Sunday, August 9, 2009

The Times they are reviewing

Another short but sweet review appeared yesterday in The Times. It seems now that The Einstein Girl is now officially a thriller, which was not really my intention when I wrote it. But still, if that's how some people see it, then that's fine by me. Labels, shlaybells, I say (that's 'sleigh bells' after too many vodkas).
Anyway, the reviewer is Kate Saunders, and here's what she says:

"A young girl is found, naked and close to death, in the woods outside Berlin. When she wakes up she remembers nothing. But she had a piece of paper advertising a lecture by the great Albert Einstein, and that is the first clue in this stylish thriller. This is Germany in the months before Hitler’s seizure of power. Martin Kirsch is a psychiatrist who is already seeing signs of the way the Third Reich intends to treat its mentally ill, and the unknown "Einstein girl” will turn out to be his last case. I’m giving nothing away; the novel opens with the fact of his disappearance. Strands of history and imagination are beautifully woven together."

3 comments:

Michelle D. Argyle said...

THAT is a fantastic review! This makes me want to read the book even more. Congrats on another great review! You're up tomorrow on my blog. :)

Tim Jones said...

It is a great review! I notice that the last couple of reviews you have quoted have been quite short. Is that typical for book reviews in these venues, or do you think "The Einstein Girl" has received shorter reviews because it's being reviewed as a crime novel?

Philip Sington said...

Fiction does get less and less space in papers these days; so round-ups are increasingly common. That said, any association with a genre (however unintentional, as in this case!) will tend to reduce your review coverage in general. The upside is it should improve the levels ate which book shops stock the book, because genres are popular. A case of swings and roundabouts!