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Title: Annas Book (Audio Editions) by Barbara Vine, Sophie Ward ISBN: 0-945353-98-7 Publisher: Audio Partners Pub. Date: 01 February, 1995 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 2 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.58 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: My all times favourite
Comment: I was raised in a bookstore, did read a lot of books... But this one really stands out. The cover by itself is already appealling, the handwriting and the children, you can deduct a good story in it. I loved the diaries of Asta (I don't get it why my version is Asta's book, later on changed to Anna's book), she is so clever. The plot is fantastic, I even went to archives of the newspaper I work for to check on dates and events... Such as the ship going under with the cadets... The murder is horrifying, and you keep asking about the missing child.... They should write more books like that. Containing a good story, good characters, a thin line between fiction and non-fiction. I just devored it.....
Rating: 5
Summary: But I didn't cry. I don't.
Comment: I first saw this book in a discount store in the late 90s, and barely scanned it, but liked what I saw. I checked it out of the public library and read it through three times. I didn't even know who Ruth Rendell was. I bought a copy, I can't remember where, to add to my permanent collection, and have read it many times. It is completely realistic. I've caught myself thinking that the Anna diaries actually have been published (like Anais Nin's) and that one of these days I'll have to buy a set, and catch Cary Oliver's "Roper" film on Masterpiece Theatre. Diaries, dollhouses, missing children (especially, as Anne points out, missing white, blonde, girl children) and gruesome unsolved crimes, are compelling elements when combined and used wisely. Rendell's use of Danish words and bits of Danish culture also help to give the story a wonderful sense of unity. She seems to do this with all her books. She really did her homework for "Shattered Silk" and another one I read a couple of years ago about a lady who inherits a jewelry business. I am NOT a big fan of fictional mysteries (real-life ones, like the Lindbergh Kidnapping, Little Miss 1565, or Amelia Earhart, are another matter) and don't even care for most Agatha Christie or Anne Perry. "Anna's Book" was so true to life that it crossed the "reality" line for me. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an extremely absorbing, intricate but very readable tale.
Rating: 5
Summary: Clever, surprising, powerful
Comment: Well, what can I say but, This novel is by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) and that means it is excellent. That statement is true of every single one of her 50 + books. Anna's Book is no exception (much more suitably titled, "Asta's Book" in the UK). It is an incredibly powerful mysery, brilliantly told. The narrative is so powerful that you become swept away, almost not noticing how brilliant the characters are, how stunningly she evokes the atmosphere of fin de siecle London, and the experience of a foreigner's integration into that often exclusive society. This is a remarkable book not just for the fact that it is a great mystery, but all the other things as well.
Boiled down very basically, it is about the unravelling of a mystery surrounding Anna, a Danish immigrant to the UK in 1905. Years later, an extensive series of diaries of her penship are found, and published to great acclaim. Soon, though, it becomes clear that something in those diaries contains the clue to a century-old unsolved murder and the disappearance of a young child...It is up to her grandaughter Ann, who has inherited the original diaries upon the death of her aunt, to delve deep into Anna's life, and an era about which society was very different to today.
Vine writes brilliantly, and she creates character with an almost unbelieveable ease. The mystery is woven in and plotted with a skill that astounds: certainly, if a reader were to ask "If one book were to more purely exemplify Ruth Rendell's clearly brilliant plotting abilities, what would it be?" I would answer heartily, "Anna's Book"!
Anna herself is a fascinating character, and her diaries entries are sprinkled throughout the novel, and make some brilliant reading. I found myself often having to tell myself that they were fiction, not the result of some Danish immigrant's boredom at the turn of the century. They alone are a remarkable achievement. I can only say well done to Rendell, for creating a sterling mystery novel, a brilliant character study, and a wonderful and atmospheric rendering of an old society gone by. Great stuff from Vine.
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Title: A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine ISBN: 0452270642 Publisher: Plume Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: The Chimney Sweeper's Boy: A Novel by Barbara Vine ISBN: 0671034294 Publisher: Pocket Pub. Date: 01 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Grasshopper: A Novel (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Barbara Vine ISBN: 0375726500 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 11 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Lake of Darkness by Ruth Rendell ISBN: 0375704973 Publisher: Random House~trade Pub. Date: September, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: A Fatal Inversion (Plume Fiction) by Ruth Rendell, Barbara Vine ISBN: 0452270707 Publisher: Penguin USA Pub. Date: 01 May, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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