England from Amsterdam he finds himself employed fixing-up an old house, but one that holds a key to his own past. We have a phone ringing that no one may answer, visions, real or unreal, dark figured people ... Read More Rating: - Three-quarters of a great novelFor the first three-quarters of its length, "The Amnesiac" is a compelling and genuinely disturbing novel. The morbid introspection, deep loneliness, and dreamlike blurring of fantasy and reality are reminiscent of Kafka -- or, more recently, of Paul Auster. The odd situations are interesting in themselves, and it would have been fine for Taylor to end the book without explaining much of anything. Unfortunately, Taylor introduces the running device of a Victorian "roman à clef" that comes close ... Read More 
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