false<![CDATA[Mapping the Edge: A Novel]]>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177002095m/672409.jpg67240910Sarah Dunant's <I>Mapping the Edge</I> explores the best of two worlds, offering readers a suspenseful, eerie plot and a delicately nuanced exploration of the kinds of prickly, challenging ideas that, sadly, usually lie outside the province of the traditional thriller.<p> When Anna decides to take an impromptu trip to Italy, she packs her bag, leaves her 6-year-old daughter, Lily, at home with close friends, and steps onto the plane. She's always been a woman of action, and her personal and professional lives have been filled to overflowing recently. So her friends Paul and Estella think nothing of the jaunt--it's a well-deserved break, a weekend for psychic refreshment, a brief step outside reality. <p> But a disappearance? When Anna fails to return, Paul and Estella make excuses, to themselves and to Lily. When the weekend stretches toward a week, the possibility of her permanent absence becomes hauntingly real. Dunant takes that absence and weaves together a pair of possible "explanations," playing out alternating scenarios of seduction (Anna in the throes of a disturbingly passionate, illicit affair) and abduction (Anna in the grasp of a stranger whose cordiality turns gradually to madness).<p> The narratives are both twinned and twinning, less separate alternative accounts than a dialogue, with moments, objects, and phrases that serve as uncanny mirrors between the two. Dunant is indeed a skilled mapmaker--her novel maps the edge of the self, its boundaries that so often go unquestioned. Anna's sojourn in Italy is an excavation of the threat of being defined by one's relationship to others and the temptation to redefine oneself beyond the restrictions of conventional expectation, no matter how seductive, how forceful, that convention. <I>--Kelly Flynn</I>10891571999Mapping the Edge: A Noveltotal:418|5:38|4:126|3:168|2:68|1:18|41813526337341falsetrueSat Oct 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008Tue Jul 29 16:24:24 -0700 2008Sat Oct 11 21:00:51 -0700 20081 I have only previously read Dunant's 'The Birth of Venus' and while I enjoyed that book because of the lush prose and vivid descriptions, I was completely unaware as to the impact that this book would have upon me...
The story tells of Anna Franklin, a single mother who ...more...]]>
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When I finished this book, I just sat there and thought, "wait...what just happened?" The two different scenarios of what could've happened to Anna while she was missing really confused me - couldn't Dunant h...more...]]>
41falsefalseTue Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006Sat Jul 28 06:15:52 -0700 2007Sat Jul 28 06:19:57 -0700 2007
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41falsefalseTue Oct 16 11:11:15 -0700 2007Tue Oct 16 11:11:15 -0700 2007 Added later: Too cryptic by far! As one reads this it seems straightfoprward enough. Two versions of a story at odds one with the other. A mystery. Whic...more...]]>
41falsefalseSat Feb 09 00:00:00 -0800 2008Sun Feb 10 16:17:50 -0800 2008Sun Feb 10 16:25:35 -0800 2008
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30falsefalseSat Sep 11 00:00:00 -0700 2004Sun Mar 22 13:27:33 -0700 2009Mon Apr 06 09:53:45 -0700 2009 Anna's friends, Paul and Stella, look after Lily during her mothe...more...]]>
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30falsefalseTue Apr 28 13:28:57 -0700 2009Tue Apr 28 13:33:28 -0700 2009
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51falsefalseTue Aug 14 05:50:14 -0700 2007Tue Aug 14 05:50:34 -0700 200750falsefalseMon Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009Thu Aug 06 20:42:23 -0700 2009Mon Aug 10 16:45:01 -0700 2009 I was hooked after the first few pages - the style of t...more...]]>
10falsefalseSun Nov 09 08:52:12 -0800 2008Sun Nov 09 08:52:12 -0800 2008 There are two things going on here. Anna takes a solo trip, but doesn't come back when she's supposed to. Her friends, who are stuck taking care of Anna's kid, are at f...more...]]>
30falsefalseWed Jun 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008Wed Sep 10 09:01:07 -0700 2008Mon Sep 15 06:54:05 -0700 2008
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20falsefalseMon Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008Fri Aug 01 04:00:27 -0700 2008Sun Aug 03 17:32:19 -0700 2008 The protagonist, Anna, has disappeared off to Italy without telling anyone where or why (leaving her 6 year old daughter at home - nice). The story then alternates between the one written by her best friend Es...more...]]>
20truefalseTue Mar 06 00:00:00 -0800 2007Tue Mar 24 23:17:15 -0700 2009Tue Mar 24 23:50:01 -0700 20091 The unique choice she made in telling this story was interesting a...more...]]>
30falsefalseWed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009Wed Apr 15 07:47:54 -0700 2009Thu Sep 24 15:38:36 -0700 2009
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30falsefalseWed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006Tue Mar 31 13:54:03 -0700 2009Tue Mar 31 13:56:10 -0700 200950falsefalseSat Nov 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009Sat Nov 07 22:54:15 -0800 2009Mon Nov 09 10:19:33 -0800 200920falsefalseTue Apr 14 16:11:37 -0700 2009Sun Jun 28 09:34:56 -0700 2009 There were three parts to this book; One chapter would be about Estella, watching over Anna's daughter Lily;...more...]]>
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