Alex Landragin

A Novel

Crossings

"A sparkling debut. Landragin’s seductive literary romp shines as a celebration of the act of storytelling." —Publishers Weekly "Romance, mystery, history, and magical invention dance across centuries in an impressive debut novel." —Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) "Deft writing seduces the reader in a complex tale of pursuit, denial, and retribution moving from past to future. Highly recommended." —Library Journal (Starred Review) Alex Landragin's Crossings is an unforgettable and explosive genre-bending debut—a novel in three parts, designed to be read in two different directions, spanning a hundred and fifty years and seven lifetimes. On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence. The first story in Crossings is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption, and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations. With each new chapter, the stunning connections between these seemingly disparate people grow clearer and more extraordinary. Crossings is an unforgettable adventure full of love, longing and empathy.

i have mixed feelings about this one. the alternate page sequence was very interesting, but the book just felt like an excellent concept with okay execution. idk, didn't love either of the main characters and the novel is very character driven. 

claire

Lara Engle

Rounding up from 3.5 stars. Crossings is a really odd book. I read it straight through and I think the baroness sequence would have been more compelling, but I'm not sure that it would have made sense or had the same impact in that order. I went back through and skimmed that alternate sequence when I was done, and there are some real gems of vengeance hidden throughout. Reading it in order, I think it really picked up at the moment it became clear that there was a villain in the tale.
I'm not really sure that I liked it overall. The scenes that highlighted misogyny and the mistreatment of enslaved people were particularly vexing, as well as the portions that detailed the destruction of native societies and their traditions. None of these things are really condemned and I'm conflicted about how a story of historical fiction could better handle that.
All of that aside, I'm tempted to reread in the baroness sequence. I might do that sometime, but not today.

Carrington Kinslow

3.5, but Goodreads still functions like it’s 2006 so rounded down to 3. The romance in this was beautiful and bittersweet, reading the alternate pagination sequence was REALLY fun, and that ending was phenomenal. But unfortunately, SO much of this was really slow and boring. The execution was excellent and Landragin is clearly very clever, but this book just lacked entertainment.

And a quote that I loved:  “Perhaps the world doesn’t end all at once, but slowly, imperceptibly, as a chain of seemingly innocuous events measured across generations.”

Julija M

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with an egalley in exchange for an honest review.
Crossings is a very interesting book that isn't seen often. It is designed to be read 2 ways: normally and following a 'Baroness sequence',named after the Baroness who owned this book. I went into it not quite knowing what it was about and I was pleasantly surprised. I decided to read it normally and at the end,if I felt like it,re-read it following the Baroness sequence.
It explored this very intriguing idea of switching souls and bodies by just looking into one's eyes for a few minutes. Once I realized this,I started paying much more attention to the details and dialogues,hoping I would discover something untold. I enjoyed connecting the dots and realizing who was who and what was going on.It is a captivating story spanning ages and ages designed to make you wonder about the soul and what can be done with it. I really enjoyed the writing style and will include a couple of my favourite quotes.
"In the hush of the early morning,the mist that laced the streets might have been mistaken for ghosts risen from the catacombs under my feet,piled floor to ceiling with the bones of millions of the city's dearly departed."
"I was frightened too,but I'd been frightened so long fear had become a part of me,twisting its way around and through me like a vine,sustained by the same sap that kept the rest of me alive."
"Could it really be that Madeleine had chosen me as the target of her elaborate scheme?Had she deliberately led me to Jacquenet's bookstore to entice me into her murderous game? Or had it been more intuitive,less calculated than that,the spell she cast over me? Whatever the explanation,how I could I have fallen for it so completely? And if her love was counterfeit,why was my heart still aching?"

Kerri McDonald

“Perhaps there is a natural limit to remembering, beyond which it is simply impossible to bear the weight of all that remembrance.”

I want to thank Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Something I don’t talk about a lot on this blog is how much I love weird books. I should probably explain that when I say “weird”, I typically mean books that have an interesting or not-often-used format. Think mixed-media or books within books. So, when I came across Crossings on Netgalley and found that there was more than one way to read the story, I was instantly intrigued!

It’s the tale of two people who’s lives revolve around one another in the strangest of ways. We are told three separate tales about three different people that, in the end, are completely intertwined. The synopsis is necessarily vague as part of the charm of this book is discovering the connections as you read. And, as I mentioned, this book has a catch: it can be read in two different ways! It can be read in the traditional sense, from front to back. Or it can be read in what is called “the Baroness sequence”, where you jump around in the narrative.

Let me start by saying that I read this traditionally because that’s just who I am as a person. Also, I sometimes don’t trust my e-books when it comes to clicking on links that jump you around the book… it can mess with the formatting which always throws me off. Still, after I finished the book, I was instantly curious as to how the experience would differ if you read it using the Baroness sequence! Have you ever wished you could experience a book again as if for the first time? Well, in a sense, this is exactly what Crossings offers you!

Now, as to the actual story, I will say that it started off a tad slow for me. I don’t think the story truly took off until after I finished the first section, which revolves around Charles Baudelaire. The next section, however, completely sucked me in and I was fully engaged for the rest of the book. This is not a fast-paced story, but it’s so mind-boggling that you can help to devour the pages looking for answers! My favorite section has to be the last, though, where we follow the life of an extraordinary woman and start to see how all of it ties together. This is definitely a book that will keep your attention!

This is also a book that is very much a character study. You’re following these central characters through some pretty traumatic times (the second part is set during WWII, after all) and it’s so interesting to watch them navigate and process their lives. I thought the author did a spectacular job bringing these characters and, therefore, the story to life. They have so many layers, which I love, and I loved getting to live inside their heads.

Final thoughts: This is an strange little book and I absolutely love that about it! It takes a moment to get going, but, once it does, you can’t help but lose yourself in the narrative. The characters are multifaceted and the story will leave you believing in the unbelievable. If you like a mind-bending story within a story, you should give this book a try!

Crossings A Novel

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