Browsing the Bookshelves

Set in Lisbon, Portugal in the early part of the 16th century, with the streets seething with fear and anti-Jewish hatred, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is the first episode in Richard Zimler's 'Sephardic Cycle'.  Its action, if not the story, starts in amid the terrors of one of the most disgraceful and horrific events of European history, the Lisbon Massacre of 1506 and unfolds over the days of Passover.

Abraham Zarco, an honourable and respected Jewish Kabbalist is found dead as Old Christians torture and murder Jews and unconvincing Christian converts alike.  But Abraham Zarco, his body discovered covered in semen with a young naked girl at his side, was not the victim of violence rioters driven on by mis-placed religious zeal, administrative indifference and the example of the Inquisition.  Berekiah, a talented illuminator in his own right, investigates the murder of his beloved Uncle and mentor, to discover a labyrinthine network of secrets and deceptions which reach right to the heart of the Jewish community in Lisbon.  Make no mistake, while Zimler uses the religious tensions between communities to great dramatic effect, for the most part this is not a religious novel. It is a fantastic, mystical and enthralling murder mystery.

Yet the resonance between the Lisbon Massacre and the Holocaust 400 years later cannot be ignored; Zimler's detailed and personal narration of the massacre and the ever-changing landscape of the life on the streets of Lisbon puts The Last Kabbalist in a class above much other historical mystery fiction.  And should the reader try to ignore the parallels, Zimler uses the closing pages of the book to remind us that they are there.  This is perhaps the weakest part of the book, reading more like a personal attack on Christianity than a natural conclusion to the novels action.

As a historical murder mystery, this many-layered story cannot fail to satisfy. But those expecting a treat on the level of Zimler's later novels in the same sequence - Hunting Midnight and The Guardian of the Dawn - will be disappointed.  The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon lacks the scope, grace and vibrancy of the last two part of the Sephardric Cycle and does not have the same everlasting quality. The characters and situations presented here will not stay with you in the same way that Ti and his family become old friends as you reach the end of Guardian of the Dawn.

If you enjoyed Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose or Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Shadow of the Wind, put The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon on your reading list as a guaranteed winner.

Lynne Scanlon's recent article on the effects of flooding the book world with advance reading copies and uncorrected bound proofs in Publisher's Weekly (Slaves to the Galley) is both thoughtful and thought-provoking.  There is little in her analysis of the situation that I can find to argue with. Publishers do send out too many; and often to the wrong people.  But I have to take issue with her statement that this situation creates a bonaza for used booksellers.  This is not the case. The majority of uncorrected bound proofs have little or no value in either the used book or the collectors' market.  Only those from established and respected authors - a tiny slice of the publishing market - are likely to attract the interest of book collectors or literary sleuths.  Those from the also-rans do little more for the second hand book seller than clog up the shelves with slow-if-ever moving stock.  The art for the book seller is not in acquiring ARCs and uncorrected bound proofs but in discerning between those which have real literary merit and may become desirable to collectors over the years and those which do not warrant the storage space.  The used bookseller must learn to resist the aspirations of joe public who, having acquired a handful of proofs, usually by browsing the shelves of the charity shop next door, wander into the shop hawking their wares in the full expectation that they have something rare and special and expect to be offered a significant sum in recompense for their "skill" in book hunting.  Most booksellers would do better to decline all  ARCs and proofs that they are offered.  There is a market, and a rewarding one, for a small selection of pre-publication editions, but it takes experience and expertise to distinguish between the gems and the dross.

Scanlon argues that publishers should target a more limited distribution of advance copies to those likely to generate effective publicity or significant orders. That has to be right. But there are other ways in which publishers could help to retain the value of their books as they reach the market.  The practice of "limited edition" advance copies should stop - as should be growing trend for authors to sign proofs or advance copies. In persisting in these activities, publishers are creating the market for items which are not intended for sale - and diluting the value of those which do reach the market.  The claim that second hand booksellers are somehow polluting the market place with such items is nothing more than denial. If publishers produce such desirable items, the collector will want them.

The other area to which publishers should give more attention is to those offering advance copies for sale prior to publication. It is quite natural that keen followers of a particular author will want to read the "next book" as soon as possible. As a result, advance copies from popular authors offered for sale prior to publication can attract quite a premium.  For instance, proof copies of Elizabeth Kostova's excellent literary mystery, The Historian, were selling for as much as £60 to £80 on ebay in the weeks before its publication in August 2005.  Similar asking prices appeared in ABEbooks, one of the largest on line venues for second books. 

Amazon's terms and conditions for its third party sellers prohibits marketplace sellers from offering ARCs and proofs on its marketplace platform but the numbers that are actually available suggest that the policy is honoured only in the breach.

I can detect no signs that publishers are applying pressure to any of the on line venues to control the availability of advance or proof copies prior to publication. If there is a real desire to retain the value of a book as it is published, surely the eradition of pre-publication sales of advance sales should be a priority.

Scanlon argues that publishers should seek to prohibit the sale of advance copies until a book has gone out of print. While I sympathise with Scanlon's intentions, I believe this would be impractical as well as undesirable.  Impractical because, as print on demand technology marches on a pace, we are faced with the real prospective of books never going out of print. And undesirable because it would depreive students of literature from a valuable literary source.  The better solution would be to enforce strictly the prohibition on pre-publication sales, especially on line.