"‘And you’ve heard the old proverb about ambition, haven’t you?’ He shook his head. ‘That it’s like setting a ladder to the sky.'"

A Ladder to the Sky perhaps won't be the most literary novel I will read in 2018, but I strongly suspect it will be the most fun.   Ever wondered what would have happened had the Talented Mr Ripley set his sights on winning the Booker Prize?  Wonder no more...

"‘Well, they’d have to be really talented,’ he said. ‘But also, a complete psychopath.’ I laughed. ‘Well, yes. But, of course, those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.’"

The novel starts, in the late 1980s, in a rather low key fashion, narrated by Erich Ackermann, of German origin, but now a Fellow of English literature at Kings College, Cambridge.  Erich has found belated success in his second career as an author, winning the pinnacle of any ambitious author's career, The Prize:

"My writing career, which had begun more than thirty-five years earlier, producing six short novels and an illadvised collection of poetry, had never been successful. None of my books had attracted many readers, despite generally positive reviews, nor had they garnered much international attention. 

However, to my great surprise I had won an important literary award the previous autumn for my sixth novel, Dread. In the wake of The Prize, the book sold rather well and was translated into numerous languages. The disinterest that had generally greeted my work was soon replaced by admiration and critical study while the literary pages argued over who could claim credit for my renaissance. Suddenly I found myself invited to literary festivals and being asked to undertake book tours in foreign countries."

On such an international tour he becomes infatuated by a handsome young waiter from Northern England, and it transpires aspiring writer, Maurice Swift, ("‘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") hiring him as a "personal assistant" to accompany him for the next 6 months.

Although to Ackermann's frustration, Maurice never quite let his duties extend past the strict job description, although he always suggests his willingness to go further while he teases out the real story of what Erich did in the second world war.  

Erich himself has aspects of (WW2 past that comes back to haunt him) Gunter Grass meets (UK based academic) WG Sebald; indeed one character later trying to recall Erich rather muddles him with the former:

"‘Who’s Erich Ackermann?’

‘Dread,’ said Gore. ‘You’ve read it.’

‘Have I?’

'Yes, you admired it.’

‘Alright.’  Howard considered this for a moment. ‘He wasn’t the fellow we met at that festival in Jaipur, was he? With the moustache and the pipe? The one who kept bursting into song at inappropriate moments?’

‘No, that was Günter Grass.’"

Maurice as a writer is a very competent craftsman but has a major block with plots: he simply struggles to dream up anything original:

"‘You’re right, of course,’ he said finally. ‘I’m not very good at thinking up plots, that’s the problem. I feel like all the stories in the universe have already been told.'

’But that’s just not true,’ I insisted. ‘There’s an infinite supply for anyone with an imagination.’

'Sometimes I think I would be better as a musician. The type who writes the words but lets someone else come up with the melody. Perhaps I’m simply tone deaf.’"

But Maurice certainly doesn't lack ambition:

"'But you are a successful novelist,’ he said , laughing . ‘At least you have been since you won The Prize.’

'I mean the very rich and famous ones,’ I said, correcting myself. ‘Those who have readers, not those who win awards.’

‘Do the two have to be mutually exclusive?'

‘In a perfect world, no. But in the real world, they generally are.’

'I’m going to be different ,’ he said, nodding confidently.

'Oh really? In what way?’

‘I’m going to have readers and win prizes.’"

And as he travels with Erich, something clicks and Maurice works on his own novel.  In a denouement to this first section that is heavily signposted to the reader, but still a shock to Erich, this turns out to be a lightly fictonalised version of Reich's own wartime past.

Maurice is keen to explain to interviewers that his novel is purely fiction but equally keen, so as to maximise publicity, to make sure it is widely known to be based on the real-life secrets of the famous author. (an approach which incidentally nicely skewers my least favourite novel of 2018, Asymmetry) 

The resulting publicity brings literary fame to Maurice and shame to Erich.

The Prize of course rises above it all:

"Bookshops across the world removed my novels from their shelves, although the organisers of The Prize itself refused, in the face of staunch criticism, to rescind my award, saying that it had been given to a book, not to an author, and that Dread remained a sublime work, regardless of the monstrous actions of its creator. 

In response to this a great number of writers boycotted The Prize that year, refusing to enter their books, and only when the fuss died down did they seek the approbation of a small glass trophy and a sizable cheque once again."

As the novel progresses over the next 30 years to the present day, different narrator's, finishing with the man himself, tell us how Maurice resorts to increasingly psychopathic measures to gain ongoing literary inspiration, caring little who suffers, or even dies, as a consequence.   As he explains, for no particular reason, to his son's rather shocked head teacher:

"I don’t much like women, if I’m honest. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not some tragic misogynist. I don’t much like men either. I’m an equal opportunities hater."

To say more would be to ruin the fun but some favourite quotes:

Maurice recalls his 'inspirational' father:

"'That DH Lawrence only wrote filth,’ replied his father. ‘Naked men wrestling with each other and posh pieces having it off with the gamekeeper. Queer stuff, if you ask me. Written for poofters with fancy ideas. I’ll not have any of it in the house.’"

Discussing the morality of what Maurice did to Ackermann:

"‘There can be no discussion of morality when it comes to art. A writer must tell the story that captures his soul. Gore’s written about Aaron Burr, after all. And Lincoln. And the Emperor Julian.’

‘Yes, but they’re all long dead. Ackermann is still alive, isn’t he?’"

Reading a book shortlisted for The Prize by an author whose books you hate (I am guilty as charged almost every year):


"'I don’t know why you keep reading that,’ I said. ‘It’s masochistic behaviour.’

‘Because I never don’t finish a novel once I’ve started it,’ you replied. ‘It’s a rule of mine.’

'Not me,’ I said, collapsing on to the sofa and staring at the pile of class scripts sitting on the coffee table but making no effort to reach out for one. ‘Life’s too short. As far as I’m concerned, a writer gets one hundred pages and if they can’t keep my attention during that time, I move on.’

'Ridiculous,’ you said. 'You can’t say you’ve read a novel unless you’ve read it cover to cover.'"

When your meet your rival who has made the shortlist of The Prize:

"Of course, I knew only too well that he’d made the shortlist. It had made me scream aloud in my flat earlier that day when the news was revealed . I had thrown four dinner plates, two cups and a vase at the wall and they had all smashed into pieces that I would have to clean up later.

‘I didn’t even know that you were still writing.’"

Book critics and the greater pleasure in writing a negative review, their ultimate ambition to be able to rip into the latest work from a famous author:

"'I read the first of those books that I agreed to review.’ ‘And?’ ‘Unfortunately, it was really good,’ he said. ‘Oh well. Can’t be helped.’ ‘I know. But I’ve started the second one and so far, it’s a bit slow. So things are looking up.’"

The lack of regard from both critics and creative writing students for female authors vs. great white males:

"When we walked in, I noticed how the students – my students – looked at you with more reverence than they’d ever shown towards me. I don’t think I’m being paranoid, Maurice, when I say that it was as if they believed that, finally, a real writer had come to speak to them, simply because you happened to have a penis."

Particularly great white elderly male authors fond of announcing the death of the novel:

"'I can’t bear ageing novelists who refuse to bother with the young. Most of them seem to think that they’re the only ones worth reading, you see, and that literature as we know it will come to an end when they publish their final book. Well, the men do certainly. Can you imagine a seventy-fiveyear-old white Englishman with twenty novels under his belt reading a debut by a twenty -eight-year-old black girl of Caribbean descent? It would never happen. They’d much rather tell the world that they’re re-reading all of Henry James in chronological order and finding him a little smug.’"

And at the same time publishers' desire to label the next bright new thing:

"Henrietta’s debut novel, I Am Dissatisfied with My Boyfriend, My Body and My Career, was due to be published by FSG later that year and was already being touted as a significant work, “Bridget Jones meets A Clockwork Orange”."

The author doesn't spare actors either:

"'Arjan has just been cast in a major new television series,’ said Rebecca. ‘He’s going to play a serial rapist who dismembers his victims afterwards and dines on their internal organs. So who knows where that will lead?’"

The author's dark humour extends to one part narrated by one of Maurice's victims now suffering from locked-in syndrome:

"‘Hello Edith,’ she said in a normal tone of voice as if we’d just run into each other on the street unexpectedly. ‘I brought some grapes. Shall I just leave them over here?’ Why on earth she brought grapes is a mystery to me. I wanted to scream I’m in a coma, you stupid fucking bitch, and I did scream it, in my head anyway."

Amidst all the fun, the novel has some important things to say about relationships and how one uses others, about the ownership of stories, how and where inspiration crosses a line into plagiarism, and the fuzzy boundary between fact and fiction.

"'What’s the most irritating question that a writer can be asked?’ 'I don’t know. Do you write by hand or on a computer?’ ‘No, it’s where do you get your ideas? And the answer it that no one knows where they come from and nobody should know. They evolve in thin air, they float down from some mysterious heaven and we reach out to grab one, to grasp it in our imaginations, and to make it our own. One writer might overhear a conversation in a café and a whole novel will build from that moment. Another might see an article in a newspaper and a plot will suggest itself immediately. Another might hear about an unpleasant incident that happened to a friend of a friend at a supermarket. So I took ideas from badly written stories that had been sent to me, unsolicited I might add, and turned them into something that was not only publishable but sold very well. What’s the problem with that?’
...
'You must remember, this is what a writer does. Uses his or her imagination. Tries to understand how it feels to be alive in a moment that never existed with a person who never lived, saying words that were never spoken aloud.’"

Indeed one brief early section is narrated by the one character too smart to be taken in by Maurice, "Gore" who is explicitly referenced to Gore Vidal - Boyne, presumably consciously, borrowing from Maurice's own play book by fictionalising a real-life author.

"‘Whenever a friend succeeds,’ said Theo, ‘a little something in me dies. That was Truman Capote, wasn’t it?’ 'No, that was Gore,’ I said."

And towards the novel's end, Maurice realises that he has the perfect inspiration for his final, masterwork, his own life, as long as he makes sure that legally it is presented as fiction:

"It wasn’t another person’s story at all. It was my own. Not that I intended to write a memoir. Certainly not. Fiction was my métier and fiction was my comforting home. Also, it wasn’t as if I could ever write a truthful autobiography. I would be vilified instantly and, one would assume, arrested. No, I couldn’t do anything as theatrical as that but what I could do was write a novel. All I’d ever needed was a story and, once I had that, I still believed that I was one of the best in the game."

That is until he meets his match and his own come uppance, although one he is oddly keen to embrace as a new form of literary success:

"For a brief time, I became the most famous writer in the world, which was enormously pleasing and everything I’d ever hoped for.

Some said that they admired how I’d blurred the lines between my life and my writing and that my career was the embodiment of a new type of fiction. They even wrote editorial pieces for the newspapers suggesting that I should be applauded, not shunned."

This isn't a particularly subtle novel, more one when the reader thinks "surely he isn't ... oh yes he is", but a wonderful satire of the obsession that can result from focusing on literary fame and The Prize.   Let's hope the real-life Booker judges get the joke and longlist it.

Recommended. Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.

Despite me being a big fan, I spent too much time reading this Boyne effort thinking it a mis-step, the nearest thing he could produce to a failure. It certainly improved to provide a proper narrative ending, a much firmer and more satisfying resolution, and so on, but all the same – what comes before is too easy to dislike, or even find objectionable. For one thing, while the man is perfectly allowed to write about homosexuality all he wants, I read this longing for an instance of functioning heterosexuality, and longing in vain. It doesn't help that it only really has two main female characters, and one of them is practically the most evil character in Boyne's oeuvre (and I include Crippen in that). There's also a strong case to say that before the cleverness (the full narrative arc, the false sense of foreshadowing you get throughout) proves itself, too much of the book's plot was done inherently more succinctly in an Ian McEwan short I read recently. On reflection, having finished it all, I can say it was worth my while reading, but it certainly didn't seem the most engaging Boyne book, and at times the least realistic – do authors seriously worry about The Prize, as it's permanently said, or hold so much store by their tours and reading engagements? And did this not come too quickly and rushed after this author's imperious last? I still don't know a true failure from Boyne, but I liked this the least of his I have read.

didn’t realise just how good this book was going to be, this is my first John Boyd novel and to put it bluntly “it blew my tiny mind away”

When novelist Erich Ackerman writes his 6th novel, “Dread” and is finally recognised for his work, he a meets handsome young waiter called Maurice, aged 22 and a wannabe writer, who he takes on as his personal assistant. This is helped more by the fact that he finds him attractive and less by the quality of his CV!!

“I’ll do whatever it takes to succeed” Maurice had said and he certainly does. He is desperate to be a renowned published author and will go to any lengths to get the perfect story, even if it means he doesn’t actually write it.

Maurice is such a strong character, handsome, charming and manipulative. I couldn’t stop reading to find out what happens to Maurice and hoping that he gets his comeuppance.

This book has to be read, it will stay with me for a long time and I can not recommend it highly enough. My favourite book of 2018 so far!!

I have just become a fan of John Boyd so excuse me whilst I look for another of his books!!!

It was the author's name that inspired me to read this book. I've read his last novel The Heart's Invisible Furies and liked it very much, so I was looking forward to reading this book.
And the beginning was a bit disappointing for me, after the first part I thought, "oh no, another homosexual story, is that not enough?" I couldn't be more mistaken. Homosexuality plays its role in the book, but it is not the main point. The main point is the literature and stories and our ideas about and relationship to them. After all, you don't need to be a writer to be able to understand the morale behind Maurice's behaviour. Everybody knows the so called white lies.
It is one of the few books I've read in which I was not always sure of my relationship with the main character. It changed several times through the story and that is very interesting and a great achievement of the author. To be able to make the character so interesting and so changeable in reader's reactions to him is a sign of quality. At the same time you can't say that the character changes himself, he actually stays the same, a complex character you can't really see through. That is one of the strengths of the novel.
The other one ist the narative perspective. It ist changing throughout the novel, and that makes it even more interesting, because you see Maurice's actions from different perspectives and can understand why the people like or dislike him. The perspective of his wife, was the best for me (and the most surprising). Just because of this part it was worth to read the novel.
John Boyne showed again that he is the master of his job!

I've been waiting over 1.5 yrs for this and it didn't disappoint. Possibly John Boynes best book so far. The character of Maurice Swift is genius, at times his actions made me have put the book down and prepare for what was coming next. The stories within the story were all enthralling reads. Spanning over different countries and times the writing gave a real feel for each place and setting. An absorbing read.

John Boyne has surpassed himself with A Ladder To The Sky. His characters are dislikeable in the extreme but still so interesting and believable. The story follows firstly prize winning writer, Erich Ackerman, who falls for Maurice Swift, a handsome young waiter and ambitious would be writer and tells him a secret he has never before disclosed to anyone.

I loved The Heart's Invisible Furies last year and A Ladder To The Sky continues the gripping characterisations and multiple points of view Mt Boyne excels in writing. The reader may be horrified at Maurice's betrayals of his mentors and his wife in particular but will read on to find out if he ever gets his comeuppance. Thank you for the LOLS in A Ladder To the Sky Mr Boyne. I will be recommending your book to everyone! Thanks to Net Galley and Random House/Transworld for the opportunity to read and review it.

It is 1988 and prize-winning author and Cambridge lecturer Erich Ackermann has returned to his Berlin roots for a book event. At the bar of the hotel he meets an ambitious young waiter. Their story spans 30 years to the present day. It is told by a number of different voices and has an enthralling mixture of the purely fictional and real life literary figures (one section is narrated by Gore Vidal whose writing Boyne has certainly re-whetted my appetite for). Running through the narrative are the machinations of a fabulous baddie and I’m not even going to reveal who this is, only to say that John Boyne has created a compelling monster whose antics had me often open-mouthed in horror.

Like Boyne’s last novel “The Heart’s Invisible Furies” this is a beautifully balanced book, another complete package, which offers a tremendous variety for the reader with humour, tragedy, twists, crime and moral dilemmas all present to form a heady brew.

With more literary fiction being spawned from real life and the stories of others this novel raises some thought-provoking points about the creative process and the ownership of ideas in a way which is thoroughly entertaining. I still think “The Heart’s Invisible Furies” is his masterwork (of what I’ve read of his so far) but then it is probably my favourite read of this century but “A Ladder To The Sky” is also very, very good indeed. Be prepared for a real treat of a read!

Maurice Swift has a way with words, nobody denies that. He believes he can tell a story better than anyone else, even if it’s not his story and not one that he has come up with himself. He has an overwhelming ambition to be a great writer, so what is he to do? Where will he find a story worthy of his writing talent? We follow his quest, verging on the psychopathic, to seek out the very subject matter he needs for his novel, then the next, and the next. John Boyne has created an outstanding character in Maurice - charming, good-looking, cold and manipulative - I was riveted to see what he would do next and whether he would get away with it.

As to John Boyne’s writing talent, I can find no fault, but I didn’t expect to since The Heart’s Invisible Furies made such an impression on me late last year. I enjoyed the structure of this book, the action moving along swiftly in a succession of distinct parts narrated by different characters and voices, the final one by Maurice himself being the one I’d most hoped to find included. Reading his defence of his actions struck me particularly. A story I’ll remember and can’t recommend highly enough.

Have read a lot of John Boyne books and I'm usually a fan but I just can't get into this one. I will try again in the near future.
Thanks to the author and Netgalley for the ARC.

John Boyne’s ‘A Ladder to the Sky’ is a thrilling literary study of a sociopath. Maurice Swift is ambitious, manipulative, immoral and fascinatingly readable. Told over three decades, with each time period having its own distinct style and perspective, Maurice climbs to fame, and falls to failure, drawing on the skills and stories of those around him. This is a book about ambition, about what the truth is, about literary back-biting and jealousies and the ability of a handsome youth to cause others to lose their judgement. I loved the Gore Vidal era, and the period from the perspective of the wife is both horribly predictable (in a good way) and shocking in turn.
I’ve never read a John Boyne book before, I’ll be seeking his back catalogue now.

It is SUCH A JOY to read a John Boyne novel. I love when I start it that I have no idea of the subject or style that he will write with. A Ladder to the Sky is the story of Maurice Swift..... from wannabe novelist to successful novelist to alcoholism and the journey he took to get there. The ruthless journey he took and the big question “was it worth it?”

A insightful and delightfully evil and subtle way of telling us all that the dazzle of success and adoration is not all that it seems. That ambition has a price.

For me this had vibes of Harry Quebert ( Joel Dicker) from the insight into a frustrated writer perspective, and also hints of Tom Ripley in terms of the ruthlessness at all costs.

Really compelling. Particularly for me the section of the book with Maurice and Edith.

This book keeps me very much a fully paid up member of the John Boyne fan club

"… you’ve heard the old proverb about ambition, haven’t you?’ He shook his head. ‘That it’s like setting a ladder to the sky. A pointless waste of energy.''

There are three narrators to this ingenious study of sexual obsession and psychological exploitation, one of whom is the manipulative central character. Although I know of one best-selling author who was accused of a similar crime to that of Boyne’s protagonist, this fictional sociopath of the literary world takes ambition to extremes and can compete with the likes of Highsmith's Tom Ripley in his lack of conscience and remorse. I loved Boyne’s witty insights into writers lives (a famous novelist features in one episode) and the act of writing itself. He certainly has no trouble coming up with a good plot or in telling an interesting story.

A Ladder to the Sky is the story of Maurice Swift...a handsome, intelligent and charming twenty four year old. Whether he is a sociopath or psychopath I can't quite make up my mind, however he is definitely an individual who is devoid of empathy, who is happy to use others for his own gain and who is entirely self-serving. We first meet Maurice in 1989, a would be writer, while he is working as a waiter in the Savoy Hotel in Berlin when he makes the acquaintance of aging writer, Erich Ackermann. Chewed up and cast aside by Maurice for his own benefit and ambition, Maurice quickly moves on to the next unsuspecting "victim", as Maurice fulfills his dream of becoming the most respected, well known and celebrated writer of his generation. However, unfortunately Maurice lacks the talent to completely achieve this status on his own.

Spanning 30+ years, the book is told in several narratives, all of which give you a fascinating insight into the central character of Maurice, whose character is very well and cleverly drawn out, as are the characters of those narrating the earlier chapters. You feel like you know Maurice, his character makes you totally uneasy and yet you are utterly compelled to keep reading about him. John Boyne has very cleverly created a character of whom we are totally judgmental and love to hate but also makes you feel that you understand him a little more by the end. I loved the ending, in fact I loved everything about this book. I am a huge John Boyne fan and what can I say, John Boyne has done it again and created another tour de force with characters and a storyline that will stay with you for a long time.

Many thanks to NetGalley, John Boyne and the publisher for the opportunity to read A Ladder to the Sky in exchange for an honest review.