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The Little Book | 
 enlarge | Author: Selden Edwards
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $14.45
You Save: $11.50 (44%)
New (43) Used (14) Collectible (6) from $12.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 7322
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0525950613
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780525950615
Publication Date: August 14, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081130225628T
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Product Description
An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans generations, ranging from fin de sicle Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.
The Little Book is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legends son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero. In 1988 he is forty-seven, living in San Francisco. Suddenly he isstill his modern selfwandering in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: fin de sicle Vienna. It is 1897, precisely ninety-one years before his last memory and a half-century before his birth.
Its not long before Wheeler has acquired appropriate clothes, money, lodging, a group of young Viennese intellectuals as friends, a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young American woman, a passing acquaintance with local celebrity Mark Twain, and an incredible and surprising insight into the dashing young war-hero father he never knew.
But the truth at the center of Wheelers dislocation in time remains a stubborn mystery that will take months of exploration and a lifetime of memories to unravel and that will, in the end, reveal nothing short of the eccentric Burden familys unrivaled impact on the very course of the coming century. The Little Book is a masterpiece of unequaled storytelling that announces Selden Edwards as one of the most dazzling, original, entertaining, and inventive novelists of our time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 A Wild Ride for Book Clubs August 17, 2008
50 out of 57 found this review helpful
I am a self-admitted book-a-holic, and for a book to keep me up and guessing - that's saying a lot. For a book to completely surprise me - that is saying even more. For a book to challenge me intellectually and make me laugh out loud in parts - to be cerebral and totally cool at the same time - sheer delight! How did Selden Edwards pull THAT off? This book makes me want to sit down with the writer and ask a hundred questions about the obvious craft of turning such an outrageous idea (and it is that) into a cohesive story. I didn't want the book to end, and I miss the characters already. My book club is reading it, and I can hardly wait to hear everyone's favorite passage/character/scene/line. It's clearly my favorite book of the summer, and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a terrific movie in a summer to come; it plays (and stays) in the mind like the best kind of film.
This is one of the best books I have ever read August 14, 2008
22 out of 26 found this review helpful
The Little Book is impossible to describe and impossible to forget. The characters that Edwards creates- and the insights about different cultures and eras- are nothing short of remarkable. Just like Pat Conroy says on the cover, it forever changes you. I finished it and immediately began re-reading- and was still sad when it was over. It is a perfect book club choice, vacation read, or book to recommend to a friend. You won't be able to put it down!
THIS is great fiction September 14, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Previously I reviewed "The Host" by Meyer and said it was shallow, no real character development and devoid of any real plot or complex story line. Now that I have read "The Little Book" I would encourage all of you who thought "The Host" was good fiction to read great fiction.
Strong indepth character development, people you care about. Complex (if slightly predictable) story line and wonderful detail of the time periods and people. This is what science fiction or fantasy (call it whichever you wish) should read like. Something totally outside the realm of beleivablity, but something you believe while you are reading it.
An absolutly wonderful book, great story, wonderful characters and told in something like a short history lesson.
Buy this book.
A Great Read September 18, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful book with a unique story and memorable characters that are not soon forgotten. I couldn't put it down!
Insightful and thoughtful August 18, 2008
14 out of 20 found this review helpful
Selden Edward's first novel is a reader's delight. By reader I mean someone who enjoys "real" literature like Powell and Fowles and Chabon and Eugenides and Helprin but does not distain science fiction and mysteries and fabulism. This is a novel for someone who just loves to read and loves the characters one encounters and the intricacies of plot, structure, and pace. This wonderful novel has the quality of an epic to it. I returned home three days ago from a long vacation and found my copy waiting for me. I began to read it that evening and have not put it down since. I am almost finished and will write a second review as soon as I do finish. After three hundred pages, I can recommend this book to everyone. I have just been pulled right through.
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