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katebrarian 's review for:

5.0

This review is based on an ARC from NetGalley.

I really love Yann Martel. I'm always happy when I read his books, even if I don't love them, because I always love his writing style. It's lush and humourous and beautiful. But, to be clear, this isn't one of his books that I don't love.

For some reason I was bracing myself to be disappointed with this book, but I wasn't. It's broken into three stories that click together, and all three are poignant and absurd. There's a lot of humour in the first story - Martel's descriptions of a poor man learning to drive a stick shift only a few hours before his 10 day journey and only a few years after the invention of the car made me smile until it wasn't funny anymore. There's a lot of what seem to be opposites - funny and serious, happy and sad, science and religion, hope and reality - but they do blend together so well!

So happy to have read this book. I will likely read it again one day!