Dying to Know You [Hardcover]

Aidan Chambers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2012

In Dying to Know You, award-winning author Aidan Chambers has created an indelible portrait of a young man discovering his own voice in the world, and has constructed a love story that is as much about the mind as it is the heart.
In this contemporary love story, a teenage boy named Karl enlists a famous writer to help him impress his girlfriend, Fiorella. She has asked him to write her a letter in which he reveals his true self. But Karl isn’t convinced he’s good enough with words, so he tracks down Fiorella’s favorite author and begs him to take up the task. The writer reluctantly assents, on the condition that Karl agree to a series of interviews, so that the letter will be based on an authentic portrait of Karl. The letter, though effective, has unexpected consequences for Karl, Fiorella, and the writer.

Praise for Dying to Know You

*THREE STARRED REVIEWS*

“Deliberate in pace and carefully insightful in its investigation of character, Chamber’s latest is a work of art that repays multiple readings.”

—Booklist, starred review

"Chambers delivers yet another intellectually satisfying novel with equal parts philosophy and repartee, and this one may have broader teen appeal than his most recent efforts."
—The Horn Book, starred review

"Packed to the brim with challenging ideas, the latest from Chambers—winner of the Printz Award, Carnegie Medal, and Hans Christian Andersen Award, among others—is simultaneously an acutely observed (and surprising) love story; the chronicle of a young man coming into his own as an artist; and a slippery, twisting examination of the art of storytelling."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“This quietly understated performance captures the wistfulness of music in a minor key and is ultimately successful in its life-affirming message.”
—Kirkus Reviews

"Readers are hooked with snappy dialogue and keen insights; Karl is a multifaceted and likable character who will keep them engaged and rooting for him to find his way in love and in life."
—School Library Journal

Award
Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) Choices 2013 list - Young Adult Fiction

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Deliberate in pace and carefully insightful in its investigation of character, Chamber's latest is a work of art that repays multiple readings" -- Michael Cart Booklist 20120321 "Packed to the brim with challenging ideas, the latest from Chambers is simultaneously an acutely observed and surprising love story. An organic yet intricately crafted story of self-discovery ... This is a generous gift" Publishers Weekly "This is a teasingly provocative and touching cross-generational story, written with a rare candour about love, sex, thoughts of suicide and growing old" -- Julia Eccleshare Guardian "Chambers is so skilled, so calmly truthful in his writing. What emerges is not just a moving, unexpected story of the complexity of teenagers, but also a story of later life, of ageing and loss, and what experience really means" -- Patrick Ness Guardian "It takes a writer with the superb skill and sensitivity of Chambers to adapt the Cyrano de Bergerac story and turn it into a modern tale of grief, growth and acceptance ... Great tenderness, authentic dialogue and elegantly crafted plotting. A book to be read and re-read" -- Sally Morris Daily Mail 20120427 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Aidan Chambers has received international acclaim and won every major young adult prize, including the Michael L. Printz Award and the Carnegie Medal. He lives in Gloucester, England, with his wife, Nancy. To learn more, visit him online at www.aidanchambers.co.uk.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Amulet Books (April 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419701657
• ISBN-13: 978-1419701658
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #949,926 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars dying to know you July 16, 2012

By My Favorite Pastime

Format:Hardcover

Karl is dyslexic so he hates to write. He also doesn't know how to express himself very well. When Karl's girlfriend Fiorella asks him to answer some questions she has by writing out his answers Karl turns to Fiorella's favorite author for help.

Not only is this author helping Karl with searching out his inner most feelings, but Karl is helping the author by once again giving him a reason and will to write after his wife's death.

Karl and the author develop a friendship that manages to withstand many ups and downs as they both explore who they are. They relate with each other in that the author can see that he and Karl have many of the same character qualities. Karl is brooding and moody and insecure, the author can see many of the same qualities in himself. He helps Karl deal with those emotions throughout the book.

The story was written from the authors point of view.We never know what the authors name is. I enjoyed how much he helped Karl discover himself. He helped Karl through depression and other emotions by offering wise advice or just listening when Karl had something to say. In return Karl gave the author a reason to start writing again after the death of his wife. There were a few sexual situations, but nothing graphic. There was also a bit of language. I think this was a story of healing both for Karl and for the author that befriended him.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A thought-provoking and interesting read. April 7, 2012

By Amanda Welling

Format:Hardcover

First Impressions: Contemporary books are becoming my new favorite thing at the moment, so I was very happy to sit down and start reading this book. It helps that I really admire the author of Dying to Know You and I have read other books written by him in the past. He is a great writer who always comes up with the most interesting of stories.

First 50 Pages: Dying to Know You is extremely unique for a young adult novel for one particular reason, the narrator. Usually teenage characters are the narrators in books meant for young adults, but in Dying to Know You, the story is told from the perspective of an unnamed old man who is a writer that Karl goes to in order to receive help with writing a love letter to his girlfriend, Fiorella. I've never come across anything quite like this before while reading a book meant for young adults. Personally, I really enjoyed the voice of the old man right from the beginning of the book. However, I can see where some younger readers might feel disconnected from the story and its characters simply because of the narrators' age. As I continued to read the book, I found the writing style to be quite poetic almost and intriguing. I wasn't at all disappointed with the pace even though it did start out on the slower side. For some reason, Dying to Know You reminds me of several Nicolas Sparks novels and I can't quite pin-point why other than the writing style seemed similar.

Characters & Plot: The main plot followed a boy named Karl who decides he really wants to hang on to his girlfriend, Fiorella, who had asked him to write her a letter telling her all about who he really is deep inside. Karl basically has no idea what to do, and he isn't very good with words or writing, so he tracks down Fiorella's favorite author to help him write the letter.... The writer, who is the unnamed old man, very reluctantly agrees to help Karl on the condition that Karl endures a series of interviews with him so that the letter feels authentic. It is a story that deals with some very tough and touchy subjects, such as depression and dyslexia, as well as the loss of a loved one. The theme of friendship also seeps out of the pages quite frequently.

I really loved the narrator, like I stated before. He listened to Karl without being judgmental or obtrusive. He was also extremely thoughtful, wise, and funny. He had a lot of worldly knowledge to share with Karl, and quite open about sometimes more taboo subjects. I liked to see how the narrator and Karl's relationship progressed throughout the story and the bond these two men created despite the difference in age. The writer helps Karl realize his full potential and helps him gain the self-confidence he so desperately needed. Being able to express yourself is yet another theme that runs deeply throughout the novel.

Final Thoughts: While I really enjoyed Dying to Know You, I am interested to see how younger readers are going to take to it. I really hope they will appreciate the fact that the narrator is older than the norm and realize that, despite the age difference, the two main characters needed each other and held common ground. This was a heart-warming story I am sure will be enjoyed by many people, young and old. Read more ›

4.0 out of 5 stars Dying to Know You (YA) May 26, 2013

By Melissa A. Palmer VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

Book #46 Read in 2013
Dying to Know You by Aidan Chambers (YA)

Karl asks a local writer to help him communicate with his girlfriend, who has ordered him to answer her sheet of questions in grammatically correct writing. Karl has dyslexia and feels unsure about his writing and since the writer is one of his girlfriend's favorite authors, he thought that this may be a better way of answering her questions. The two men begin a friendship and begin to help and learn from each other. Both find in the other something that will fill the gap that has been in their lives.

This was a good, quick read. I enjoyed the thoughts of writing and books but I really love the two main characters and the relationship they developed. I enjoyed this book.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading to Know Myself September 22, 2012

By Paige W.

Format:Hardcover

I couldn't believe I had missed the release of Aidan Chambers' Dying to Know You. College had probably taken over my life by the release date of his new book, so I had probably gotten behind on all the reading I actually wanted to do, sadly enough. So when I finally checked Aidan's website, I saw that his new young adult novel was out. I immediately signed into Amazon.com and clicked on the button that said "Buy Now."

This story isn't just about a teenage romance, as the cover jacket suggests. It's about relationships between people, death, growing old, coming of age, finding one's passion, finding one's passion but not knowing what to do with it, and so much more. Although the plot line seems to resemble a modern day twist on Cyrano de Bergerac, that's not what this story is exclusively. Yes, young Karl is hot for Fiorella and goes looking for help from an author in order to win her over. Karl has dyslexia, you see, and his fair maiden has asked him to write about himself. You can see the problem this presents. But when Karl goes to the unnamed writer for help, the older man decides to help him. But the two would-be companions both get a whole lot more out of the deal than they bargained for.

In Aidan's newest young adult novel, new-found relationships await an angsty teenaged boy and an aging writer--both of whom had never realized how much they needed each other.

Because I'm a huge fan of Aidan's and know his work well--I own all seven of his YA novels and I've read one of them over five times--this book presents a mystery to me: it seems that this story could have happened to Aidan himself, so I really enjoyed the curiousness of a possible double story line involved with this book.

In many of Aidan's books, there are tons of Oscar Wilde references.... This book is no different--the references are brilliant, and I love them! There's also a great irony in the fact that this young adult story is being told through the eyes of an older man. When I read this book, I found myself relating to a generation I never thought I could relate to. I love that about Aidan's writing--he has a knack for creating relatable characters who observe other characters and share their stories in beautiful, new ways. For example, there is a passage in the book in which the narrator shows us a message from Karl that Karl wrote through the tablet application, Dragon Dictation. Dragon Dictation records whatever you might want to say and then converts those spoken words into written words. And as with every kind of technology, there are some downsides to Dragon--it can misspell words, pick up phrases that you didn't say, and misinterpret your words altogether. Through Aidan's innovative way of telling stories, he stays true to how Dragon works--the passage is full of misspelled words and random words that don't make sense. I love that, even though Aidan is an older man, he still keeps up with what's popular in technology and in the minds of young adults. He uses new technology to bring us a timeless story in a different way than most authors.

He also has lots of variation in the way he writes his stories. In some passages, one of the characters will write an email message to the narrator. In another, it will include line after line of dialogue. And sometimes, someone will send the narrator a message via Dragon Dictation. Aidan knows how to keep his readers engaged and he does this by varying the way he brings us the story. And in my opinion, he does it extremely well.

We read books for lots of reasons--to educate ourselves, to be entertained, to be informed, and to disappear in someone else's problems rather than face our own. I read this book for all of these reasons, but I came across another reason to read Aidan's works that I never really caught onto until now: I learned a lot about myself from this book. Though I can't share what I learned because it's closely related to the plot near the end of the book, Aidan's messages helped me discover who I am as a reader, as a writer, and as a human being. I can't say that many books do this for me, but Aidan's books definitely do. And though this might be selfish to say, that in itself was worth the read for me.

I don't usually have any suggestions on what could be improved in one of Aidan's books. But for Dying to Know You, I didn't really have any interest in knowing every time the narrator had to pee. Ew--TMI. Another thing that really bothered me is that the writer/narrator of the book is unnamed! And since he's the narrator, and a very important character in this story, I wish I had known his name.

Something else that might catch a reader off-guard--the dialogue can get pretty confusing. It's like this in all of Aidan's books, too. If you follow the dialogue closely enough, it's fine to read through, but it's extra work for the reader. I don't mind that since I'm a very dedicated Aidan reader, but it might put off the people who aren't and I would hate for them to stop reading his books just because the dialogue gets a little confusing. Perhaps if the speakers of each bit of dialogue were made clearer, more people might enjoy reading Aidan's books.

I would recommend Dying to Know You to anyone who's fallen in love with Aidan Chambers' writing. Also, if you enjoyed Cyrano de Bergerac in high school, you would probably enjoy Dying to Know You--you might be warned, though, that you may get more than you bargained for, which, I promise, will be a good thing. Read more ›