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“Don’t we all hope for some form of immortality? We might not be able to breathe forever but there are other ways to stay alive.��

This is my 8th book by Boyne and at this point I should stop thinking of him as a novel author for me. He already has cemented himself a place amongst my favorite authors and I am slowly going through all of his published works.

A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom is certainly one of the weirdest books I read. We have an unknown narrator telling the story that spans two millenniums with multiple secondary characters. That can be confusing at first but then we get to know these characters through special traits which means the names don't matter very much.

I thought about this strange narrative choice and what was the author trying to achieve and I am still not very sure what the answer is. On one hand I may have preferred a normal story either in the past or the present time. On the other hand, I think it gave Boyne some flexibility to write through different eras using different voices and I kind of like that. But I am not very sure if that added any literary depth to the story.

As to the plot line itself. It is also a bit jumbled. Because it starts with a similar plot mostly about the narrator's family and then it quickly turns into a revenge story and ends up on a totally different note. The author discusses topics as female rights, the queer community and other minor topics too and as usual, Boyne does some self-insert into the story which I don't mind.

Summary: I thought this was a very weird book, but I ended up enjoying it, nonetheless. There is something refreshing in Boyne's writing mixing humor with criticism that I love. I don't think it is his best works, but it was certainly worth the time -pun intended-