Each little piece in the suite also bears a pertinent musical title, written in French, indicating the instruments to perform them and offering intriguing hints about the theme and tone.

Readers will be captivated by the book’s details . . . the vivid portrayals of Amir’s urban explorations, which take him to London’s forbidden places, whether underground, at street level or high over the city. The book’s closing scene at the famous Battersea power station is breathtaking.

To the cult, self-induced sickness generates a more harmonious, fulfilled life . . . sickness is the key to unlocking real human purpose.

“These men are tough guy know-it-alls with me-against-the-world mentalities. Men who see themselves as superior to those around them. We, the readers, are bewitched by their inner lives….”

Jauss’s characters frequently fail to accept comfort and even more frequently are locked inside their own emotional ice.

In this beautifully written novel, Winterer takes us on an expedition into the Australian bush and the depths of faith.

Readers finish the novel having learned that beauty invariably comes at a price: physical and psychological, personal and professional. It destroys everyone who seeks it.

The landscape of the novel is ghost-haunted. The dead crouch around these characters, blighting them. But the murder of a young boy at Glory Days—the tragic consequence of the fact that Footer can’t find enough ways to spread his misery around and Luann is enthralled by him—is particularly wrenching.

Indeed, we are all composites of contradictions, mysteries unto ourselves, forever zinging between obstacles like a pinball. This is why we tell stories, to convince ourselves that the world is not without reason.