Picked up yesterday from the book exchange shelf at my apartment building here in Shanghai.

This was a very moving book narrated by a private investigator who develops a highly unusual relationship with one of his clients. I finished it days ago, but put off doing this journal entry because I'm honestly not sure what to say about it. It was in many ways a beautiful book, but it left me somehow unsatisfied at the end. Maybe the point is that there are some things you can't ever explain in a way that an outsider will understand. I'm glad I read it anyway, and I'll offer it up at this Saturday's Shanghai bookcrossers meetup.

Released at today's Shanghai Bookcrossers meetup.

Swift gives the reader the outlines of the events in the first 20 pages or so and the rest of the book gradually fills in the psychological reality behind the events. Despite the fact that seemingly everything is known from the outset, the author maintains the feeling of suspense for most of the 300 pages. However, I did not find that the increasingly thickening emotions toward the end were leading to any particularly profound insight.

I picked up the book at the BXers meeting and will release it there.