This book starts its journey with BookCrossing from Delphi, Greece
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"It 's been twenty-five years since the Overflow flooded Southern Europe, drowning Rome, Vienna and Istanbul, and turning Paris into a major port. At the Dead Sea, the earth has opened up to reveal a strange violet salt to which the world has become addicted, and a colony has been established by the mysterious Consortium of Seventy-Five to control the supply. Run by murderers, fugitives and liars, the Colony is a haven to those fleeing Europe especially the privileged Purple Stars . But when the governor of the Colony dies suddenly and mysteriously, the six officials turn on each other, sparking a terrifying chain of events which threatens the very existence of the Colony.

In Paris, Phileas Book, the greatest crossword compiler of his age and creator of the Epistleword, is recruited by the sinister Consortium. Presented with the epistolary confessions of the six, he is ordered to sift truth from lies to find out who killed the unpopular Governor Bera. But as Phileas starts to unravel the mystery, he begins to realise that these are no ordinary letters and that nothing less than the course of human history is at stake. "


~~~~~~To the person who found this book:~~~~~~

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I’ve read this book in Greek many years ago during a period where many changes were taking place in my professional life and other stuff was going on, so when I realised I was trying to finish the book and it never seemed to come to an end, I thought this was due to me been restless and not been able to concentrate properly. So I set it aside to read some other time.

Well, a few months ago the time came, when I stumbled upon (another copy) of the English edition of this book. I have to say that I’m still confused about it. Did I like it? I disliked it? I don’t know. I found the ideas of the author and the plot quite interesting, the world-building quite decent, the story multi-layered and parts of the book quite well-written… But still I was reading the book and it seemed like it will never get to finish!

I think some themes get too repetitive and the events described on the letters are too detailed, long-winded and slow-going while sometimes the voices of the six correspondents feel too much alike each other. Meanwhile the idea of the 3D crosswords is intriguing, but I guess my poor brain couldn’t grasp it properly.

The end of the book was clever as a concept and explanation but not very detailed or compeling. Generally speaking, this is a book that will stay with me for a while, but weirdly enough, simultaneously it didn’t touch me much. This is a rare case of a novel which I can’t quite decide what to think about it! 6½/10 ???

Still, the feedback it gets from most people is very positive and there seems to be a refreshed interest and new editions within Greece recently. So I purchased this copy online to share it through BookCrossing and see what future readers make of it : )

It starts its recorded history in Delphi, Greece, but was part of Waterford City library in Ireland once. Let's see where it'll travel next...

What Lot's Wife Saw travels along with another book and a collection of bookmarks to meet the winner of the Book & Bookmark Sweepstakes - June/July 2021! And then... Who knows?

Good Luck and Don't forget to write your news from time to time!

Thank you Delphi_reader! This sounds very intriguing.

Despite a slow start, I really liked this. The ending was superb - giving a whole new perspective to the novel. I almost wanted to start reading it all over again armed with fresh knowledge.

It's been a while since I read any dystopian fiction when I come to think about it. This was a particularly unusual vision of the future which depicted a European population still recovering from collective trauma falling a devastating global flood; trauma which has been successfully harnessed and manipulated by a mysterious corporation called The Seventy-Five.

Within this world exists Phileas Book, the inventor of a peculiar type of 3D crossword based on handwritten letters known as an Epistleword. His methods and creations made no sense to me I admit, but that didn't seem to matter. Sometimes in fantasy or science fiction writing it's nice to be carried away on the crest of an idea too large and strange to be fully comprehensible, and for me this was one of those moments. Ultimately the book's plot was driven by the personalities and behaviour of its varied characters; the Epistleword just pulled those strands together.

I liked the fact that whilst most of the book is intentionally depressing and bewildering, the ending gave indications of hope. The origin of this hope was, as I said at the start, surprising but very satisfying. I'm glad to have read the whole thing.

Sent to the winner of the First Names Sweeps - congratulations!

I had a few problems choosing a book for this as the winner is far too well read :-). I originally was due to send on 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine' but they've already read it, so next it was going to be 'Angela's Ashes' but they've read that as well. (Such good taste!) So I don't *think* they've read this book, and I hope they enjoy it as I did.

Thank you for taking such care to send me a book I have not read. I appreciate it. And thanks for the compliment. I think I'll like this one, but we'll have to wait and see as my pile of TBRs is ridiculously high.