The Gargoyle

Amazing novel that is extremely original and a beautiful story.

This book is totally awesome. Andrew Davidson went through great lengths of research to bring us this beautiful love story about a man who finds love at the most unlikely time in his life. Although, written in present time, the book goes back in early history. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book, especially because I'm also reading "Europe before Rome" and many of the things...more

This book is totally awesome. Andrew Davidson went through great lengths of research to bring us this beautiful love story about a man who finds love at the most unlikely time in his life. Although, written in present time, the book goes back in early history. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book, especially because I'm also reading "Europe before Rome" and many of the things described in the story I've recently read about. I would highly recommend this book.   hide

interesting, yet somehow I got lost and bored with the style of writing. It just wound around too many circles for me, causing me to lose the train of thought of the narrator. Althougth the descriptions were done brilliantly, I really didn't ca...re about the characters. There has to be more than pretty writing to really grab my interest and this book didn't have the hood I need to pull...more

interesting, yet somehow I got lost and bored with the style of writing. It just wound around too many circles for me, causing me to lose the train of thought of the narrator. Althougth the descriptions were done brilliantly, I really didn't ca...re about the characters. There has to be more than pretty writing to really grab my interest and this book didn't have the hood I need to pull me in.   hide

Wonderful, wonderful book, which thoroughly deserves its rave reviews. But...and it's a big but...the opening chapters explain in graphic detail what happens when the narrator is involved in a car crash and receives horrific burns. Take a deep breath and persevere, because the story of his recovery and redemption are worth having your stomach turned. My favourite of this year's Richard...more

Wonderful, wonderful book, which thoroughly deserves its rave reviews. But...and it's a big but...the opening chapters explain in graphic detail what happens when the narrator is involved in a car crash and receives horrific burns. Take a deep breath and persevere, because the story of his recovery and redemption are worth having your stomach turned. My favourite of this year's Richard & Judy Book Club reads (so far!).   hide

one of the best books I've read in years!

I don't know when I actually read this book, but I must have been fascinated! I finished it in a month. It was a tragic love story ... entwined by several other tragic love stories. I couldn't put this book down.

Reviewed from Advanced Review Copy Provided by Publisher The narrator of this extraordinary love story is a drug-addicted, suicidal, burn victim that discovers love after a horrible car accident. Marianne Engel a beautiful eccentric sculptress, unexpectedly walks into the hospital burn unit and tells the narrator that they were lovers in medieval times. Although he believes she is suffering from...more

Reviewed from Advanced Review Copy Provided by Publisher The narrator of this extraordinary love story is a drug-addicted, suicidal, burn victim that discovers love after a horrible car accident. Marianne Engel a beautiful eccentric sculptress, unexpectedly walks into the hospital burn unit and tells the narrator that they were lovers in medieval times. Although he believes she is suffering from schizophrenia, he falls in love with her as she cares for him while he recuperates. The story moves a bit slow in the first couple of chapters because the author spends a lot of time graphically describing the injuries the narrator sustains, but then the writing changes into an intriguing story that is hard to put down. You become mesmerized as you try to figure out whether the characters share a love that has lasted centuries or whether Marianne is simply in need of a good psychiatrist. This is a good book to put on your reading list.   hide

What a refreshing, captivating, and compelling book. Very much enjoyed it and it's uniqueness!!

Fascinating... There was a LOT of hype in the book world over this debut novel, so I admit that I was something of a skeptic. Let me tell you, it deserved all of the hype. Of all the books I have read, I can only think of a handful that actually brought me to tears. The Gargoyle was one of them. The book is about a man who is terribly disfigured in an automobile accident. While he is...more

Fascinating... There was a LOT of hype in the book world over this debut novel, so I admit that I was something of a skeptic. Let me tell you, it deserved all of the hype. Of all the books I have read, I can only think of a handful that actually brought me to tears. The Gargoyle was one of them. The book is about a man who is terribly disfigured in an automobile accident. While he is recovering in the burn unit of a hospital, he is visited by a woman who claims that they were lovers 700 years before. She is a sculptor of gargoyles, and more than a little quirky. They fall in love, and along the way she tells him their story from 14th century Germany, along with several other moving tales of tragic love. (I particularly liked Sei's story.) This is a pretty long book, and I was torn between desperately wanting to know how it ended, and not wanting it to end at all.   hide