The Book of Time, by Guillaume Prevost, is about one boy, Sam, whose father occasionally goes missing after the death of his wife
To say the first 1/3 of this book was a bad attempt at pulling the reader in with formulaic false starts, may be a bit steep but warrants consideration. It must be noted, however, that the beginning is not at all reflective of the middle and end of the story. That's a good thing. The story doesn't really pick up until Sam gets to Egypt where the description is vivid and the world and characters come to life as you read.
What I meant by writing something got lost (or I hope I meant) in translation, is the depth of emotion from the main character. Sam is starving and only his stomach growls. He isn't irritated. He isn't thinking about food constantly. It would have been interesting for the writer to have Sam respond more wholistically to the situations he was faced with. It's possible that, as the words were taken from their french origin, all those lovely adjectives and adverbs got lost. I can only guess, but I will give the author the benefit of the doubt, here.
What I do put at the doorstep of the author, is the extreme coincidences of the plot. OK- I'll write off Sam's unquestioning acceptance of his situations as more missing adjectives. Still, even kids question coincidence, espeically so many recurring coincidences. How much more excited I would have been, had the author shaped his main character to be inquisitive about all the unusual coincidences. Well, a story once published... I guess.
Needless to say, I suggest borrowing this book from the library. Guillaume Prevost's Book of Time gets no more than 2 PAGES.
