I have to admit, the reason I was first drawn to this book was the edition. It is a regular paperback, except the edges of the pages are blackened. Thinking it was a horror book I just briefly looked at the text on the back. It said something about living forever and middle ages and I figured I’d pick this one up one day. I found it cheap at Waterstones in London on a trip there, so I thought, what the heck, let me get it, and I am glad I did.
The premis of the book is the I-character, a man who was involved in a one-sided car crash and was burnt terribly. The book starts with his accident and his time in the burn ward of the hospital. Soon he starts getting visits from a mysterious woman, Marianne Engel, he has never met before, but who claims to have known him 700 years earlier in medieval Germany. He figures she’s crazy (schizophrenic or manic, he doesn’t know yet), but because it is something that keeps his mind of the burns, he indulges her.
The story moves from the day to day realities of healing from burns to the stories that Marianne tells him. The story is crazy to believe, but is written really well. It involves Japanese, Italian, English and Icelandic legends (which are not authentic I think) and a detailed description of medieval Germany. It also involves a lot of ideas of Dante’s Inferno.
I loved the book and it’s ideas. I think that Davidson is a great storyteller, and I look forward to any other books he may write (this is his first!).
