Book description
In 18th century Stockholm, as the winds of revolution rage through
the great capitals of Europe, the key to a nation's fate rests in the
hands of an unlikely hero.
Emil Larsson is a drinker, card player and contented bachelor until
he is told that his position at the Office of Excise and Customs
depends on his settling down and finding a wife. Mrs Sparrow,
proprietor of an exclusive gaming house, fortune teller (and
confidante of King Gustav III) offers to lay an Octavo for him - a
form of cartomancy which can divine his future if he can find the
eight individuals who can help him realise his vision.
When Mrs Sparrow wins a mysterious fan in her card game, the
Octavo's deeper powers are revealed. No longer just a game of the
heart, collecting his Eight is now crucial to pulling his country back
from the brink of rebellion and chaos.
A debut novel full of opulent period detail, brilliantly
interweaving history, romance and intrigue, in which one man's fortune
holds the key to a nation's precarious fate.
'A delicious page-turner that brings 18th century Stockholm to
vivid life, complete with scandal, conspiracy, mystery, and a hint of
magic.' - Eleanor Brown, New York Times bestselling author of
The Weird Sisters
'The Stockholm Octavo is a masterful book, where a win
for one character is a loss for another and where any kind of loss
sparks a new round of plotting and intrigue. Read it, you'll be glad
you did. If you like novels that work on many levels at once, read
this stunning tessellation of a book, where fortune is the flip side
of intrigue and where history is the flip side of chance. The
Stockholm Octavo is a brilliant construction as much as an
intriguing read. More than once I caught myself wondering: Who is
Karen Engelmann and how did she do it?'
Karen Engelmann lived and worked in Sweden for nine years. She has an
MFA from Goddard College in Vermont and is the 2011 winner of the
American Scandinavian Society Cultural Award Grant. She lives in Dobbs
Ferry, New York.
The Stockhom Octavo
is her first book. Find out more about Karen on her website,
http://www. karenengelmann. com/
