Simple Prayers

By Michael Golding

Book Overview

In his debut novel, Golding makes sense of the current AIDS crisis as he envisions another time and place transformed by a fatal horror. Take a journey back six centuries to a secluded island in the Venice lagoon--a wondrous place where superstition reigns and life and death are created by magical equations.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446517909
• ISBN13: 9780446517904
• Release Date: April 1994
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.3" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

gorgeous

I return to this novel and over and over; I've read it at least five times now. It's a beautiful evocation of human longing and hope. Stories don't get any better than this.

Never a literary mis-step in this compelling tale

Though I'm not often a particular fan of magic realism or fable-like narratives, this one fooled me by its literary quality into turning every page with vast enjoyment. Golding takes chances and succeeds, never sticking to the expected. I loved the way it ended, which was satisfying in a much deeper way than if all our longings (and those of the sympathetic characters) had been readily fulfilled. It's pretty much a timeless tale, though set a long time ago. Golding's got a lock on human nature and writes with supreme flair about frailty, longing, and ambivalence.

A pearl

This beautiful little book has continued to haunt me. It took me away from my daily existence to a shimmering island peopled by characters who were not of this world, but somehow still as familiar as my neighbors, my cousins, my mailman. Delicious.

Never a literary mis-step in this compelling fable-like tale

Though I'm not often a particular fan of magic realism or fable-like narratives, this one fooled me by its literary quality into turning every page with vast enjoyment. Golding takes chances and succeeds, never sticking to the expected. I loved the way it ended, which was satisfying in a much deeper way than if all our longings (and those of the sympathetic characters) had been readily fulfilled. It's pretty much a timeless tale, though set a long time ago. Golding's got a lock on human nature and writes with supreme flair about frailty, longing, and ambivalence.

One of the best books I've ever read.

The story line is enchanting, the writing is beautiful- this book is a little known must read. I've been anxiously awaiting the author's next book.