Martin Seay + Robin Sloan

Martin Seay will talk about The Mirror Thief (Melville House), one of the most talked-about debut novels of 2016, with Robin Sloan.

Praise for The Mirror Thief

“A true delight, a big, beautiful cabinet of wonders that is by turns an ominous modern thriller, a supernatural mystery, and an enchanting historical adventure story…A splendid masterpiece, to be loved like a long-lost friend, an epic with near-universal appeal.”—Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed)

“Matched in its ambition only by its accomplishment. This literary, noir thriller–drenched in grit, paranoia, and desperation–pulls the reader inexorably through a Russian doll of mysteries that span centuries and cultures. One hell of a debut novel.” —Chris Phipps, Diesel Books Oakland

“An incredible feat of storytelling . . . A delicious stew of Los Angeles-type noir, Da Vinci Code mystery, Rebel Without a Cause toughness, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance mechanical spirituality.” —Steve Salardino, Skylight Books

About The Mirror Thief:

A globetrotting, time-bending, wildly entertaining masterpiece in the tradition of “Cloud Atlas.”
“Publishers Weekly” raved that “with near-universal appeal . . .Seay’s debut novel is a true delight, a big, beautiful cabinet of wonders that is by turns an ominous modern thriller, a supernatural mystery, and an enchanting historical adventure story.”Set in three cities in three eras, “The Mirror Thief” calls to mind David Mitchell and Umberto Eco in its mix of entertainment and literary bravado.
The core story is set in Venice in the sixteenth century, when the famed makers of Venetian glass were perfecting one of the old world’s most wondrous inventions: the mirror. An object of glittering yet fearful fascination was it reflecting simple reality, or something more spiritually revealing? the Venetian mirrors were state of the art technology, and subject to industrial espionage by desirous sultans and royals world-wide. But for any of the development team to leave the island was a crime punishable by death. One man, however a world-weary war hero with nothing to lose has a scheme he thinks will allow him to outwit the city’s terrifying enforcers of the edict, the ominous Council of Ten . . .
Meanwhile, in two other Venices Venice Beach, California, circa 1958, and the Venice casino in Las Vegas, circa today two other schemers launch similarly dangerous plans to get away with a secret . . .
All three stories will weave together into a spell-binding tour-de-force that is impossible to put down an old-fashioned, stay-up-all-night novel that, in the end, returns the reader to a stunning conclusion in the original Venice . . . and the bedazzled sense of having read a truly original and thrilling work of art.