Cover Image: A Ladder to the Sky

A Ladder to the Sky

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Member Reviews

Six Degrees lets me find links between the various books I read - sometimes a theme, sometimes an odd detail, sometimes it's something totally random. But there's also <a href="https://bookishbeck.com/2023/06/09/book-serendipity-mid-april-through-early-june/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">book serendipity</a> (as described by Bookish Beck) - I don't keep track of it, but I notice it. When I began <a href="https://amzn.to/43VGp8R" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>A Ladder to the Sky</em></a> by John Boyne, I was aware of the serendipitous links to other books I was reading or had just finished. Indulge me a moment -<!--more-->
<ul>
<li>first, <a href="https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com/2023/06/04/nothing-bad-ever-happens-here-by-heather-rose/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heather Rose</a> and her cultural appropriation (which all starts with a visit to a sweat lodge)</li>
<li>next I read <a href="https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com/2023/06/12/yellowface-by-r-f-kuang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Yellowface</em></a>, also about cultural appropriation but with a plagarism plot line.</li>
<li>which brings me to <em>A Ladder to the Sky</em>, a novel about stealing 'other people's stories'.</li>
<li>and then I came across this passage in the book I'm currently reading (<em>What I'd Rather Not Talk About</em> by Jente Posthuma) -</li>
</ul>
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35134" src="https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/sweat-lodge.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="471" />

Weird, huh?

So, to the novel. The central character, <span class="Formatted">Maurice Swift, is a would-be writer. </span><span class="Formatted">He meets celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann </span><span class="Formatted">in a Berlin hotel</span><span class="Formatted">, and lonely Ackermann becomes infactuated with the young and handsome Maurice, and employs him as his assistant. The pair travel the world literary circuit, with Maurice ingratiating himself on other authors along the way. Essentially, always on the make. </span>

The story is beautifully structured, with distinct sections told from the perspective of the different characters who are impacted by Maurice's rise to literary fame. It begins with Ackermann, whose time in Nazi Germany provides Maurice with <span class="Formatted">the basis for his first novel;</span> next comes <span class="Formatted">Gore Vidal, whose home on the Amalfi Coast Maurice vacations at with a famous author that Vidal has long been friends with. The third section provides the only female voice - Edith, Maurice's wife, also a successful author. By this point, you have a clear idea of the type of person Maurice is, which makes the last section, told from his perspective, all the more engrossing.
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Boyne is a solid writer but rarely do I find myself rereading striking passages. Instead, it's his characters that stay with me - years after reading it, I still think fondly about Cyril in <a href="https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com/2018/02/28/the-hearts-invisible-furies-by-john-boyne/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>The Heart's Invisible Furies</em></a>, and laugh about George in <a href="https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com/2022/06/28/the-echo-chamber-by-john-boyne/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>The Echo Chamber</em></a>. Maurice will stay with me for different reasons because he is undoubtedly one of the most horrid characters I've ever come across.

The premise - stealing other people's work - is simple, however, Boyne has created something more complex, particularly in the characters of Maurice and Ackermann, who both lead the reader to weighing up to what extent bad behaviour is 'justifiable'.

<span class="Formatted">If you're planning on reading this book, do all that you can to avoid spoilers. And be content in the knowledge that it's an absolute page-turner.
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I received my copy of <em>A Ladder to the Sky </em>from the publisher, Random House UK, via <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/141928" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NetGalley</a>, in exchange for an honest review.

4/5

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This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

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I am so sorry, tried as I might, I could not finish this book.

I tried to engage with the characters, but if I'm completely honest, I think I still had a book hangover from the Hearts Invisible Furies, which absolutely stole my heart, and I still think of Cyril. I didn't get that connection with any of the characters in this book, and I am so so sorry.

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Telling the story of the fictional writer, Maurice Swift, A Ladder to the Sky is a literary thriller which slowly but steadily reveals the unsavoury, and often brutal things that Maurice is willing to do to rise to the top of the literary world. Unable to come up with the gem of a story himself, Maurice ingratiates himself into writers’ inner circles, befriending and discarding people as needs must. He is a master manipulator, using his good looks and scheming ways to prey on lonely and desperate authors. It is very easy to hate him! As the story unfolds and Maurice falls in and out of fashion he is willing to take more and more risks in order to remain in the spotlight.
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I enjoyed this one, but here comes my (very minor) issues. I’m a real lover of dialogue in books and one of the reasons I loved Normal People so much was because all of the dialogue sounded exactly as it would in real life. In A Ladder to the Sky, the dialogue often felt a little more stilted to me and less like how people actually speak to one another. Another minor niggle was that the ending was wrapped up a little too neatly for my tastes. That said, very minor issues which didn’t stop me from enjoying it!
I’m looking forward to exploring more of Boyne’s fiction in the future and already have ‘A History Of Loneliness’ and ‘This House is Haunted’ waiting on my shelves.

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This is another bookclub pick and I must say I think I may have steered the group toward it as I was so desperate to read it! I already had a copy which I had kindly received from NetGalley but I have since bought myself the paperback as I loved it so much. The bookclub isn't meeting until mid June so I can't discuss it in person with the rest until then. How frustrating, I'm dying to know what the others thought.

I can honestly say I have NEVER read a book so full of despicable characters, not least the main character, Maurice Swift. We follow Maurice from his younger days working as a waiter in Berlin before the wall comes down to his later life; I believe he is in his fifties at the end of the book.

I don't know where to start as I have so much to say but I guess it should be with the man himself. Maurice is a charming, beautiful, ambitious man who will use all his wiles and stop at nothing to get what he wants. More than anything Maurice wants to be a fiction writer and once he has fixed this idea in his head he makes every move imaginable to make it happen. The only stumbling block for Maurice is that he is unable to generate his own ideas. He can write but he has absolutely no imagination.

Boyne uses multiple perspectives throughout the novel and we begin in the third person following an older writer Erich Ackerman in Berlin. Erich and Maurice meet in a restaurant where our young protagonist is waiting tables. The two begin talking and Maurice shares his dreams of being a published writer with Ackerman, who we find out is a successfully published author and winner of 'The Prize', the highest accolade in the publishing industry. Ackerman falls for Maurice's charm and suggests mentoring Maurice if he follows Ackerman on his publicity tour around the world. This way Maurice can learn from someone who is at the top of their game. Maurice does just that and travels around the world from Amsterdam to New York. On their travels, Maurice uses his charms to encourage Ackerman to tell his life story. The older writer becomes infatuated with Maurice and tells him secrets he has told no other. He has never recovered from decisions made as a young man and Maurice uses this information to write a book about Ackerman, who never recovers from the furore which ensues.

Once Maurice has used Ackerman to get a foot on the ladder he befriends Dash Hardy, another older writer. Once again Maurice uses this naive gentleman in order to gain further access to literary greats. There is an interlude where he meets Gore Vidal and for once this worldly writer sees through Maurice and shoots him down in flames (one of my favourite sections).

Maurice goes on to marry, runs a successful magazine in New York, has a child and has the opportunity to lead the life many could only wish for. He is a successful writer, however the main problem in all of this is...he still cannot formulate a single idea for a book. This man wants to be a writer and is a successful one in all ways except he steal his ideas from wherever he can get them and allows no one get in his way; and I mean no one. I should not go into the story any deeper as I fear I will give every plot point away but believe me when I say, no one is safe if they care about Maurice. The title refers to the concept of ambition and how one may as well put a ladder up to the sky if they think they will ever be completely satisfied. Ambition is a never ending state.


I should have been working but the book kept calling...


Boyne is fast becoming an 'autobuy author' for me and I need more of his writing in my life. He moves skilfully from third, to second, to first person as he changes perspectives and it all works so beautifully. The way he mocks and pokes fun at the literary world has the reader smiling and cringing all through this book and I love how I was so drawn into the life of a man I absolutely despised. A great talent indeed; Boyne not Maurice Swift. I absolutely loved this book.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book. This is my unbiased review.

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I really enjoyed this book. At first I thought it was all about Erich and didn't think that I was going to enjoy it. Then I realised that it was about Maurice and started to enjoy it more. Maurice was such a nasty person! I enjoyedhow the story jumped ahead to different stages in his life and I loved the ending!

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I make a point of not reading the description of a novel when I start a book and so I thought this book was going to be about Erich Ackermann and I was not sure how much I was going to 'enjoy' this book while reading Part I. But then it became apparent the main character was Maurice Swift and I was drawn in to the amazing writing, the complex characters, the story itself and I was captivated - horrified, enthralled and dumbfounded all at once. And what is more, the book was about books, plots and authors. I can't recommend this book highly enough!
Many thanks to Netgalley/John Boyne/Random House UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

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How far can the ambition of a writer corrupt a person’s life?

This excellent novel is a deep, dark psychological thriller brilliantly crafted to include many fascinating, colourful characters evolving some into loss and oblivion, some on the light side and one into the depths of psychological depravity.

The story is about writers, successfully published authors - as well as authors who fail. It is about who has talent and who does not have any talent. Those who don't have talent can accept it and move on or allow their failure to swirl them into a vortex of jealousy that has no boundaries. Yet if someone is so profoundly psychologically wrong how far the jealousy will go? It takes a scholar doing some research to unfold the horrendous layers bit by bit in a tense, unstoppable, captivating read.

Maurice asked Theo: “And you – you’ve heard the old proverb about ambition, haven’t you? That it’s like setting a ladder to the sky. A pointless waste of energy.”

Why did he not just follow the talent he did have? He could not because of his other more profound, darker, more sinister talent that had a stronger hold on him even to the end.

Read it! Brilliant!

BonnieK

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

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5★
“‘You want to be what?’ ‘I want to be a success,’ he replied, and perhaps I should have heard the deep intent in his tone and been frightened by it.

‘It’s all that matters to me. I’ll do whatever it takes to succeed.’”

Do you remember The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde? A handsome young fellow sells his soul to the Devil so he can stay young and beautiful forever while a portrait of him will show the signs of his pleasure-filled, amoral life. As he carries on with his vices, he notices the picture is changing and locks it away where nobody else will see it.

The difference here is that Maurice Swift doesn’t have a soul to sell; he's simply a pretty straightforward, narcissistic psychopath. And “pretty” is an important part of the description. He’s a beautiful boy who charms both men and women, and he makes the most of it. He has no particular preference, and he’s not interested in sex. He’s interested only in influence. Climbing that ladder.

Maurice comes from a country background and has no intention of being a farmer or a miner. He wants to be famous. Working as a young waiter in Berlin, he meets Erich, an author who’s just won a prestigious writing award. The author is gay and obviously attracted to Maurice, who flatters the older man with praise and questions, saying he wants to be a writer too, not something most older writers want to hear, but in Erich’s case, he feels a little thrill of excitement.

Maurice is happy to encourage Erich's interest and agrees to be his assistant for some national and international book tours. He doesn’t come right out and ask the question that all authors seem to dread “Where do you get your ideas?”, but Maurice does say maybe he should be a musician and just write some words and let someone else do the melody. [That has certainly worked well for years for Bernie Taupin, who writes the words which Elton John so successfully puts to music.]

Erich reminds him that he is too young to think he’s a failure. He just needs to look around.

“There’s something in all our pasts that we wouldn’t want to be revealed. Look around the lobby the next time you’re there and ask yourself, what would each of these people prefer that I didn’t know about them? And that’s where you’ll find your story. A hotel can be a fascinating place.”

We watch Maurice go through life like a vampire, or maybe more like a spider, pulling people into his web, mesmerising them with his charm and beauty, then sucking them dry of whatever he can get before shedding their hollow shells from his life. Mostly he chooses men, and knows how to lead them on just enough that they will do anything to stay near him. Erich sees this right in the beginning.

“. . . as he talked I simply watched him, feeling rejuvenated by the presence of this boy in my life while all the time trying not to think about how painful it would be when he inevitably departed it again.”

Maurice has no portrait disintegrating in the attic, and his behaviour can’t be said to be soul-destroying, except to others, because he doesn’t seem to have one. He learns from the best, or the worst, as the case may be. Dash Hardy is a famous American novelist who remarks to Erich that he hasn’t read Erich’s prize-winner because he doesn’t read non-Americans, but Erich shouldn’t be offended.

“‘I don’t read women either and I make sure to say so in every interview as it always ensures that I receive the maximum amount of publicity. The politically correct brigade loses their collective minds and before I know it I’m on the front of all the literary pages.’

‘You’re a controversialist then,’ . . .

‘No,’ he replied. ‘I’m a fiction writer with an expensive apartment overlooking Central Park West. And I need to sell books in order to pay the co-op fees.’”

Whatever it takes! Maurice gets away with being a bad boy because he’s so attractive, and if anyone complains, other people just figure it’s a case of sour grapes because Maurice has moved on from them. In fact, he moves on to Dash Hardy, who becomes besotted with him, as so many do.

Except for Gore Vidal. That is my favourite section of the book. Gore (always referred to by his first name here) was known for being controversial and rude, except that he was a genuinely brilliant man, and not a parasitic leech, like Maurice Swift. He recognises instantly what the relationship is between Maurice and Gore’s dear old friend Dash.

Gore remarks about a sample of Maurice’s writing that he has a good sense of place, but “Perhaps you’re a little too fond of alliteration and you’ve clearly never met a noun that you didn’t think would look better all dressed up in an adjective.”

Gore tells Maurice he gets it - the power of beauty. He says he was much the same as a youth, but “better looking, of course”, which Maurice admits was true. “I’ve seen the pictures.”

Maurice goes on through life, captivating useful people while repelling readers. He sinks lower and lower, becoming increasingly hungry and desperate to fulfil his two ambitions – to become a published novelist and to be a father.

He is a loathsome, fascinating creature, and I’m delighted that John Boyne created him. I hate to think that any one person might have inspired this. Not Gore Vidal, I suspect, because he came from a background of great privilege and was related to, and good friends with, JFK and Jackie Kennedy. But Boyne must have to do the book tours and meet all the “where do you get your ideas” people.

No matter. I’m just glad Maurice Swift came to my attention, and I recommend him to anyone else interested in a fascinating character. Near the end, Boyne has Maurice refer to an old proverb that says ambition is like setting a ladder to the sky – pointless. Maybe so, but this book certainly isn’t.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House / Transworld Publishers for the review copy from which I’ve quoted.

P.S. For another wonderful novel about a completely different kind of writer (although Arthur is also gay), I recommend another new favourite, Less, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Andrew Sean Greer. These two books would make great bookends, and I love them both.

[I reviewed “Less” here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...]

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Maurice Swift is one of life’s takers. ‘A Ladder to the Sky’ by John Boyne is the story of his life, told mostly by a series of people he meets, spends time with, has relationships with. Note that I don’t say ‘and who he loves’, because Maurice Swift loves only himself. He is single-minded and does what he needs to do to get on and get what he wants; he wants to be a major novelist and, oddly for such a self-obsessed person, a father. I read the book in a strange state of tension wondering to what lows he would next sink, waiting for him to get his just desserts.
Boyne’s novels are always thought-provoking and this is no different. But I found it a difficult novel to read in that Maurice is not the sort of person you want to know. He lies, dissembles, steals, discriminates, copies, exploits and basically sucks dry a person until, when he has got all he needs, he moves on. We first encounter Maurice in West Berlin in 1988. The sixth novel of sixty six year old Erich Ackermann has won a prize and, on the subsequent publicity tour, he notices a young waiter in the hotel bar. Maurice introduces himself as a fan and mentions he wants to be a writer too. He becomes Ackermann’s assistant for six months as they travel Europe on Ackermann’s book tour. Maurice allows Erich to look longingly at him but does not allow him to touch, instead he encourages Erich to tell a story from his youth. As Erich says, “This was a part of my life that I’d locked away for many decades, never confiding the story in a single person.”
A short Interlude follows Part One, told by Gore (later revealed as American author Gore Vidal) from his Italian villa La Rondinaia. By now Maurice’s debut novel has been published and well received. But Gore is wiser than Erich and sends Maurice on his way. Part Two moves forward a few years and Maurice is married. This is Edith’s story. She has published her first novel to much acclaim, is writing a second and is a creative writing tutor department in Norwich. In contrast, her husband is struggling to complete a new novel and reacts badly to pointed questioning by Edith’s students. Maurice does not handle failure well and Edith fears his mood swings and cold reactions to her. She does not share her novel, her ideas or her drafts but is sensitive to his mood swings. Until one day his mood changes. Given Maurice’s history, I knew what was going to happen but how it happened was unexpected. Boyne has created a nasty villain, arrogant, with a sense of entitlement; but believable. Haven’t we all known a bully who sees what he wants and takes it as of right?
We don’t see directly inside Maurice’s head until well into the second half of the novel. Now living in New York with his son Daniel, he is editor and owner of ‘Stori’, an exclusive literary magazine dedicated to short stories. Given the publicity with his latest novel, ‘The Tribesman’, Maurice and ‘Stori’ are fashionable and many unproven writers submit their stories to him. When he is called to his son’s school because seven-year-old Daniel has hit a girl who kissed him, for the first time we hear a story from Maurice’s schooldays and the beginnings of his plagiarism. The ending is brilliant, and most unexpected.
This is a novel about plagiarism, theft, honour or rather the lack of it, and writing, wrapped up in a plot that will make you gasp out loud as the psychological twists tighten.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

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A brilliant and compelling story, it utterly gripped me. It took me to the edge of the cliff and left me dangling! The characters were so wonderfully layered and complicated that as it twisted and turned, I happily consumed it all.

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An enjoyable read with an intelligent and interesting narrative style. I preferred the flashbacks to the present day accounts but there wasn’t a huge gulf between the two.

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Maurice Swift wants to be a writer. It doesn't matter that he isn't particularly gifted, because he has access to a great story. Erich Ackerman meets Maurice in a hotel in West Berlin in 1988 - and so begins Erich's fall from grace and Maurice's meteoric rise.
Maurice works his way through writers at an astonishing rate. He's a narcissist, I think. He needs the admiration of others and doesn't care how he gets it, and this manifests itself;f in the need to write books, be recognised as a respected award winning writer and make lots of money.
Not wanting to give anything away, but he does some really immoral, terrible things, and doesn't to have any guilt at all. He's an awful person. I don't know why a character like this can make such a good book. I can, actually. This book is so well written. I felt empathy for those he swindles out of their stories, and Maurice is a fascinating character. The reader is drawn to him, just as those poor writers are. I wanted to hate him, but just couldn't.
I loved this book and I've already started recommending it to everyone I know!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this wonderful book.

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I don’t normally read books by the same author within the space of a few weeks but after enjoying ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ by John Boyne so much in July, I was very keen to read his latest novel ‘A Ladder to the Sky’. It tells the story of Maurice Swift, an aspiring young writer who meets moderately successful novelist Erich Ackermann in Berlin in the late 1980s. Erich becomes infatuated with Maurice and reveals a long-held secret from his youth in Nazi Germany. Maurice later publishes a novel based on Erich’s secret to great critical acclaim but struggles to follow the success of his debut. He can write average prose but ideas, plots and characters don’t come naturally to him at all, so he goes in search of other people’s stories, resorting to extreme measures in order to pass them off as his own work.

As with ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’, Boyne moves easily between biting satire and tragedy. On the satirical side, he sends up the pretentious side of the literary world brilliantly, particularly the publishing industry’s obsessions with awards, sales, reputation and petty rivalries, raising several ethical questions along the way about plagiarism, blurring non-fiction and fiction and the origins of ideas and who can take credit for them. Maurice’s stint as editor of a literary magazine is particularly well done and brief cameos of Gore Vidal and Maude Avery, the latter a character from ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’, are a nice touch. On the more serious side, few authors write about shame, guilt, embarrassment and unrequited love or lust as poignantly as Boyne does and the first part in which Erich reveals the secret from his past is very affecting.

Maurice is a slippery antihero and his psychopathic behaviour oscillating between charming and ruthless is believably portrayed by Boyne even if his crimes end up becoming a bit far-fetched towards the end. There were times when I wondered why Maurice didn’t seek a much more lucrative career in something like tabloid journalism where his talent for exploiting the stories of vulnerable people could have earned him a great deal of money. However, it is clear that he is attracted by the mythical status and romanticised lifestyle of being a celebrated novelist and will go to any lengths to achieve his ambition no matter who has to pay the ultimate price along the way.

’A Ladder to the Sky’ is a very entertaining and compelling piece of psychological literary fiction, so long as you don’t mind having your credulity stretched ever so slightly in places. Many thanks to Random House UK, Transworld for sending me a review copy of ‘A Ladder to the Sky’ via NetGalley.

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What do you do when you are ambitious but don’t have the skills? You steal, of course. You do anything to achieve your goal, and everything including people become the means to an end. That’s what Maurice Swift does in John Boyne’s latest “A Ladder to the Sky.”

We first meet the devastatingly handsome Maurice Swift as a young man when he encounters Erich, an ageing but well-known writer. Erich is irresistibly attracted to the young man and is almost as if he is under a spell when he first sees Maurice who is a waiter at the restaurant when he goes for dinner. Erich gets acquainted and very soon he is enthralled.

“I simply watched him, feeling rejuvenated by the presence of this boy in my life while all the time trying not to think about how painful it would be when he inevitably departed again.”

Erich becomes so besotted that he finds himself revealing things he had long kept hidden even to himself. He dredges out buried muck from his past and shows it all to Maurice who is always taking notes, even during their conversations, in a “pale blue Leuchtturm 1917 with numbered pages and a ribbon band,” that he carries around.

This is one of our first clues to what Maurice is really up to. A few pages in we find out the real purpose behind the jottings - Maurice takes Erich’s story and converts it into a bestselling novel. Shocking yet not shocking. It’s something common enough as history has shown us. Yet, Maurice disturbs us with his repetitiveness. He is like a hunter for golden words, an opportunist who stops at nothing as we find out as the novel progresses.

Maurice is one of the most appallingly intriguing characters I have come across in recent times. He makes it clear from the outset that he has two goals in life – to be a success and to become a father. The two goals sit uncomfortably together in the length of a single sentence but that is what Maurice is about. He makes his audience squirm and he takes great pleasure in their discomfiture. All he cares about is his ladder to the sky and he builds that ladder by making other people’s stories his own.

I cannot go on to describe more of him without intertwining it with the latter half of the book, which would give away some of the deliciousness of the story. For this book is like a slab of dark, bitter chocolate. You devour it with a slight grimace on your face but lick every bit of it in the end because it is satisfying. Especially when you are smug in the comfort of watching other people drawn to Maurice like bees to honey and knowing that you never will be because you know what he really is.

This is where I stopped to ask myself – isn’t there a bit of Maurice in all of us then? Why did I enjoy this ultimately unsettling and darkly disturbing novel so much? It does comment on the politics of prize giving and the publishing world in general. It also reads like a critique of the process of writing itself at times, which was interesting. But my brain was asking for more of Maurice. It was like watching a dramatic soap opera on television – lots of unbelievable and unethical stuff, some of it slightly farfetched but enough to still make your eyes widen and jaw slack.

It’s only in the latter half that the pace of the book slows with the coming of Daniel and the introduction of Maurice’s work at Stori. I wished there was a little more of Maurice that we knew. What was his childhood like, for instance? We never meet his parents or his family and we don’t hear from Maurice in the first person, we don’t get inside his head, until much later.

That said, Maurice continues to engage and intrigue till the end.

“…if your story is not engaging…then it simply won’t work.”

This may not rank as my top favourite among Boyne’s novels but he does make it work. Splendidly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for sending me an ARC!

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Maurice Swift is an aspiring writer who jumps at the opportunity to become novelist Erich Ackerman’s personal assistant. Intent on doing whatever it takes to succeed as an author, Swift has something of a talent for inhabiting other people’s stories without much thought for the consequences.

A Ladder to the Sky is a captivating read about obsession, betrayal and the lengths some people will go to in order to keep their “good name”.

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I've read a couple of John Boyne's adult novels and really loved them, so I was really looking forward to this - then it fell flat. It just left me cold. I didn't feel engaged, or care about any of the characters.. It's easy to say 'it didn't grab me' but I'm trying to figure out why.

I didn't like the main character - you could say he was 'deliciously' evil, and revel in his cunning, manipulation and ambition but I found him just plain irritating.
The format didn't help either. Telling each part of the story from a different point of view made it choppy and hard to settle in to. There were a couple of times I felt like giving up at the end of a section, as I didn't feel the story was advancing anywhere.

I'm not sure whether two stars seems harsh or over generous - I DID finish the book; I wouldn't read it again; I'll only recommend it to anyone with the warning of 'everyone else seems to think this is great but I think it's rubbish. Tell me what you think. Is it them or me?'

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Following on from The Heart's Invisible Furies, this is another cracker from John Boyne. Compulsively readable and full of drama, tragedy and humour, A Ladder to the Sky is immensely enjoyable.

The book centres around the life of Maurice Swift, a man who ruthlessly climbs the literary ladder over several decades. Swift is a truly memorable character - ambitious, ruthless, sociopathic,
and charming. He cares little for how his actions affect others and is an all-round bad egg. And yet...I still kind of liked him, some of the time! I think despite the terrible things he says and does there is still something to relate to in Maurice. Or perhaps I just have sociopathic tendencies myself!

As Swift manipulates his way upwards, we meet others who unintentionally aid his ascent, including Erich, a German writer with a secret to hide and Edith, a talented novelist.

The book is split into 3 sections with the first two told from the point of view of Erich and Edith, and the third from Maurice's own point of view.

I zipped through this and thoroughly enjoyed it. Boyne makes it intentionally easy to see what each section is building too and this serves to heighten the reader's tension as they close in on the inevitable unjust or tragic denouements.

Highly recommended.

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A Ladder to ther Sky by John Boyne is a character driven novel which was thought-provoking and a wonderful psychological drama of cat and mouse.

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I loved this book from the very first page until the very last sentence. John Boynes is a genius at telling a story. This is a book that I will recommend for years. Well done.

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