It's been a long while since I read a book that was wholly original and precisely well-written. Andrew Miller's Pure about the removal of Les Innocents cemetery just before the French Revolution is such a novel.
I loved the characters. I loved the vagueries of the language. The creativity in imagining this story is astonishing. Miller has recreated, not only 18th century Paris, but the dark and foetid stink of the work involved. Yet somehow he's believably intertwined that grotesque with a man's life-changing love and redemption that makes this book more than just a re-imagining of digging up the dead.
1 comment:
I've put this on my wishlist recently - looks like it should move up!
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