ARC Review: The Book of Speculation: A Novel
Title: The Book of Speculation: A Novel by Erika Swyler Publisher: St. Martin's Press Format: advanced e-galley from the publisher through netgalley.com Pages: 352 pages Genre: Fiction This title is due to be released June 23, 2015 Synopsis: Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone in a house that is slowly crumbling toward the Long Island Sound. His parents are long dead. His mother, a circus mermaid who made her living by holding her breath, drowned in the very water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, ran off six years ago and now reads tarot cards for a traveling carnival. One June day, an old book arrives on Simon's doorstep, sent by an antiquarian bookseller who purchased it on speculation. Fragile and water damaged, the book is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, who reports strange and magical things, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Since then, generations of "mermaids" in Simon's ...