The Absolute Book

A Novel

By: Elizabeth Knox

Narrated by: Anne-Marie Duff

A bewitching epic fantasy about a revenge killing, a mysterious scroll box that has survived centuries of fires, and the book that changed everything

"Intricately plotted and gorgeously written, The Absolute Book is a cinematic tale that is by turns dark and dreamlike, yet ultimately hopeful." (Deborah Harkness, New York Times best-selling author of A Discovery of Witches)

"An instant classic.... It is everything fantasy should be." (The Guardian)

Taryn Cornick believes that the past - her sister's violent death, and her own ill-conceived revenge - is behind her, and she can get on with her life. She has written a successful book about the things that threaten libraries: insects, damp, light, fire, carelessness and uncaring...but not all of the attention it brings her is good.

A policeman, Jacob Berger, questions her about a cold case. Then there are questions about a fire in the library at her grandparents' house and an ancient scroll box known as the Firestarter, as well as threatening phone calls and a mysterious illness. Finally a shadowy young man named Shift appears, forcing Taryn and Jacob toward a reckoning felt in more than one world.

The Absolute Book is epic, action-packed fantasy in which hidden treasures are recovered, wicked things resurface, birds can talk, and dead sisters are a living force. It is a book of journeys and returns, from contemporary England to Auckland, New Zealand; from a magical fairyland to Purgatory. Above all, it is a declaration of love for stories and the ways in which they shape our worlds and create gods out of mortals.

©2021 Elizabeth Knox (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times and Tor

“Blends numerous genres with a skillful and inquiring hand.... Reading [The Absolute Book] is like holding folds of shot silk to the light, finding green flash in something that looks purple, and appreciating how thoughtfully the warp and weft embrace each other.... I'm in awe of...its precision and care, and its wry, understated humor.” (Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review)

“Majestic, brain-bending.... Every once in a while, as a reader, you run into one of those books that is just too big for your mind to entirely take in.... It's quite bracing to come up against the hard edge of your own imagination as you try to pursue a visionary author through the limitless expanse of hers. This is all to say that the experience of reading the New Zealand writer Elizabeth Knox's contemporary fantasy novel The Absolute Book reminded me of how I felt reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell or The Left Hand of Darkness or His Dark Materials or, to move out of genre, Life After Life or The Underground Railroad. I felt that my position in relation to the book's capacious intellect and imagination and moral purpose was a vertiginous one. It was thrilling and frightening.... Each time I thought the book was done surprising me, Knox flexed her own golden gauntlet and opened another gate and flung me through it.” (Dan Kois, Slate)

"The Absolute Book has the feel of an instant classic, a work to rank alongside other modern masterpieces of fantasy such as Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series or Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It is everything fantasy should be: original, magical, well read. Its language is assured, lyrical yet never overwrought, and in its surprising twists of fate, its deft characterization and constant forward momentum, it is both accessible and compelling. At 600-plus pages, a book makes demands on the reader simply at the level of how much time they are prepared to devote to it. Yet that very ambition, the sweep and heft of its ideas, ensure that effort expended is amply rewarded.” (The Guardian)

I wanted to like this book so much

I tried reading it, and couldn’t follow it. So I tried the audio version. Still couldn’t follow it. I wish I could have understood and enjoyed it more.

Great idea but hard to follow

This story would benefit from a good editor. The transitions from one scene to the next were hard to follow. None of the characters really blossomed into someone you cool love, hate, etc.

I LOVE this book

I read the book over the summer and have been waiting for an audio version. This was such a delight. Narrated perfectly. The story is epic and full of interesting characters. I will definitely put this on my reread/relisten list. ❤️

Fascinating but dull

Really enjoyed the intricacy and detail but it wasn’t a story that had me coming back eagerly every day. It took me over a month to get through it.

Not exactly timeless

This story is really inconsistent in quality, and not exactly timeless. The pop culture references, long descriptions of meal preparation, and mixing of original characters with mythology really kept pulling me out of what should have been an immersive mystery.

Interesting idea, but way too long

This book needed an editor. I really liked the idea, but I never fell in love with the chapters or understood their relationship to each other. The ending felt flat and too convenient, like it was just wrapping up the many loose ends.

Great storyline, engaging.

I liked the cadence of the story, the roles of the characters, and the story overall.

A good personal adventure

I picked this up because it was compared to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell. American Gods, set mostly in the UK with a woman's perspective is a a more unavoidable comparison for me, both in writing style and plot. If you like Gaiman, and all his quirks, you'll like this.

disjointed

The synopsis on the cover really doesn't give a good representation of the book. The main characters publishing on the dangers to libraries plays little role besides forming the chapter headings. Instead you get a weird mashup between revenge thriller, other dimensions, fae lore, Norse mythology, demon possessions and tech espionage. This might still seem appealing but the characters float aimlessly from one event to the next and the surprise ordinary people show when struck by the fact that Hell is waging war on earth and birds can talk amounts to little more than a shrug and "oh ok". Still 2 stars because the prose is nice and it can be engaging if you try hard to suspend disbelief.

I wish I DNF’d

I have no idea what’s happening in this book. I own the physical copy and started reading this 2 years ago. The audiobook is better, but the story is so long and I really don’t understand what the point is. I think this would’ve been better if it was a few hundred pages shorter. It lingers too long in some parts and in others there’s too much going on. I have about 3 hours left and I’m just trying to clean up my unread books.