The Secret of Vesalius, Jordi Llobregat
The Secret of Vesalius, Jordi Llobregat
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The Secret of Vesalius

Author: Jordi Llobregat, Thomas Bunstead

Narrator: Peter Noble

Unabridged: 14 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: riverrun

Published: 11/16/2017

Synopsis

Frankenstein meets The Shadow of the Wind in a Gothic thriller set in the diabolical city of fin-de-siecle Barcelona.

Daniel Amat has left Spain and all that happened there behind him. Having just achieved a brilliant role in Ancient Languages at Oxford University and an even more advantageous engagement, the arrival of a letter - a demand - stamped Barcelona comes like a cold hand from behind.

He arrives back in that old, labyrinthine and near-mythic city a few days before the great 1888 World Fair, amid dread whispers of murders - the injuries reminiscent of an ancient curse, and bearing signs of the genius 16th century anatomist, Vesalius. Daniel is soon pulled into the depths of the crime, and eventually into the tunnels below Barcelona, where his own dark past and the future of science are joined in a terrible venture - to bring the secret of Vesalius to life.

Gothic and gripping, this historical thriller makes of Barcelona a diabolical character - emerging out of the dark into a new electrical age, aflame with spirit, superstition and science. Published in eighteen countries, Jordi Llobregat's bestselling first novel mixes a passionate setting and cryptic mystery into a genre-crossing phenomenon.

(P)2017 WF Howes Ltd

About Jordi Llobregat

Jordi Llobregat began writing at the age of twelve after watching the film The Man from Acapulco with Jean Paul Belmondo and Jacqueline Bisset. He currently combines writing with his work as head of a company that works on community development in cities. His work has been included in several short story anthologies and he is a member of the writing group, El Cuaderno Rojo. He is director of the noir fiction festival, Valencia Negra. The Secret of Vesalius is his first novel and has been published in eighteen countries worldwide. He lives in Valencia, Spain.

About Thomas Bunstead

Thomas Bunstead's translations include work by Eduardo Halfon and Yuri Herrera, Aixa de la Cruz's story "True Milk" in Best of European Fiction (Dalkey Archive, 2015), and the forthcoming A Brief History of Portable Literature by Enrique Vila-Matas (a co-translation with Anne McLean; New Directions, 2015). A guest editor of a Words without Borders feature on Mexico (March 2015), Thomas has also published his own writing in the Times Literary Supplement, the Paris Review blog and >kill author.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Έλσα on August 04, 2019

"ΤΟ ΜΥΣΤΙΚΟ ΤΟΥ ΒΕΣΑΛΙΟΥ" ΤΟ ΤΑΞΙΔΙ ΣΤΟ ΓΟΤΘΙΚΟ ΜΥΘΙΣΤΟΡΗΜΑ "ΤΟ ΜΥΣΤΙΚΟ ΤΟΥ ΒΕΣΑΛΙΟΥ" ΗΤΑΝ ΣΚΟΤΕΙΝΟ Κ ΑΠΟΛΑΥΣΤΙΚΟ. ΚΑΘΕ ΣΕΛΙΔΑ ΤΟΥ ΤΡΟΦΟΔΟΤΟΥΣΕ ΤΟΝ ΑΝΑΓΝΩΣΤΗ ΜΕ ΤΕΚΜΗΡΙΑ ΠΟΥ ΕΠΡΕΠΕ ΝΑ ΕΝΩΣΕΙ ΩΣΤΕ ΝΑ ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΦΘΕΙ ΤΟ ΠΑΖΛ. ΒΑΣΙΚΟΙ ΠΡΩΤΑΓΩΝΙΣΤΕΣ Κ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΑ ΠΡΟΣΩΠΑ ΣΥΝΘΕΤΟΥΝ ΜΙΑ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΓΕΜΑΤΗ ΑΝΑΤΡΟΠΕΣ,......more

Goodreads review by Mientras Leo on May 26, 2015

Un libro a ritmo de Best seller con una ambientación realmente sobresaliente. Opinión completa......more

Goodreads review by Bren on February 03, 2020

Ubicada en Barcelona a finales del siglo XIX y en el marco de la gran exposición mundial, este libro nos relata los hechos sobre varios asesinatos espantosos acaecidos en esa ciudad. El libro tiene su punto, la verdad es que atrapa, sin embargo ha habido algunas cosas que me han saltado a rojo, para......more

Goodreads review by Liz on November 21, 2017

The Secret of Vesalius is a gothic, historical thriller with huge flavour especially in it's descriptively beautiful setting of Barcelona told against the backdrop of the up and coming World Fair. The author has a way of making you feel the surroundings, engage with the characters and go along on thi......more

Goodreads review by PlanetaEris on July 13, 2015

Un novela excepcional. Perfecta. Una prosa exquisita. Una ambientación extraordinaria. Un misterio que no te da un solo respiro. Una lectura sin tregua. Próximamente reseña en www.planetaeris.wordpress.com......more

Quotes

An excellent and atmospheric historical thriller. I loved it Philip Kerr

An atmospheric reconstruction of Barcelona at one of the pivotal points in its history. A gothic thriller of great inventiveness. BBC History Magazine

An enjoyably over-the-top gothic thriller Sunday Times

If you loved The Shadow Of The Wind, pop this on your reading list. A gripping adventure, packed with action and atmosphere. Good Housekeeping

There is madness, selfishness cruelty and corruption, concluding in a bizarre grand guignol of Lovecraftian horror. There is a weird, Gothic feel to the novel, a sensation that the characters are in ethereal and disturbing times. It is an enjoyable, racy read. Historical Novel Society

You've never seen Barcelona this way before - gothic, dangerous, romantic and diabolical. A breath-taking, genre-busting enigma for fans of The Shadow of the Wind. NetGalley

What is perhaps most impressive about Jordi Llobregat's debut novel is how it manages to be a cracking slice of Spanish gothic in its own right as well as wearing its influences openly. One can spot Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and the world of penny dreadfuls between its pages alongside the spectre of Jack the Ripper haunting the text. The translation from Thomas Bunstead gives the prose a fin de siecle feel with a lyricism that ensures even the most violent of descriptions have an uncomfortable beauty to them. The characters are all fascinating, but it is tum-of-the-century Barcelona that is the star of the show. Measured yet exciting, brutal yet poetic, Llobregat has crafted a great novel. SciFi Now

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