'INGA Karlson died in a fire in New York in the 1930s, leaving behind three things: a phenomenally successful first novel, the scorched fragments of a second book— and a mystery that has captivated generations of readers.
'Nearly fifty years later, Brisbane bookseller Caddie Walker is waiting in line to see a Karlson exhibition featuring the famous fragments when she meets a charismatic older woman. The woman quotes a phrase from the Karlson fragments that Caddie knows does not exist—and yet to Caddie, who knows Inga Karlson’s work like she knows her name, it feels genuine.
'Caddie is electrified. Jolted her from her sleepy, no-worries life in torpid 1980s Brisbane, she is driven to investigate: to find the clues that will unlock the greatest literary mystery of the twentieth century.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Dedication: To Robbie, of course.
'This week, Michelle McLaren discusses Toni Jordan’s 2018 novel of intrigue and literary obsession, The Fragments.'
'In the swampy heat of a Brisbane summer in 1986, a young bookshop assistant tries to solve a fifty-year-old mystery involving Inga Karlson, a legendary New York author who died in a warehouse fire in 1939. Caddie Walker, the bookseller, is idealistic enough to believe that books can change people’s lives. Perhaps they can: literally, and in unexpected ways.' (Introduction)
'Toni Jordan’s latest novel, The Fragments, draws together two women living about 50 years apart: Caddie, an avid reader and bookseller, in Joh Bjelke-Petersen-era Brisbane; and Rachel, a Pennsylvania farmgirl, who runs away from a silk factory and poverty to reinvent herself in 1930s New York. What links them is a world-renowned writer, Inga Karlson, and her first novel, All Has an End.' (Introduction)
'This week, Michelle McLaren discusses Toni Jordan’s 2018 novel of intrigue and literary obsession, The Fragments.'
'Toni Jordan’s latest novel, The Fragments, draws together two women living about 50 years apart: Caddie, an avid reader and bookseller, in Joh Bjelke-Petersen-era Brisbane; and Rachel, a Pennsylvania farmgirl, who runs away from a silk factory and poverty to reinvent herself in 1930s New York. What links them is a world-renowned writer, Inga Karlson, and her first novel, All Has an End.' (Introduction)
'In the swampy heat of a Brisbane summer in 1986, a young bookshop assistant tries to solve a fifty-year-old mystery involving Inga Karlson, a legendary New York author who died in a warehouse fire in 1939. Caddie Walker, the bookseller, is idealistic enough to believe that books can change people’s lives. Perhaps they can: literally, and in unexpected ways.' (Introduction)
