In Search of Lost Books: The forgotten stories of eight mythical volumes by Giorgio van Straten, Translated by Simon Carnell

Hello readers,

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this ebook for free and giving me the chance to give a honest review this book

The last two books I have read have been completely out of my normal book “comfort” zone so to speak and I have surprised myself by enjoying them more that I thought I would. Sometimes it’s nice for a change I think the nice weather has helping. So on to the review...

I enjoyed this book it was an engaging and eye-opening book about other books, a collection of classics works that can no longer be read, for they no longer exist.

The mythical books that Giorgio van Straten is trying to find by turning detective, traveller and researcher, as he examines clues, leads and interviews experts to discover the stories of these eight-lost works, and their authors. His pursuit takes him around the world, and across decades, to discover unforeseen and unexpected connections.

THE LOST BOOKS

Romano Bilenchi The Avenue
Lord Byron Memoirs
Ernest Hemingway Juvenilia
Bruno Schulz The Messiah
Nikolai Gogol Dead Souls (part II)
Malcolm Lowry In Ballast to the White Sea
Walter Benjamin What was in the Black Suitcase
Sylvia Plath Double Exposure

The works having been burnt, dismissed, banned, stolen, accidentally or deliberately damaged, in natural or political disasters; and some of the books have even been read by a few people before vanishing into thin air. The history of these eight books is informative and entertaining, giving a moving insight into the daily pressures and irresponsibility’s of writing, concerns for the reputation of the deceased author, bad luck, the failure to protect work in time of war.

Let’s be honest and really think, there must be thousands if not millions, of books that have been written and then never made it to print or that have ended up getting lost completely, including both fiction and nonfiction books that could be the greatest works of recent history. 


L x