Absolutely stunning. Victor Lodato was not really on my radar, but I'd heard things in the book community about this novel. It did not disappoint. ( )

I picked up this book this morning and I couldn't put it down until I finished it, right before midnight.

It's the most lovely book, but also a very sad book. It reminds me of the grandmas and grandpas and my mama and dad, who are long gone, and encourages me that, if I need them and talk to them, they will somehow hear me. It makes me think of beloved pets, too, living and dead, so innocent and loving and living in the moment, as I should always do, and try hard to.

It's a lovely, lovely book and I thank Lodato for writing it. ( )

What an incredible novel! It is heartrending! Damaged souls, an albino, Aspbergers- burdened boy, a pathological grief-stricken father crazed by guilt, and a grandmother desperate too protect the boy in life and after death. It took a little while to be clear on the family characters and their relationships, and then I could not put it down. How would this group of dysfunctional beings find resolution? Read it to find out. Beautifully written, great characters, and a plot that is beautifully crafted. The primary themes grief, child abduction, and imperfect love. Outstanding, if a tad disturbing! ( )

This is a book about love. Love of all kinds: the gentle, confused love the 8-year-old Edgar has for his distracted mother Lucy; the fierce - even eternal - love his grandmother has for him; the impassioned and futile love Lucy carries for her husband as he slides into madness and death; the tragically warped affection a haunted man has for young Edgar; the matter-of-fact, steadfast and loyal love a butcher has for Lucy... all this love shifting, changing, won and lost. This story takes its time, related largely through the eyes of small, wan, perceptive but naive Edgar, but also through the reckless, selfish, impulsive character of his mother Lucy or the devoted if sometimes confused thoughts of Edgar's grandmother, Lucy's bereaved mother-in-law. There is dark woe in their stories, gradually unfolded, but Edgar's anxious attempts to understand what is going on around him, behind him, and before him are leavened with poignantly comical misapprehensions. The earnest butcher's courting of the mercurial Lucy is bittersweet. And the writing is wonderful: rich, startling, heartfelt. If you do not swallow hard when Lodato describes Lucy's final understanding about the sorrow of "unspent kindness," it is your own fault, not Lodato's.

That said, this book will not entrance everyone. It is slow-paced, packed with ruminations and descriptions, and some redundancies. There are a couple of sexual encounters rather too overwrought for my taste. Some will not care for the thickly-spread prose; others (like me) will revel in it. The characters are difficult, complicated, by turns irritating (took me a long time to warm up to Lucy) and endearing (Edgar. Period.). But they are deeply human, and now that the book has ended, I miss them. In a world choking on multi-volume pseudo-medieval bloodfests, industrially-produced thrillers, and gaggingly twee mysteries, Lodato's big, dense, loving, humane novel is to be cherished. ( )

The unlikely tale of love that unfolds within these pages will start out a slow whisper only to spin you around till you find yourself somewhere shadowy and peculiar. This story captures the imagination and will leave you breathless.

Emotional, intimate and richly detailed, I found myself seeking out a bottle of Chanel No. 5 just so I could better imagine Edgar's world.
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