A Book in Time: Winner of the 2020 Page Turner Awards

I have never read a book quite like this, events seen through the eyes of a book. (Though some readers may recall that the well-known novel "The Book Thief" also depicts events from the point of view of something other than a human being) This is a sensitive portrayal of the journey of a first-edition book of poetry through time. It includes some historical characters and events and is fascinating, purely from a narrative view. But it is also a tender depiction of emotions, specially of loss and loneliness, love and faithfulness. The ending wasn't how I had expected; it surprised me immensely, but was so beautiful, it moved me to tears! A wonderful read!

I’m not much on religion, but it’s part of our history, and Mark Stibbe does a fantastic job of incorporating both religious traditions and historical context in, “A Book in Time”. I really enjoyed the first person perspective from a book’s insight, not to mention the many characters along the way! Two hundred Centuries pass as the book tells us a story of its Mother and the longing to find a safe place. This book places a spin on religion towards the end, which I definitely found refreshing. Love abounds and it is an important part of our lives. Even though the voice of a book! Well done indeed.

I don't know that I can do this story justice with my clunky words. I was drawn to this book by the title, the cover and then the synopsis - a book told from the POV of the book. A book telling it's own story and searching desperately for its mother, it's author. And what a story it was. Written in 1805 by the already elderly Emily Swanson, the book, The Burning Ones, was a book of poetry based on The Song of Songs from the Bible. The book itself was a one and only first edition. A gift from the publisher to the author with illustrations by William Blake. It was priceless from it's beginning. When Emily passed, the book was bequeathed to Billy Massingham, a local handyman, and so began the book's journey. From the Battle of Waterloo, to Bruges in Brussels, and back to England in the hands of Charlotte Brontë, and so much more. Over a timespan of a hundred and fifty years or more the book was possessed by or was witness to many famous names associated with women's rights or groundbreaking literature. Names like James Joyce, TS Elliot, Hemingway, the Brontë sisters, Sarah Grand, Sylvia Beach (the original owner of the famous bookstore Shakespeare and Co in Paris), Mark Twain, Ezra Pound, Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes. The book was revered by all who saw it, acknowledged as a priceless and important part of literary history. But all the book wanted was to be back in the arms of its mother. What an amazing story. The longing of the book was heartbreaking. The conclusion was almost euphoric. I have never read a book from this POV and I don't know that it could be done again. It would just be a poor imposter.

This is the story of a book that was written by an older woman who never bore children. She loved the book, a series of poems inspired by the Biblical Song of Songs, as if it were her own human child. Over the course of 200 years, the book was handed off to one carefully selected guardian after another, each of whom treasured the book as much as if it were a human being. A Book in Time is in itself a library: of time periods, writers and other creatives, historical events, book genres, and philosophies. It's part fan fiction and part speculative fiction. It is all over the place and thoroughly focused all at the same time. My favorite aspect of the book: the notions that books are immortal, have integral worth, and are of huge benefit to the people who read them are not new to me; they have always been held close to my heart; however, the concepts that books have souls and are resurrected are ones I had not previously considered but which will be held just as tightly because I find they fit in very well with what I believe about what comes after this earthly existence. Perhaps the most relevant message of this story is that good books are meant to be treasured and we lose much when we forego the touch and smell of gorgeously tooled or illustrated volumes, their pages smudged with the fingerprints and perhaps tear stains of their readers. Each tells a story of those who held them, read them, and learned and felt all that their creator would have them know and feel. Ah! Such is the power of books!

What an entertaining idea - to write the history of a book from the book's perspective! Spanning nearly 250 years, this beautifully-bound, first edition book of poems by Miss Emily Swanson travels from owner to owner, back and forth to France, is stored away, restored, and at the end, resurrected into new eternal life. During its life time, the book is 'owned', cared for and adopted by interesting and famous people, such as Charlotte Brontë, Sylvia Beach, Sarah Grand - and meets many more authors, suffragettes and ordinary people. But the book always feels itself to be an orphan, longing to be reunited with its birth mother. And maybe that is the story of the author himself, who was adopted as a small child. "Books can be both a blessing and a curse ....they can carry traces, memories of the times in your life when you read them, and those memories can sometimes be traumatic, tarnishing the value of the books in your estimation.... Books are like people. They come into our lives just when you need them ..." This book has many quotes, alludes to many others, and is a gem of insights and information about literature, showing a wide knowledge of and love of writing. It is feels like years of research and and a deep love for literature and for specific books - such as the beautiful and gorgeously bound old book that is the narrator of this (alas paperback!) book. And by the end - spoiler alert - the book is transported, from its futuristic destruction to a new and glorious eternal life, 'as the sun kisses the sea and the winter is truly over.' Perhaps above all this is a love story - about the longings we each have to be loved and cherished, to know and be known. I enjoyed reading this, I enjoyed the literary associations and I enjoyed the ending. The only part I found uninteresting was the fantasy/futuristic chapters, which is just not my 'thing' but the rest was immensely fascinating. Well done to the author for being awarded the inaugural Page Turner Award For Fiction for this book.