Salamander

Thomas Wharton’s dazzling second novel, Salmander, is an audacious and original tour-de-force set in the eighteenth century. Rich in story and character, the novel careens through a world of ideas and stories in which the mythic power of books, the thirst for knowledge, and the pursuit of immortality are almost erotic. Yet Salamander is also a universal story of love and obsession, not only between people, but between people and the printed word. The novel combines fantasy and history, magi...