Books are a wonderful way for coworkers and friends to share experiences, even when we’re miles, states, and countries apart. Hearing about what someone is reading is like taking a 5-minute vacation. Each week, one Piper team member will answer the question, “What are you reading?” and take you on a well-deserved, 5-minute vacation.
This week Erica is reading The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler.
“…a tentacle-tattooed character who is literally electric…”
ERICA SAYS…
It is so refreshing to read a book with a plot that no one has ever—ever—come up with before. A librarian on the coast of Long Island is sent a mysterious book that chronicles an 18th-century circus, of all things. Then his sister shows up at his door and he fears for her life, especially when the book reveals that women in his family have been dying on the same date for generations. We go from present to past effortlessly, thanks to Swyler’s consummate writing, and learn that his mother’s history as a mermaid in the circus has deep roots in Slavic (not-so-much-folk) lore. Add in natural disasters, a tentacle-tattooed character who is literally electric, illustrations hand-created by Erika Swyler herself, modern-day family secrets, and a love story, and you’re getting just a small idea of what a fabulous ride this is.
AMAZON DESCRIPTION
Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone in a house that is slowly crumbling toward the Long Island Sound. His parents are long dead. His mother, a circus mermaid who made her living by holding her breath, drowned in the very water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, ran off six years ago and now reads tarot cards for a traveling carnival.
One June day, an old book arrives on Simon’s doorstep, sent by an antiquarian bookseller who purchased it on speculation. Fragile and water damaged, the book is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, who reports strange and magical things, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Since then, generations of “mermaids” in Simon’s family have drowned—always on July 24, which is only weeks away.
As his friend Alice looks on with alarm, Simon becomes increasingly worried about his sister. Could there be a curse on Simon’s family? What does it have to do with the book, and can he get to the heart of the mystery in time to save Enola?
In the tradition of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, The Book of Speculation—with two-color illustrations by the author—is Erika Swyler’s moving debut novel about the power of books, family, and magic.
HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK?
Tell Erica what you thought in the blog comments below!
