Alex Landragin's Crossings is an unforgettable and explosive genre-bending debut—a novel in three parts, designed to be read in two different directions, spanning a hundred and fifty years and seven lifetimes.
*To listen to this novel straight through, just play the program from the beginning. To listen to the Baroness Sequence, start with Download Part 2 at 12 hours, 21 minutes.*
On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be listened to one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence.
The first story in Crossings is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption, and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations.
With each new chapter, the stunning connections between these seemingly disparate people grow clearer and more extraordinary. Crossings is an unforgettable adventure full of love, longing and empathy.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press
"A high-concept speculative adventure novel executed with intelligence and grace, Australian writer Landragin's debut contains a story within a story within a story. Crossings is an invigorating puzzle of a book that reads like a complete, intricate work of genre-defying fiction rather than just a cool gimmick." — Vulture
"A sparkling debut. Landragin's seductive literary romp shines as a celebration of the act of storytelling." —Publishers Weekly
"Romance, mystery, history, and magical invention dance across centuries in an impressive debut novel." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
July 28, 2020 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781250753151
- File size: 703133 KB
- Duration: 24:24:51
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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May 11, 2020
Landragin careens through time, space, and multiple genres in his ambitious, sparkling debut. The reader is given a choice in the preface by the first of many narrators, a Paris bookbinder who claims to have discovered a manuscript: read it cover to cover, or follow mysterious instructions for zigzagging through three separate narratives. One of these is purportedly a lost story written by the poet Charles Baudelaire. Another follows doomed lovers, a mysterious woman named Madeleine and a man who may or may not be the German-Jewish writer Walter Benjamin, searching for Baudelaire’s lost manuscript on the eve of the Nazi occupation of Paris. The third is told by a pre-colonial south sea island magus who travels through history via the souls of others, including Baudelaire and Madeleine, to link the three stories together. Landragin colors each section with playful references to other historical figures, from French navigator Etienne Marchand to Coco Chanel and Arthur Koestler. While tacking back and forth through the three narratives is going to require more effort than some readers will be willing to give, the author has a talent for injecting intrigue and answers into his literary puzzle at all the right moments while deepening themes of memory and migration. Landragin’s seductive literary romp shines as a celebration of the act of storytelling. -
"Every crossing is a theft of a life." How mysterious. How beckoning. This audiobook combines the suspense of nineteenth-century horror with the cool detachment of narrators Barrie Kreinik and Raphael Corkhill. Using their finely honed talents for European, African, and American accents, the narrators link an obscure short story by poet Charles Baudelaire with the Nazi occupation of Paris, the slave trade in New Orleans, and a long-forgotten South Sea island. A chase across time that begins with the breaking of tribal taboos can end only with sacrifice and longing. This audiobook is presented in two complete chapter versions told in alternate order, a format that makes it appear twice as long as it actually is. B.P. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
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