Visible Worlds

by Marilyn Bowering

Book Overview

In Visible Worlds, award-winning Canadian poet and playwright Marilyn Bowering has created a beguiling, multilayered novel that brings together two seemingly disparate stories as it traces the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060191481
• ISBN13: 9780060191481
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A book that deserves more attention

I had not heard of the author until I discovered this excellent novel in a London bookshop last month. I am surprised the book did not get more publicity on its publication as it is a cleverly plotted, very original, reader friendly novel. I was frequently reminded of Graham Swift's Waterland, but Visible Worlds has a distinct identity of its own. The author hints early on that her main twenty characters are all linked, but she keeps the reader guessing, teasing us with little clues in each chapter. One family leaves a trail of footprints in the snow that stretches twice around the globe - almost; a trail covered by three family members in a relay that takes more than half a century to complete. The landscapes of Northern Russia and Canada are beautifully evoked - I have recently read several books about Antarctic travel and thought I had read more than enough descriptions of long marches through snow, but Bowering finds ways of avoiding the cliches favoured by other writers. The book has a strong feeling for places, time, distance, family tensions and the Cold War paranoia of the 40s and 50s. I found the book slow at the start, but it is well worth reading through to the end. Highly recommended.