2024 Book Review #24: All the Lost Places

 

I had never heard of this author until I saw a book review over at Barbara's blog. 

I decided to look her up at my town library and this book was the only one on the shelf by her although there were a couple of others listed. This book was excellent!!

STORY SUMMARY

It is 1807 and a baby in a basket is floating down the quiet canals of Venice, Italy. A guild of local artisans take him in and raise him as a son.  They teach him their skills as they each have a different trade. This boy, who came with the name Sebastian Trovato, has wrestled his entire life with one question "Who am I?" He has no idea where he came from nor who his parents were. But then a woman appears washed up on shore on the lagoon island he is living on and that is when some answers to those questions begin to appear. As he hunts down his story, Sebastian needs to make a choice that could change not just his own future, but the future of his beloved floating city (Venice) as well. 

It is 1904 and Daniel Goodman is given a new, second chance in life just as the century turns into the 20th one. He is hoping to redeem himself and some very bad choices he made in his past. He answers an ad for a job,taking him from San Francisco, California to Venice, Italy. His assignment? To find and translate a very rare book.   Once he's in Venice, he discovers  a city of hope and decay.....very much like his very own life....and a mystery wrapped up in the pages of that filigree-covered volume.  When he meets Vittoria, a bookshop keeper, Daniel finds himself in a web of shadows, secrets and discoveries that have been carefully kept hidden within the stones and canals of that very ancient  city.....and he learns of the mysterious man whose story the book does not finish:  Sebastian Trovato. 

MY THOUGHTS

This book is magical.  It is spiritual. It is a gem. It's a story within a story. The character development is one of the best laid out developments I've read in a long time.  The setting is absolutely exquisite and of course now Venice is on my bucket list of cities to visit. (I've been to Rome and Florence and Dave worked in Venice for 5 months). 

The story of Sebastian kind of parallels the story of baby Moses in the bulrushes.  There's a lot of symbolism in this book and beautiful metaphors. 

Some main themes in this book are: forgiveness, mercy, grace, hope, life, love, redemption. 

It reads like historical fiction with a bit of mystery, drama, and romance thrown in and all without being sappy "Christian fiction".  This author is excellent at her craft. 

It reads like prose....and like poetry.  I loved that many famous Italian artisans were included in this book: Dante, Galileo, Da Vinci to name a few. 

 The parallels between the 2 main characters of Sebastian and Daniel...and how they are tied together, is one of the best plots I've read in a long time in an historical fiction novel. It's not like any other historical fiction I've ever read. 

I also love that Mariana and Vittoria were characters in parallel as well.  

There are some great quotes in this book and here are two that really jumped out at me: 

"and isn't that the way of miracles? Something extraordinary because of the faithful ordinary. " (pg 54, All the Lost Places by Amanda Dykes, c. 2022)

"And yet, the Creator of waters from nothing,  can He not also make a way where we ourselves see no way?" (pg 254)  

The one thing I really appreciated about the way this author introduced God into the story..the spiritual aspects of it.....was that it was subtle, yet deep. Profound analogies, metaphors and symbolism.  All the things I love in great literature. I wish more authors who fit into the "Christian fiction" genre would do the same. It wasn't preachy, judgemental nor "in your face".  It is done with out even naming Jesus, yet even a secular person would know what she was getting at.  

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older. 

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.