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The Keep – Jennifer Egan

I like Jennifer Egan – I’ve read Look at Me and A Visit from the Goon Squad so when I found The Keep in our book shelves I was quite pleased – I think someone must have given it to Mr H as a present.

Here’s the blurb …

 After twenty years apart, two cousins reunite in Eastern Europe to renovate a medieval castle. The cousins are irrevocably bound to one another through the shared experience of their youth, when a childhood prank with devastating consequences changed both their lives forever. In an environment of desolation, isolation and paranoia, the cousins are falling under the gothic spell of the castle and its violent history. The crimes of the past and present are about to collide, and with unthinkable results …

This novel has a fabulous construction – there are links and twists and unexpected connections, not to mention the aging vindictive baroness. Is it a fiction written by a prison inmate or is he re-telling a true tale? There is an under-current of menace, but is that real or in Danny’s head?

I loved reading this book – it was gothic and mysterious and romantic (all three genre type things), but incredibly clever and well-written.

More reviews …

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/books/review/30bell.html?pagewanted=all

 http://readinginwinter.com/2012/05/24/the-keep-by-jennifer-egan/

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Filed under Fiction, Recommended