The Book of Speculation

Erika Swyler's debut novel, The Book of Speculation, opens on a precipice: Simon Watson's house teeters, ready to tumble into the sea. Simon is employed as a librarian, and lacks the funds to shore up his family home. His mother drowned, his father died from grief, and his sister, Enola, left to be part of a traveling carnival. She happens, though, to be on her way home when Simon receives a strange package in the mail: a very old book believed to be related to their family history.

Simon discovers a disturbing pattern in the book. Simon already knew his mother was a "mermaid": she could hold her breath for many minutes at a time. This skill notwithstanding, she drowned herself on a 24th of July. Simon did not know, however, that she came from a line of circus-performing mermaids, and that they all died by drowning on that same day. In mid-July, as Enola, acting strangely, has returned to their home by the sea, Simon fears that time is running out if he hopes to solve this puzzle and save his sister.

The Book of Speculation is driven both by character and by plot in delightful, mesmerizing prose. The meandering story offers quirky librarians, circus menageries, love stories, tarot cards, mysticism, family secrets and prickly sibling love--all accompanied by the author's illustrations. [Swyler also painstakingly hand-bound, gilded and aged her manuscript submissions, in imitation of the old book in her story.] In short, The Book of Speculation, like the book at its center, promises to grasp the reader with a supernatural force and not let go. --Julia Jenkins

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