{"product_id":"the-whispering-muse-9780374534769","title":"The Whispering Muse","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSublime . . . A work of coy humor and shape-shifting magic . --\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSj n's novels have been championed by a veritable pantheon of literary luminaries: Junot D az, David Mitchell, A. S. Byatt, Hari Kunzru, and Alberto Manguel, who calls \u003ci\u003eThe Whispering Muse \u003c\/i\u003ean extraordinary, powerful fable--a marvel. \u003ci\u003eThe Whispering Muse \u003c\/i\u003eis Sj n's masterpiece so far.\u003cbr\u003e The year is 1949 and Valdimar Haraldsson, an eccentric Icelander with elevated ideas about the influence of fish consumption on Nordic civilization, has had the extraordinary good fortune to be invited to join a Danish merchant ship on its way to the Black Sea. Among the crew is the mythical hero Caeneus, disguised as the second mate. Every evening after dinner he entrances his fellow travelers with the tale of how he sailed with the fabled vessel the \u003ci\u003eArgo\u003c\/i\u003e on the Argonauts' quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece.\u003cbr\u003e What unfolds is a slender, brilliant, always entertaining novel that evokes Borges and Calvino as it weaves together tales of myth and antiquity with the modern world in a literary voice so singular as to seem possessed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Farrar, Straus and Giroux\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/06\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780374534769\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 160\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.29lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.26h x 5.01w x 0.66d","brand":"Sj\u0026#243;n","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42183830044853,"sku":"9780374534769","price":12.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_2211d373-23c1-4716-be98-90d5f04418df.jpg?v=1654571252","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-whispering-muse-9780374534769","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}