Liam Pieper
Auteur van The Toymaker
Over de Auteur
Liam Pieper is an author who wrote The Feel-Good Hit of the Year: A Memoir, which made the National Biography Award for biographical writing and memoir 2015 shortlist. This title also made the Ned Kelly 2015 shortlists in the category of Best True Crime. (Bowker Author Biography)
Werken van Liam Pieper
Appreciation 1 exemplaar
Gerelateerde werken
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Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Geslacht
- male
- Woonplaatsen
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Beroepen
- novelist
memoirist
essayist
Leden
Besprekingen
Prijzen
Statistieken
- Werken
- 5
- Ook door
- 1
- Leden
- 72
- Populariteit
- #243,043
- Waardering
- 3.9
- Besprekingen
- 5
- ISBNs
- 24
It’s a family drama, a Holocaust story and literary novel. All in about 80k words. It’s tightly structured, the writing taut and there’s an unpredictable twist.
Arkady is the toymaker who makes a new post-war life for himself in Australia. He creates a toy-making business and makes a lot of money. His grandson, Adam, runs the business with the increasing help of his wife, Tess. Tess is much closer to Arkady than Adam whose narcissistic nature precludes emotional closeness to anyone.
Problems start for Adam in the first few pages that will have you gripped. These problems are of his making and threaten everything his grandfather has created. The action moves seamlessly from present-day Melbourne, Australia, to a Second World War death camp. Some of the death camp scenes are hard to read. Arkady was forced to be involved in the Nazi’s horrific medical experiments. Pieper’s handling of this is far from gratuitous; he’s just telling us what it was like.
When Tess discovers someone is defrauding the company she enlists Arkady’s help. But dementia’s onset diminishes his ability to find the culprit. His dementia-induced outbursts are uncomfortable and real.
I’m looking forward to reading The Toymaker again. I am sure I will get more out of it next time. There are few books about which you say that.… (meer)