The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Book of Records is the story of Lina, a young girl who with her sick father escapes her homeland and settles in something called “the Sea”. This is a fluid setting, where the sense of time moves from past to present to future – there’s a lot of back and forth, flashbacks and flash forwards. Lina makes friends with three neighbors, each representative of a real life historical figure: a Jewish philosopher, a German philosopher fleeing the Nazis, and a Chinese poet. We then follow each of these character’s lives, persecution, intermixed with real life historical events.

Through their stories and Lina’s own, there are themes of migration, displacement, and the power of independent thought and ideas, explored in this book. It ultimately focuses on Lina’s own family’s past and the impact of the political, ideologies and their impact on everyday people’s lives, and what people need to do to survive.

I found this book a little hard to follow – it is not one that you can put down and pick up frequently, without losing the flow. It is quite an intellectual read – needs some focus. It is not a beach read. I think you have to be in the mood for a thinking book to remain engaged. The writing was very good, well researched, but I’m not sure it is for everyone.

So 3 stars, and I thank the author, Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada ARC.



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