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    The Geographer's Library
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    The Geographer's Library
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    The Geographer's Library
    Audiobook15 hours

    The Geographer's Library

    Written by Jon Fasman

    Narrated by Scott Brick

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Jon Fasman's dizzyingly plotted intellectual thriller suggests a marriage between Dan Brown and Donna Tartt. When reporter Paul Tomm is assigned to investigate the mysterious death of a reclusive academic, he finds himself pursuing leads that date back to the twelfth century and the theft of alchemical instruments from the geographer of the Sicilian court. Now someone is trying to retrieve them. Interspersed with the present action are the stories of the men and women who came to possess those charmed-and sometimes cursed-artifacts, which have powers that go well beyond the transmutation of lead into gold. Deftly combining history, magic, suspense, and romance-and as handsomely illustrated as an ancient incunabulum-The Geographer's Library is irresistible.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 10, 2004
    ISBN9780786553297
    Unavailable
    The Geographer's Library
    Author

    Jon Fasman

    Jon Fasman is the U.S. digital editor for The Economist, having previously been Washington correspondent, South-East Asia bureau chief and Atlanta correspondent. In addition to his work for The Economist, he is also the author of two novels: The Geographer’s Library and The Unpossessed City. Fasman resides in Westchester County, New York.

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    Reviews for The Geographer's Library

    3/5

    409 ratings36 reviews

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    • 2/5
      In the Spring of 1154, King Roger II of Sicily, sent his esteemed geographer (and Alchemist) on a trip to map more of the world. The King then proceeded to take over the Geographer's Castle, but before the King could actually arrive a very stupid/arrogant young thief pillaged the Geographer's Library of sixteen very valuable pieces.The young thief returned home, only to be shunned for his stupidity & the extreme danger he brought onto the family (very highly respected thieves).. He disappeared, trading all but 1 piece of stolen property for safe passage to freedom.... Little did he know his days were numbered.Through the centuries the 16 pieces scattered and all those who had possession of them eventually mysteriously died....Current day: a tenured Professor who is not whom he seemed has mysteriously died, the Coroner who was working on the autopsy has been rundown by a car (hit-and-run).. So begins the investigation of the Professor's secrets by a young alumni & reporter, whose investigation put him & others into mortal danger as well.Sound GREAT, right? No, boring, boring as hell & the investigative reporter (narrator) is a dud. The book is slow and the characters are dull.The most interesting thing about the book was the description & history of each of the 16 pieces at the end of each chapter.
    • 3/5
      I loved the writing and the characters more than the contrivance of the plot or the story itself. I sort of enjoyed the interleaved structure of the story. The imagery related to the characters was very strong. The interior scene setting too was quite good. A mixed bag but I'd read another work of fiction by Fasman in a heartbeat. Because mixed bag or not, it was a goodie bag for sure.
    • 3/5
      This is a book I salivated over before reading. In the event I enjoyed it quite a lot, though it didn't fully live up to my probably somewhat overinflated expectations. Paul Tomm is a junior reporter for and in fact almost the entire reportorial staff of a small-town Connecticut newspaper. He's told to do an obituary when reclusive and distinctly odd local university professor Jaan Puhapaev dies, and his nascent journalistic antenna goes into overdrive -- or whatever it is journalistic antennae do when their owners get suspicious -- especially when the pathologist who was examining the body dies in a mysterious hit-and-run. In his efforts to show both prof and pathologist were murdered, Paul sort of halfway unravels the mystery in the midst of a brief but torrid love affair with the dead prof's next-door neighbour. Interspersed within the main tale are shortish sections tracing the histories of a "library" of alchemical artefacts which, together, drive an enormous backstory of which Paul, and the reader, will only ever be able to discover a small part.

      This is a very well told book, and for the most part I was turning the pages steadily (although I confess I skipped occasional pages where the author was essentially listing, catalogue-style, the alchemical attributes of the artefacts). Trouble is, I've read quite a few books written with this general structure over the past few years, and far too few of them seem to do anything with the juxtaposition they present of ancient and modern, as it were. The Geographer's Library really doesn't stand up as a mystery novel, and I'm not sure it does either as the intellectual exercise we're supposed to think it is. Certainly it's worth the time of reading, but it's not the humdinger I'd hoped for.
    • 3/5
      Jaan Puhapaev life story should have been cut and dry but it turns out to be anything but dull. Paul Tomm lives in a small Connecticut town, works at a small town newspaper and writes small town fluff pieces so when he is charged with writing a obituary that ends up being a murder mystery, it is more than he bargained for. His background research soon leads Paul Tomm on a wild goose chase, spanning several continents and thousands of years. Does the investigation put his life, and the lives of those close to him, in danger?The present day murder mystery is interspersed with stories of relics and artifacts being collected for an unknown purpose; the history of each one detailed with time and place of origin as well as estimated value. Honestly, I began to lose interest in the artifacts about halfway through and wondered why the minute details were required. I would have appreciated the side stories more had they served a bigger purpose at the end. The two congruent stories had great potential but fell short upon their eventual merger. Good story, great writing but disappointingly executed.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed reading Fasman's book. It was intricate and I especially enjoyed the dialogue & his protagonist's asides.
    • 2/5
      I'm done, I can't finish it, actually, I won't. If I didn't have so many books piled up waiting for me, I might, but I do. I take so little time to read, I want to be dazzled, and I have been; lots. Just not by this book.
      It is witty, but very dry. I feel like it could have been two books, because the different parts didn't connect for me. I don't have the patience right now to get to connection. I'm sure it's there, I'm just not that interested.
      The current day story is good and I want to find out what happens, but the information about the artifacts reads like an encyclopedia. It breaks into current day like an interruption, something that must be kept in the back of your mind to figure out the rest of the story. Too much work for little reward in my opinion.
    • 3/5
      The Geographer’s Library by Jon Fasman, a recent read for my book club, got off to a slow start, but it gradually gathered some substance and proved to be an interesting and entertaining read.Paul Tomm, a recent graduate of Wickenden College in Connecticut, has returned to the town of his alma mater to take a job at a local newspaper. He writes a few pieces about local events, and then his editor assigns him to write an obituary for a former professor. Paul discovers few people know anything about Professor Jaan Pühapäev – not even his age or date of birth. Then the coroner who examined the body dies after a hit and run accident. Paul is a rather naïve young man, who seems to lack some pretty basic knowledge for a college grad. For example, he does not know the meaning of the word “caduceus.” The lure of interest in the story by an editor at a large Boston daily paper drives Paul to dig into the case.This novel is a really quick read. It also has an interesting structure. At the root of the murders is a collection of mysterious alchemical items – stolen from the library of a prominent philosopher, geographer, and alchemist in the 12th century. Persons unknown are collecting the items, which have been scattered around the world. Interspersed between the chapters Fasman has inserted line drawings and catalogue descriptions of the items. For example, Fasman writes, “Item 1: An alembic is the top part of an apparatus used for distilling. This one is made of sturdy green glass, 36 centimeters tall, 18 centimeters around at the widest point of the base. The top part of the vessel is narrow and fluted, and turns sharply to the right; alembics are set over a still to collect and carry vapors to another vessel” (18). This information is followed by date and name of manufacturer, place of origin, last known owner, and estimated value (18-19). Each of these items figures in the story of the murders and the shadow characters trying to sell or acquire these items.Fasman also has a nice eye for description and details. He describes a train ride for one item sought after in Siberia by some corrupt Soviet officials. Fasman writes, “As soon as the train’s chuffing settled into a regular rhythm, Yuri fell into a boozy and heavy-headed sleep. When he awoke, the familiar chaotic Moscow vista – squat brick factories either half built or half ruined, birch trees stationed haphazardly in front of massive apartment blocks, wires and streets radiating outward from the tracks into the city’s heart – had given way to endless pine forests punctuated once in a rare while by villages consisting of little more than a few dirt roads and twelve to fifteen tiny dachas, aglow from the inside, nestled close together like gossiping smokers in a tavern” (70). He also has some rather clever sentences. For example, “mountains poking through the snow like crumpled birds spanned the other bank, stretching and rising all the way to the Tien Shan Mountains in the distance” (75).For mystery fans, the connection among these characters and items is not easily apparent. My hope is that a sequel to The Geographer's Library is in the works to tie up many of the loose ends. 3 stars--Jim, 9/21/14
    • 2/5
      Paul Tomm, a journalist working on his first newspaper in a small Connecticut town, is assigned an obituary. All he has to do is write a paragraph about the life of the reclusive local college professor who died in an unsolved hit-and-run. However, when Paul's research reveals a history of jewel thefts, unexplained acts of violence, and maximum-security locks on the professor's office, he is quickly convinced that the dead man was a more dangerous and complicated figure than he appeared. The Geographer’s Library alternates chapters concerned with Paul's investigation with chapters detailing the objects from al-Idrisi's collection, objects that have somehow found their way into the hands of the dead professor. Along the way, Paul meets a cast of characters, each with their own agenda. Who can he trust? There's his old professor who seems to show up with suspiciously accurate information at just the right time. There are the regulars at the deceased's social club. And then of course there is the dead man's neighbor, an attractive high school music teacher, Hannah, who may be less than honest about her role. This book had many of the factors that would make it a great book for me. Alchemy, immortality, thievery, secrets and puzzles. But I found just too many holes in the plot and not enough backstory on some of the characters to understand why they would get involved. And finally little resolution is found in a novel's ending; puzzling, cryptic and unresolved with entire futures and relationships left hanging in the balance. 2 out of 5 stars.
    • 1/5
      I'm only a third of the way through but I'm really struggling with this one. Perhaps because I recently read Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book where a present day story is very effectively intertwined with historical stories I am finding this amateur effort hard going. At the moment neither the present day mystery nor the ancient ramblings about the various artefacts are grabbing my attention and the complete failure to link them together in any way whatsover makes it feel as if I am reading two separate, not very good, books. I'll struggle on a bit further but not sure why.

      UPDATE: I've decided I won't bother reading any further. There are too many good books in the world to bother reading things I don't enjoy. I don't care if this book makes itself clear in the last chapter: that's not good enough for me.
    • 2/5
      The storyline of a thriller, but very long winded & disjointed, views echoed by previous readers. Not the best book I have read, but something did compel me to finish reading it.
    • 1/5
      Not up to par with the best historical mystery novels out there. More Dan Brown than Umberto Eco. In the end, quite forgettable.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this. It was part mystery, part thriller and part art-history and some theft fun all jumbled together. I think that the asides about the actual 'items' was not absolutely necessary, though, but still it didn't really detract from things for me.
    • 4/5
      I read this book while taking a cruise, and it was a pretty good recreational read in this way. An interesting story which followed two threads: in the first, while investigating the death of a college professor, a young newspaper reporter in a small New England town stumbles upon a mystery, the details of which get darker the more he continues to dig for information. Alongside this main story are a number of vignettes regarding various items of alchemical significance throughout the last 1,000 or so years. By the end of the book, the two threads merge as we learn the truth about the professor and his death. I enjoyed the book; I liked the writing, and the characters were interesting. I did have a bit of confusion at the end, though. Certainly, the main part of the mystery was explained to my satisfaction, but (SPOILER!) I don't think the author ever made clear just how the other items related to the tablet. Were those just being collected for the heck of it, or were they somehow necessary? I got the feeling that the tablet was really the only necessary item. Not sure if I missed something, or if the author really wasn't clear about how everything fit together.
    • 2/5
      This is the first Jon Fasman I've picked up...and likely the last. Over 75% of the book has plodded by, barely plodded, the only things keeping me reading are my distaste of giving up on books and a vague curiosity about what happened to the library. Even those may not get me through to the end if things don't pick up soon.
    • 5/5
      Paul Tomm is a smart but somewhat aimless college grad who lands a reporter job at a weekly newspaper in the tiny town of Lincoln, Connecticut. When a professor from his alma mater dies, he is assigned the obituary, but soon finds that there is more to this quiet professor than meets the eye. Soon he is swept up in an unusual tale of murder, greed, and alchemy. A collection of alchemical objects are described in alternating chapters, and their sordid histories are almost as engaging as the main plot. And while the story itself was a very enjoyable read, what really drew me in was my empathy with Paul. His observations and reactions are so familiar to me. It really helped me feel like part of the story. I'll definitely be on the lookout for Fasman's other works.
    • 3/5
      A book that appealed to me from the blurb written on the back. The book tries to capitalise on the success of Dan Brown being an historical thriller. Although I’ve never read any Dan Brown, given his success I’ll assume his books carry more of a threat which this book just didnt do. I never felt there was any menace in the storyline, no sense of danger even though the main character is written as someone caught up in events. My other big problem with the book is the breaking up of the narrative where the writer relayed a back-story based on the book’s title. Just this never seemed to go anyway, other than interrupt the flow of the book. Personally I would’ve liked to have stuck with the main character and just have the reveal of the geographer and his items in a two-three page info dump, instead of getting what amounted to sixteen short and at times not very interesting short stories. My other slight grumble was the author’s habit of relaying what the character did instead of incorporating this within dialogue.
    • 2/5
      I didn't care for this book. I felt like the story dragged. I also felt like the author was very heavy-handed, like he or she was trying too hard to tell the story. The premise of the story was good, however and it may just have been one of those instances where your likes and the author's style just doesn't match up.
    • 3/5
      Ok...So I have had this book on my to read list for at least two years because the premise sounded great. Then I read it. It's not that it was bad, it just wasn't thoroughly satisfying. You know that feeling you have when you think you've found a great book that you can tell everyone about and make even your non-reading friends read it. That's what I had hoped that this one would be...but alas. It just kinda fell short. Everything wrapped up too quickly, not quite too nicely, but too quickly. And I'm not sure I'm ok with the main characters decisions at the end (trying not to ruin the book), but I do know I was left wanting rather than wanting more.
    • 4/5
      A very interesting mystery, complex and mythological. While it's not as polished as it could have been, it's still much better than The DaVinci Code, to which it bears a certain resemblance. The alchemy symbolism, while a little unclear in places, is very interesting, deep and sophisticated. Overall, I prefer a book that feels a little muddled to one that feels over-simplified, and this book didn't disappoint.
    • 3/5
      Interesting juxtaposition of an odd who-done-it--being conducted by a young journalist at a tiny newspaper and the exchange of antiquities involving alchemy. Very unique, but I was not satisfied with the ending.
    • 3/5
      What can I say about this book that hasn't been said by others? If you enjoy books like [The Da Vince Code] and [The Historian], you'll probably enjoy this one. If not, keep moving.Though it's nearly 400 pages, it reads as though it were half that. This is good and bad; on the hand hand, it's a light read, enjoyable if you let yourself get pulled into the story without asking it to make sense. On the other hand, the characters could be fleshed out a bit more. The author indulges himself quite a bit, trying to convince us of how clever he is, to the detriment of the story. And while I allowed myself to become interested in the story, I never felt invested in the outcome.If these books are your cup of tea, I could recommend this if you want something light and easy to read on, say, a cross-country plane trip. Most of you can skip this one, though.
    • 4/5
      Entertaining story with an interesting family of characters and fascinating background peices that support and develop the intrigue of the main story. I enjoyed reading this novel. it is well written with a tidily developed storyline although I was a little bit dissapointed with the ending.
    • 3/5
      This was potentially a great book, until the end, which disappointed me. There are multiple stories bound together by the amateur investigation into a mysterious death in a liberal New England college. Alchemy gets in there, and a lot of intrigue over valuable arcane objects (including, perhaps,The Emerald Tablet itself) that once were part of a single collection and now have been gathered together again by deadly ruthless hands from their scattered locations around the world. Each object is treated individually, with a story line explaining how it was "liberated" from its last known owner. The modern story line, which is the weakness of this novel, involves an incredibly innocent young reporter who gets caught up in this murky undertaking totally by chance. It is slightly reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code, although the ancient "secrets" of THAT book were all fairly well-known to me when I read it. Violating one of my rules, Fasman told us, rather than showing us, how everything fit together at the end, and some of it was a bit much, thank you. When I got to the end, in fact, I thought I must have missed something fairly significant along the way, because I had that "up in the air" feeling. I had almost determined to go back to the beginning and read through it again. But I read some reviews on Amazon and this site, most of which noted all the same flaws, so I decided against spending any more precious reading time on it. I enjoyed the 15 vignettes devoted to the far-flung objects, as they were fascinating, and very well written. But ultimately, the whole was LESS than the sum of its parts. As this was Fasman's first novel, I will keep him in mind; he may improve with practice.
    • 3/5
      A good read, but unfortunately not brilliant.There is some very good writing in places, and the some of the characters are drawn very well while others are a bit flaky.The plot is interesting, though I was never page turningly gripped.
    • 5/5
      Throughly enjoyed this book. My wife said... shrug... I guess I loved the details and drawings and clever development. It was a lot of fun.PLUS! I learned about a new type of music due to this book that has added a lot of beauty to my life so I have Jon to thank for that! On page 103, he writes about the viola da gamba piece called Les Voix Humaines. I bought a CD of it on a whim and found that it was hauntingly beautiful...I look forward to his next novel!
    • 3/5
      Certainly a much better read than the insipid Da Vinci Code, but not as interesting as I hoped it would be. Very predictable, and though packed full of historic (at least I think historic, not sure if this is as well researched as The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova, a much more interesting historic intrigue) information and exotic locales the story is just another detective story, with a protagonist, Paul Tomm, who isn't really a detective. Tomm is ordinary, too ordinary. I didn't believe someone with his lack of motivation would ever persist in investigating a suspicious death with the tenacity that he does in this story. Just not convincing.
    • 1/5
      Esoteric and tedious.
    • 4/5
      It turns out that, other than the fact that there is some globetrotting going on, the book really isn't about geography at all. (It's not about libraries either).What the book is about is Paul Tomm, a fresh-out-of-college journalist working for a small town weekly newspaper in Connecticut. One of his many responsibilities is writing up obituaries, including one for a mysterious professor who's death is just as mysterious. The deeper Paul digs, the weirder the professor's story gets.Between chapters, the novel follows the movement of fifteen objects relating to alchemy. These objects were stolen from the library of a king's geographer in the 12th century (while he was off mapping some far-away land) and have become dispersed throughout the world since then. It seems that lately someone has been trying to reunite the pieces, while leaving a trail of dead former owners in his wake (many of them unaware of the true value of the items they held). These little stories, which take place all over the world, start in the time of the geographer and run right up to present day.The caduceus, the emblem of two snakes intertwined on a staff, shows up quite a bit in the novel, since it was apparently a symbol once used by alchemists. It also serves as a good representation of this book, since its strongest point is the way Fasman intertwines the two stories to both deepen and unravel his murder mystery.But then a funny thing happens as the book progresses - the stories about the missing items, which start out hard to follow and nowhere near as engaging as the story of the inquisitive journalist, become much more interesting than the current day investigation. Just as the stories of how the alchemy pieces are recollected start getting more colorful, the main story starts to get bogged down in long, stilted conversations. In fact, when the solution to the mystery finally gets revealed, the novel, with all of its fascinating tales of worldwide adventure interspersed throughout, ends in a dull and drawn-out dialogue in Paul's apartment. I feels like 350 pages into what should have been a 500 page book some editor told the author that he had twenty more pages to wrap everything up.Overall, I'd say it's about three-quarters of a good book. Up until that last quarter the writing is excellent and the stories are strong. The idea to wrap the two narratives together is very clever and works well. Despite the fact that the parts chronicling the movement of the objects of alchemy happen in some pretty far-flung locales, the writing in them never becomes far-fetched. If only the author had been able to work a little alchemy on his ending.
    • 2/5
      This was such a let down!The build up to the 'mystery' was interesting and I enjoyed the character development. Then suddenly, the book ran out of pages and we had to have a resolution, so it was crammed in - poorly written and unconvincing. I was greatly disappointed to have stuck with the book all this way, just to be given an ending that felt that the author couldn't be bothered any more!The most enjoyable part of this book was reading about the artifacts, whatever the point of them was!!
    • 4/5
      The main story was decent. It took a long time to tie back to the beginning and I didn’t quite appreciate the ending but overall I liked it. My favorite part was actually the odd disjointed tales of the items. I really wish those had combined with the actual storyline more…or even been the story itself. There was a lot of potential there. If you like books by Dan Brown, Steve Berry…or those people who don’t make it onto my bookshelf but are in that vein I recommend it.