- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Anchor Canada; 3rd edition (Jan 8 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385663412
- ISBN-13: 978-0385663410
- Product Dimensions: 18.4 x 12.6 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #165,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
An abrupt death sentence given to a 50-year-old London ad exec forces an uneasy deliverance in Richardson's smartly setup, poignant tale. Given less than a month to live, Ambrose Zephyr, alphabet-obsessed since childhood, decides to spend out his last days traveling around the globe from A to Z. Ambrose and his wife, Zappora Ashkenazi (the couple is childless), begin in Amsterdam, viewing art by Velázquez and Rembrandt that has been significant to them in their loving marriage, and now looks wholly transformed. The two move between the sweet memories of past love and an unreal present, from Berlin to Chartres, the Great Pyramids of Khufu to Istanbul; when Ambrose begins to falter and they return home to their Kensington terrace flat. Reality and good manners demand that they inform their respective employers and friends of Ambrose's condition, while Zappora, a fashion editor attempting to keep a journal of the couple's last moments together, endures until the end. Richardson's tightly focused tale has panache, shadowed by a brooding suspense. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
A GLOBE & MAIL BEST BOOK OF 2007
"An alphabet of the language of lovers, a beautiful fable of art and mortality: elegant, wise and humane. I like to think of the happiness this book will bring. I’m sure it will be given as a gift between lovers, and will inspire many journeys – geographical and emotional."
–Chris Cleave, author of Incendiary
“A sad and sweet debut. . . . [Richardson's] love of the 26 building blocks that prop up the entire English language bleeds into the text. Letters have heft and dash and vigor. They lurk as plot points in antique stores and serve up visual trills in alliteration. They turn the 120 pages of this slight book into a tear-stained goodbye note and a heartfelt love letter.”–Los Angeles Times
"C.S. Richardson’s first book, The End of the Alphabet, is nothing less than gorgeous, a short and intense novel structured around the beautiful cul de sac of the alphabet itself….The story is irresistible….It may be all his years serving as bespoke tailor for the covers of books but Scott Richardson has accomplished the magic of transformation in The End of the Alphabet. Evocative and unforgettable, it manages to arouse both a longing for travel and a longing for home…..It is beautiful. Both inside and out.”
–Calgary Herald
"C.S. Richardson’s The End of the Alphabet delivers a gem of a book…like a bouquet of roses, beauty in this elegant and witty tale is barbed. This is a very difficult book to put down at bedtime, even when the final page is turned….Richardson not only has an interesting story to tell, but writes with such visual and emotional density that the end of one reading readily becomes the start of another."
–The Globe & Mail
“If ever there was a grand design for a humane, haunting story like this to make it into print, this may be it. . . . There is something so immediately humane and honest about this story that plays out over a scant 140 pages, something so old-fashionedly romantic, the book all but throbs with feeling in your hands.” —Edmonton Journal
“The book is less than 140 pages–the word count is probably that of a novella–but it had the weight of a 400-page novel. The ending resonates long after you’ve reached the last letter.” —Torontoist.com
“Richardson enters fictional territory previously marked out by writers no less grand than Tolstoy and Kafka. . . . Gentle, wistful, almost otherworldly. . . . Perhaps . . . the novel itself must not be judged by the canons of literary realism, but by some other standard — that its mood and tone belong more to a fairy tale than a gritty story of some poor devil expiring from some strange disease.” —Toronto Star
“The quality of a fable, exquisite and timeless.”–Chatelaine
“A novel that can be read in a single setting of less than two hours might continue to resonate with readers for weeks, months, even years.”–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
From the Hardcover edition.
"An alphabet of the language of lovers, a beautiful fable of art and mortality: elegant, wise and humane. I like to think of the happiness this book will bring. I’m sure it will be given as a gift between lovers, and will inspire many journeys – geographical and emotional."
–Chris Cleave, author of Incendiary
“A sad and sweet debut. . . . [Richardson's] love of the 26 building blocks that prop up the entire English language bleeds into the text. Letters have heft and dash and vigor. They lurk as plot points in antique stores and serve up visual trills in alliteration. They turn the 120 pages of this slight book into a tear-stained goodbye note and a heartfelt love letter.”–Los Angeles Times
"C.S. Richardson’s first book, The End of the Alphabet, is nothing less than gorgeous, a short and intense novel structured around the beautiful cul de sac of the alphabet itself….The story is irresistible….It may be all his years serving as bespoke tailor for the covers of books but Scott Richardson has accomplished the magic of transformation in The End of the Alphabet. Evocative and unforgettable, it manages to arouse both a longing for travel and a longing for home…..It is beautiful. Both inside and out.”
–Calgary Herald
"C.S. Richardson’s The End of the Alphabet delivers a gem of a book…like a bouquet of roses, beauty in this elegant and witty tale is barbed. This is a very difficult book to put down at bedtime, even when the final page is turned….Richardson not only has an interesting story to tell, but writes with such visual and emotional density that the end of one reading readily becomes the start of another."
–The Globe & Mail
“If ever there was a grand design for a humane, haunting story like this to make it into print, this may be it. . . . There is something so immediately humane and honest about this story that plays out over a scant 140 pages, something so old-fashionedly romantic, the book all but throbs with feeling in your hands.” —Edmonton Journal
“The book is less than 140 pages–the word count is probably that of a novella–but it had the weight of a 400-page novel. The ending resonates long after you’ve reached the last letter.” —Torontoist.com
“Richardson enters fictional territory previously marked out by writers no less grand than Tolstoy and Kafka. . . . Gentle, wistful, almost otherworldly. . . . Perhaps . . . the novel itself must not be judged by the canons of literary realism, but by some other standard — that its mood and tone belong more to a fairy tale than a gritty story of some poor devil expiring from some strange disease.” —Toronto Star
“The quality of a fable, exquisite and timeless.”–Chatelaine
“A novel that can be read in a single setting of less than two hours might continue to resonate with readers for weeks, months, even years.”–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
From the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The End of the Alphabet,
By Barnaby Black (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The End of the Alphabet (Hardcover)
This is a gentle, poignant and very moving story dealing with love and loss. yet it never decends into sentimentality. Elegantly written, it tells the story of Ambrose Zephyr and his reaction to the news that he only has one month left to live.What reaction could one possibly have to such a piece of news? For Ambrose, it's the decision to travel the world from A - Z, visiting those places he had often dreamed of - and loosely planned to visit "sometime". Now he has almost no time left. So he and Zipper, his adored wife, embark on a wild ride of a journey to make each of his few remaining days special and meaningful. Partway through his oddyssy Ambrose's health begins to seriouly fail, he realizes that you can't outrun destiny and the best, most comforting, most appropriate place to spend his last days is, after all, at home. I kept hoping against hope that the diagnosis was incorrect and he would find out that he was going to live to a ripe old age ... but this would have been far too trite an ending. I loved this book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful,
By
This review is from: The End of the Alphabet (Hardcover)
Given only one month to live, 50 year old Ambrose Zephyr decides to take his wife, Zipper and travel around the world A-Z. This is a love story first and far most. The destinations around the world are secondary and in fact they end up having to cut the trip short due to Amborse's failing health. It is also about coming to terms with the inevitable loss.Richardson's prose jumps off the page while reading this poignant little story. It is funny, sad, and intelligent all at the same time. The only problem with it is that I wanted to know more. I wanted to know more about Ambrose and his wife's history. This book was only 139 pages though it could have been still under 150, but our curiosity about the past could have been quenched. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more by CS Richardson!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Vapid shortcut across Europe,
By D.B. Wilson (Port Moody, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The End of the Alphabet (Paperback)
"The End of the Alphabet" is a gimmicky, 139 small page, novella with two dimensional characters. Even the anticipated "romp around the world" plot comes up short when the author can't think up a story line to get the characters beyond Istanbul. This trite bit of writing amazingly sidesteps the emotions and life questions associated with the end of a life.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
