- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; 1st Faber & Faber Edition edition (25 Dec 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571245846
- ISBN-13: 978-0571245840
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 747,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Wrack
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
The first novel by bestselling author James Bradley, author of The Resurrectionist.
Product Description
Archaeologist David Norfolk is searching for a 400-year-old Portuguese shipwreck off the coast of New South Wales. Such a find would rewrite the history of Australia. But instead he unearths the body of a man murdered fifty years earlier, and begins to unravel a more personal kind of history. An elderly recluse, dying in a nearby shack, seems to know something of the corpse's identity - and also its connection to the shipwreck. He begins telling David about his own past, a story of a life marred by ambition, sexual passion, rivalry, deceit and betrayal. But will he give David the information he needs before it is too late? A haunting tale of the lure of the imagination and the destructive workings of obsession, Wrack is a first novel of unusual reach and suggestive power.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This is an unusual novel that I found oddly compelling.
David Norfolk is an archaeologist. He is passionate about the possibility that somewhere in the sand dunes in New South Wales, Australia, the remains of a Portuguese shipwreck can still be found. He has secured funding for the dig, but there are a lot of doubts and this is his last chance.
But what do they find? They find a body, the remains of a man murdered and buried fifty years ago. Frustratingly, the dig has to be halted.
David walks his frustration into the sand dunes and comes across a tumbledown old shack, almost - but not quite - uninhabitable. An elderly recluse lives there, dying a slow horrible death.
A conversation with the old man is tantalising - he seems to know something about the shipwreck. David is so consumed by his need to know 'the truth' that he becomes the man's companion in his last dying days. The old man talks about his own past, as an archaeologist and about academic passion and rivalry - all leading up to some inevitable revelations about the ship and about the murder.
Interspersed between the old man's story is some of the history of Portuguese exploration of the world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which I found both unexpected and interesting, and which keeps the focus on the question, did the Portuguese reach Australia first?
As far as the writing goes - it's quite a 'bitty' novel. The chapters are short and fleeting, as though the writer wants to skate across the surface of everything. Given the the author is also a poet, I expected to be uncomfortable reading this book, but I was pleasantly surprised by how readable it was.
If I was to recommend it to a friend, I'd say that it wasn't my usual sort of read, but that it was interesting for it's take on the academic world and on early Portuguese exploration. I would also say that not everyone likes it, so it is probably best read in the spirit of experiment and curiosity.
An interesting read if an unusual one.
David Norfolk is an archaeologist. He is passionate about the possibility that somewhere in the sand dunes in New South Wales, Australia, the remains of a Portuguese shipwreck can still be found. He has secured funding for the dig, but there are a lot of doubts and this is his last chance.
But what do they find? They find a body, the remains of a man murdered and buried fifty years ago. Frustratingly, the dig has to be halted.
David walks his frustration into the sand dunes and comes across a tumbledown old shack, almost - but not quite - uninhabitable. An elderly recluse lives there, dying a slow horrible death.
A conversation with the old man is tantalising - he seems to know something about the shipwreck. David is so consumed by his need to know 'the truth' that he becomes the man's companion in his last dying days. The old man talks about his own past, as an archaeologist and about academic passion and rivalry - all leading up to some inevitable revelations about the ship and about the murder.
Interspersed between the old man's story is some of the history of Portuguese exploration of the world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which I found both unexpected and interesting, and which keeps the focus on the question, did the Portuguese reach Australia first?
As far as the writing goes - it's quite a 'bitty' novel. The chapters are short and fleeting, as though the writer wants to skate across the surface of everything. Given the the author is also a poet, I expected to be uncomfortable reading this book, but I was pleasantly surprised by how readable it was.
If I was to recommend it to a friend, I'd say that it wasn't my usual sort of read, but that it was interesting for it's take on the academic world and on early Portuguese exploration. I would also say that not everyone likes it, so it is probably best read in the spirit of experiment and curiosity.
An interesting read if an unusual one.
Format:Paperback
This is a book that should have been great given the author's obvious intent to write something profound, but he doesn't pull it off.The pro's of the book are the bitesize chapters that make it easily readable, the interesting structure with parallel storylines and the underlying theme that history is unreliable.
The con's are the flowery, angsty language whenever love is explored and the overuse of adjectives to describe Kurt's physical condition... we get the point early on that he hasn't much longer to live but are constantly reminded of his "ragged" breathing etc, sometimes less is more.Also when he recalls his past his language is remarkably fluent for someone who is weak as a kitten,lapsing in and out of conciousness.
That said,there are some good descriptive passages and he certainly has a very visual style of writing.
I think it could have been a good book if it wasn't so overwrought in places and I am sure that lots of readers would like it if they could overlook that.
The con's are the flowery, angsty language whenever love is explored and the overuse of adjectives to describe Kurt's physical condition... we get the point early on that he hasn't much longer to live but are constantly reminded of his "ragged" breathing etc, sometimes less is more.Also when he recalls his past his language is remarkably fluent for someone who is weak as a kitten,lapsing in and out of conciousness.
That said,there are some good descriptive passages and he certainly has a very visual style of writing.
I think it could have been a good book if it wasn't so overwrought in places and I am sure that lots of readers would like it if they could overlook that.
Format:Paperback
The first thing that I found annoying about this book and an affectation was the lack of speech marks. This meant I had to re-read certain sentences to be sure who was speaking. The plot was jerky and interspersed with historical information - which the author admits he manipulated to suit his story. The characters were shadowy and ill-defined and although I did finish the book the ending brought no surprise or satisfaction.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
