The Land Across
Nov 2013 · Sold by Tor Books
4.1star
8 reviews
Ebook
288
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
About this ebook
In The Land Across, Gene Wolfe's engrossing fantasy novel, readers are kept guessing until the very end, and long after.
An American writer of travel guides in need of a new location chooses to travel to a small and obscure Eastern European country. The moment Grafton crosses the border he is in trouble, much more than he could have imagined. His passport is taken by guards, and then he is detained for not having it. He is released into the custody of a family, but is again detained. It becomes evident that there are supernatural agencies at work, but they are not in some ways as threatening as the brute forces of bureaucracy and corruption in that country. Is our hero in fact a spy for the CIA? Or is he an innocent citizen caught in a Kafkaesque trap?
A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
An American writer of travel guides in need of a new location chooses to travel to a small and obscure Eastern European country. The moment Grafton crosses the border he is in trouble, much more than he could have imagined. His passport is taken by guards, and then he is detained for not having it. He is released into the custody of a family, but is again detained. It becomes evident that there are supernatural agencies at work, but they are not in some ways as threatening as the brute forces of bureaucracy and corruption in that country. Is our hero in fact a spy for the CIA? Or is he an innocent citizen caught in a Kafkaesque trap?
A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Ratings and reviews
4.1
8 reviews
Alan Schulz
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March 8, 2016
An esoteric little book, not lacking in entertainment value, it reads like a meandering monologue with occasional fourth wall breaks. The laws and customs of the unnamed country are themselves characters, especially in the first half of the story. One tends to expect cleverness in Wolfe's writing and we are not let down on that score. I read this book over the course of a week before sleeping. So it turns pages quite quickly. Should you read it? Sure. It's quite good. I'm planning to keep it in my device...
About the author
Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) was the Nebula Award-winning author of The Book of the New Sun tetralogy in the Solar Cycle, as well as the World Fantasy Award winners The Shadow of the Torturer and Soldier of Sidon. He was also a prolific writer of distinguished short fiction, which has been collected in such award-winning volumes as Storeys from the Old Hotel and The Best of Gene Wolfe.
A recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award, and six Locus Awards, among many other honors, Wolfe was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007, and named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2012.
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