The Visible World [Import] [Hardcover]

Mark Slouka (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company; First Edition edition (2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1846270855
• ISBN-13: 978-1846270857
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,016,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous read!, May 17, 2007

By 

Sam Spade (Lexington, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Visible World (Hardcover)

Wow. I heard this book discussed on NPR's Weekend All Things Considered, and decided it sounded worth the price.

I was not disappointed. As a fan of Milan Kundera, I resist reading books compared to his, but this time it is spot-on. Slouka's protagonist weaves an imagined love story between his mother and a WWII resistance fighter in with the story of his own youth spent with Czech expatriates and his trips to Prague searching for answers to the mystery of his mother's life. The result is a wonderful combination of magical realism and stunning, clear prose that had me hanging on every word. I think Mark Slouka is a marvelous writer, and I hope many more find this lovely novel. Here's the NPR link-

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10161668

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exquisite, July 19, 2007

By 

Bee (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Visible World (Hardcover)

I thought this book might give me some interesting background on Prague, but it far surpassed my expectations. It is a beautifully constructed triptych that interweaves fiction, memoir, and historical fact. The writing is beautiful, the characters memorable, the descriptions evocative.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine novel from one of America's great contemporary writers, May 29, 2007

By 

T. E. Leonard "A late baby bloomer" (Berea, Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Visible World (Hardcover)

I was totally intrigued by Slouka's previous novel, "God's Fool," and awaited with great anticipation the advent of this his latest novel. I was not disappointed. The work centers around the musing of a maturing American male who seeks to reconcile a mystery involving his parents wgich took place during the brutal Nazis occupation of Czechoslovokia. The answers he finds are far less evident than the book's title would suggest.

This is one of the few books I could truly enjoy reading twice!