- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New Ed edition (20 April 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006548237
- ISBN-13: 978-0006548232
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 374,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Giovanni's Gift
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘Compelling and visceral… Giovanni’s Gift reveals a new facet in Bradford Morrow’s crystalline canon… It’s simple, honest, emotionally direct, and packs a wallop.’
Rick Moody
‘An absorbing tale… the book’s lush prose is rich with threat and suspense… In juggling the conventions of gothic fiction, Morrow finds an enticingly unsettling contemporary home for them.’
San Francisco Chronicle
Product Description
From the author of Trinity Fields comes a chilling and beautifully crafted mystery.
Imagine a scene of rural serenity, a night scene. Imagine a solitary ranch high in the mountains: silence, starlight, a man and a woman asleep. Who would expect such tranquility to be so brutally shattered by the night visitors.
When Grant hears of the campaign of malice being waged against his only living relatives, he abandons Rome and a crumbling marriage to do what he can to stop it. His brash confidence is quickly bruised as the night visits explode into violence, and the death of Giovanni Trentaz, a dear family friend found ritually mutilated in a primeval gorge above the ranch, takes on a new meaning.
When his aunt presents him with Giovanni’s legacy – an old cigar box filled with letters, photos and seemingly endless knick-knacks – he finds himself in possession of a puzzle that holds the answers not just to Giovanni’s death, but much more…
Bradford Morrow’s Giovanni’s Gift restores the thriller to its classical roots: the myth of Pandora’s box has never before been rendered with such intensity and dark beauty.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
From the very first chapter of the book, 'Giovanni's Gift' grabs your attention and then sustains that apparently effortlessly. The imposing mountain valley that contains the small town where everything takes place makes the atmosphere ever more dark as it presides like a judge and jury over what takes place. As is often in small towns there are secrets and lies that abound in this novel. The central narrator Grant begins the book in Italy reassesing his life, he comes to Ash Creek because of a silent plea from his Aunt after a campaign of mental tortures begins and subsequently falls from one turmoil into another. He is given a box belonging to the Giovanni of the title, now deceased and as Pandoras before it all sorts of dark secrets are released.
This book is not only compelling because of the way in which the mounting tension builds, the way in which the readers suspicions are dashed and then reaffirmed but by the sensuous and sinuous writing. As you try and hurry through each chapter to find out the next answer to the next cliffhanger the language makes you slow down your reading to enjoy the writing, to wallow in its sentences. Its not very often that a thriller such as this is combined with such writing and it makes for an excellent read!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read about this book and thought it couldn't be as good as they said it was. It is! I grew up in the West, and the author's way with painting images of the Western landscape just kept sending these little shocks through me, it was so true. Plus there's really good, deep writing about families and a love-story that breaks your heart. It's been a long time since a novel has kept me up at night and caused me to wake in the morning with a sore neck, but Giovanni's Gift did. It's the kind of book you want to give to friends.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've never read a book before that so handily blends literary conventions and ends up trumping all of them--part mystery, part travelogue, part gothic, part pedigreed post-modern novel, the book gently draws you in and then snaps shut around you like a bear trap. The author, Brad Morrow, writes like a dream with a beguiling delicacy and precision that belie how deep and dark is the path he's leading you along. I don't want to get any more explicit about the book and give away the plot. I just want to say that I've never read anything like it, and you'll feel the same way, I'm sure. Giovanni's Gift is that rare thing, a book with literary horsepower and a rocking plot. READ THIS BOOK!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great Setting, Hard to Put Down
A good piece of escapism. Easy reading. Captivating plot, contrasting fast paced city life with having a break in a cabin in the woods.
Published on 28 Nov 2001
Compelling, well written, good read
I would have rated this book a ten except for the fact that at times it is overdescriptive and slows the tension of the story. Read more
Published on 29 Aug 1997
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