A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom

A Novel

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Pub Date 11 Aug 2020 | Archive Date 30 Nov 2020

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Description

From the bestselling author of A Ladder to the Sky—“a darkly funny novel that races like a beating heart” (People)—comes a new novel that plays out across all of human history: a story as precise as it is unlimited.

This story starts with a family. For now, it is a father and a mother with two sons, one with his father’s violence in his blood, one with his mother’s artistry. One leaves. One stays. They will be joined by others whose deeds will determine their fate. It is a beginning.

Their stories will intertwine and evolve over the course of two thousand years. They will meet again and again at different times and in different places. From Palestine at the dawn of the first millennium and journeying across fifty countries to a life among the stars in the third, the world will change around them, but their destinies remain the same. It must play out as foretold.

From the award-winning author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies comes A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom, an epic tale of humanity. The story of all of us, stretching across two millennia. Imaginative, unique, heartbreaking, this is John Boyne at his most creative and compelling.
From the bestselling author of A Ladder to the Sky—“a darkly funny novel that races like a beating heart” (People)—comes a new novel that plays out across all of human history: a story as precise as...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780593230152
PRICE $28.00 (USD)
PAGES 464

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Average rating from 47 members


Featured Reviews

With A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom, be prepared to be taken on a trip through time and place. With each chapter, we are introduced to a reincarnated version of the same man, watching his life progress a little more each time. It shows us the continuity of life, in small ways like certain images to the larger similarities of life events. Alternating between the positives and negatives, the winners and losers, we see both sides of each equation. “I have traveled further than you know, as have you, my son. My journeys might be at an end now, but so many lie in wait for you. Do your memories never surprise you? Do you not dream of the past and the future and recognize both with equal clarity?”
It’s interesting how this soul becomes fully fleshed as the book progresses and I came to feel like I knew him. His talents might change from life to life, but his artistic soul remains the same.
As the book goes on, I found myself having to resort to googling many of the names, to get the backstories of the historical figures. I can’t begin to imagine the amount of research needed to write this book. Luckily, as we move through time the people are more well known and less research was needed.
Needless to say, this is a very philosophical book. “We are a small people in an ever changing universe. The world around us might be in a state of constant flux, but the universe within?” I wasn’t at all sure how Boyne would bring this to an end. But he does so in a totally satisfactory, inventive manner.
If you appreciate books that take chances, you will enjoy this. It will strike a chord with anyone who loved Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life.
My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

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This book is a masterpiece. It was an honor to read it. It is masterfully crafted in such a unique way. I've never read anything like it. Somehow, John Boyne continues to get better and better.

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