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Reading the blurb on the cover, one has the impression that this is going to be a revenge thriller or at least some kind of thriller. But not at all, this is a novel. For the first half of the book, one is intrigued, wondering where this is going to lead to. Then one becomes clear that this is not a revenge book, it's something else. Interesting nevertheless...

One has the feeling that this was, for the author, an assignment. Long stretches of text which seem obviously to be written to fill space, to reach the number of pages required by the teacher.

Not really my type.

the premise of the story should make for interesting reading, but in my opinion the author uses such a casual and plain writing style that it quickly becomes somewhat boring. He catches up a bit on the ending that is quicker paced but a bit too late for me.

Rien de transcendant mais bien écrit avec une intrigue qui se défend bien.  Tous les clichés du genre y sont, y compris la finale pendant l'orage mais on pardonne volontiers à l'auteure car elle nous a fait passer un bon moment.

Very good book. It manages to make a good thriller out of an interesting discussion about our present ecological conundrum. We follow 2 female lead characters (good job to portray 2 women in very believable center roles) and get in the process a very good insight of their detailed reflection journey.

The author renders the traditional thriller with a very original twist in this novel where the story unfolds be reading one's way though a series of transcriptions of audio files. She plays with the fact that it is a machine transcription where words can easily get misspellt, for instance "mustard" instead of "must have", and all this while the dictator of the files getting transcribed is hunting for something by unraveling a code.

You can already see the complications, transcription mistakes, code to decipher based only on said transcription.

A pleasure to read!

Written by a doctor, this book takes you to Addis Ababa in the early 60's and ends up there as well, not without a long stay in America.

The story certainly brings us out of the usual European or North Ameican settings. Very touching, although the story is claimed to be fictional, being written by a famous doctor, you cannot help but think that there might be quite a few autobiographic elements included. As many books written by technical experts, this one tends to lean heavely on sentimental lyricism but given the nature of the intrigue you easily forgive the author for it.

Pas mal, le décor est grandiose, pour ne pas dire grandiloquent, mais vraiment on a souvent du mal à ne pas s'endormir...

Even if it was only for the language. The way Herron sets the scene and looks at the world have no equivalents. English is not my native language but it seems to me that he pushes it to its limits to make it say something that normal usage cannot carry.

And for those who do like a spy story this is even better than Le Carre.

Fascinating explanation of how we came to be about. If only for the detour he makes on how bats can fly around it's worth a read.

Formula based book.

I know that many of us men are not totally blameless, but all men are rapists? hmmm

Predictable from chapter 2. Well written but boringly following the formula. Read at the beach when it's hot and you feel lazy.

Very long (640 pages) novel and I have to admit that I rarely got bored. All the more surprising to me as the subject matter and the characters do not represent cherished values for me. The main character comes from Kansas (which, sorry to say, for me is more associated with red neck mentality and values), he is married and has a son. The novel is essentially the story of that marriage, another subject that normally would bore me to death. But the writing is vivid, not telling a linear story and goes on to reflect on the nature of art in the 21th Century with considerations on the impacts of social media algorithms on people interactions. But you have to no let yourself be impressed by the wall of text that is each page, very few paragraph breaks give you the chance to take a breath.

Not quite the level of later works but definitively Herron.

Good read.