Inga Karlson died in a fire in New York in the 1930s, leaving behind three things: a phenomenally successful first novel, the scorched fragments of a second book–and a literary mystery that has captivated generations of readers. Nearly fifty years later, Brisbane bookseller Caddie Walker is waiting in line to see a Karlson exhibition featuring the famous fragments when she meets a charismatic … charismatic older woman. The woman quotes a phrase from the Karlson fragments that Caddie knows does not exist–and yet to Caddie, who knows Inga Karlson’’s work like she knows her name, it feels genuine.
Caddie is electrified. Jolted her from her sleepy, no-worries life in torpid 1980s Brisbane she is driven to investigate: to find the clues that will unlock the greatest literary mystery of the twentieth century.
Toni Jordanis the author of five novels. The international bestseller Addition was a Richard and Judy Bookclub pick and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Fall Girlwas published internationally and has been optioned for film, and Nine Dayswas awarded Best Fiction at the Indie Awards, was shortlisted for the ABIA Best General Fiction award and was named in Kirkus Review’’s top 10 Historical Novels of 2013. Our Tiny, Useless Heartswas shortlisted for the Voss Literary Prize 2017 and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2018. Toni’’s latest book is the literary mystery The Fragments. She lives in Melbourne.
‘’I love Jordan’’s writing for its pitch-perfect blend of intelligence, compassion and humour.’’ Clare Wright, Guardian
‘’Jordan’’s storytelling always has a sense of fun, a smile, at its core; there is magic in the kinship of others, and Jordan’’s characters know the importance of finding it.’’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘’I so loved The Fragments by the amazing Toni Jordan. A thrilling, atmospheric, unforgettable story. I didn’‘t want it to end.’’Liane Moriarty
‘’The writing from Melbourne literary favourite Toni Jordan is sublime and this reviewer’’s only regret is that this divine novel had to come to an end.’’ Herald Sun
‘’Jordan takes on a different genre with every novel and handles each with distinctive flair. In this literary crime thriller she alternates between 1986 Brisbane and 1939 New York City, with a strong sense of place in each locale and a generous cast.’’ Adelaide Advertiser
‘’Jordan constructs a satisfying mystery, with rival conspiracy theories, plots, betrayal, clues and red herrings enough confuse readers in their attempts to solve it – perfect for fans of Dominic Smith’’s The Last Painting of Sara de Vosand Heather Rose’’s The Museum of Modern Love.’’ Kill Your Darlings
‘’It’’s a treat to step back into 1980s-era Australia with [Jordan].’’ Books + Publishing
‘’An unusual literary thriller, built around complex twists and a great sense of anticipation…Exploring truth and historicity, The Fragments is a clever novel. Jordan’’s fiction examines the overlooked roles of women, whose work often forms the thread that binds stories from the past, and the public’’s hunger for what goes missing in the narrative gaps.’’ Saturday Paper
‘’An old-fashioned romance novel grafted to the thrill of the literary chase…Like Liane Moriarty, [Jordan] takes traditional, even shopworn, literary forms and invests them with uncommoÂn intelligence and verve.’’ Australian
‘’A fast-paced, enticing novel, and one that is near-impossible to put down… A new novel by Toni Jordan is always something to get excited about, and The Fragmentsis no different. It is an absolute triumph by one of Australia’’s most adaptable writers.’’ AU Review
‘’A mystery that spans cities, class, people and timezones, and it’’s a page-turner with plot developments transpiring right to the very last pages…If you love reading Jane Harper or Holly Throsby or indeed Jordan’’s other novels, this is the perfect weekend read. The Fragments is undoubtedly Jordan’’s finest work to date.’’ Readings
‘’A gripping historical mystery with quite a few twists and red herrings to keep the reader guessing…Once again, Jordan shows she is a very talented author, with more than one string to her bow.’’ BookMooch
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Oh, how I adored this book!
Inga Karlson a phenomenally successful novelist in the late 1930’s died in a New York fire which also destroys all evidence of her latest and highly anticipated book. An exhibition of her life in the form of photos and fragments of burned manuscript comes to Brisbane. While strolling through the exhibition Caddie Walker, a bookseller and Inga fan, crosses paths with an elderly woman named Rachel who recites;
“And in the end, all we have are the hours and the days, the minutes and the way we bear them, the seconds spent on this earth and the number of them that truly mattered.”
Caddie is astounded when she realises the fragment of a burned page that survived ended the above sentence at ‘we bear them.’
The fact that Rachel can recite the next line leads her to believe the lost book may actually have survived or that this woman has somehow read it or knows something. So ensues a chase through history to investigate and discover what really happened to Inga and what was so important in her last book. For Caddie the possibilities of her own book and Ph.D. about Inga are in her grasp.
This literary whodunit story is beautifully written and evocative of 1980’s Brisbane and 1930’s New York. Told in a dual time-line narrative the characters of Rachel and Caddie evolve wonderfully and then come together in a very satisfactory end. Rachel’s love story was gentle and beautifully told contrasting nicely with Caddie’s own difficult love life. But it’s not a love story, it’s a mystery portraying the ends people will go to destroy another person’s life. In Inga’s case, it was her work and her life while in Caddie’s case it was academic theft of her work by her ex-lover Professor.
The politics of academia is explored as is the politics of pre-WW2 German activity in America. It’s a fascinating examination and the novel is well-paced with unsettling tension. If you are after a page-turner, then grab this one.
I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Toni Jordan, and Text Publishing. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read The Fragments of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am thrilled to recommend this work to friends and family.
‘The Fragments’ is a taut, intricate tale told very well. We have Allentown, PA from 1928 through 1938 told in the first-person voice of this young student, then silk-weaver Rachel Lehrer, a woman who understands male dominance and abuse from a tender age. We travel with her in 1939 to New York City. We see this glorious city through Rachel’s eyes, always something newly built, something cutting edge, books and movies and film stars – and the slow slide to the financial crash, European rumbles of impending war, life on the fast track, faltering. Then Rachel meets Inga Karlson, author of an inspirational and widely acclaimed Pulitzer prize-winning first novel, ‘All Has an End’ with the second novel in its middle stages and the general public waiting impatiently for book two. Until the fire. All the copies of the second novel, ‘The Days, the Minutes’, along with the only two people who had read the novel, publisher Charles Cleborn, and author Inga, are burned in a warehouse arson fire. Left are half-burned fragments of several assorted pages of type, a melted glass necklace, and memorabilia and correspondence between Inga and Charles found in their offices.
Then we have Brisbane, Queensland, 1986. Cadence “Caddie” Walker was named by her gentle father after the main character in ‘All Has an End’. She inherits a bit of her father’s obsession with Inga Karlson. Caddie is a bookseller in a local private book store and takes an afternoon off to attend a traveling display of memorabilia from the life of Inga Karlson including those fragments, funeral photos, obituaries, letters, and correspondence from people all over the world to Inga, both after her death and still today. There Caddie meets an older lady who laughingly quotes from the second book – including a line that was not present on the fragment of paper in the display. Caddie was feed Inga from birth – her father read her passages from ‘All Has an End’ at bedtime and often quoted her work in the everyday life they shared. She knew Inga’s work intimately. The concluding line fit too well to be random. But no one else has ever read ‘The Days, The Minutes’. Or had they?
In trying to solve the puzzle of ‘The Days, The Minutes’, Caddie is torn between an old love and a new possibility. How can she be sure she is making the right choice? And what happened to Inga’s secretary, Rachel?
I do love a good mystery. Here, the mystery is contained in the past, unsolved in the present despite the efforts of lots of researchers. A famous author was killed in a fire that also destroyed all the copies of her unpublished second book. Only a few fragments of the text survived, becoming a part of a traveling museum exhibit. Caddie, the main character in the present, views the exhibit and encounters an elderly woman who quotes one of the fragments to Caddie, adding additional text that doesn’t exist. Then she leaves, of course. The rest of the present-day story is Caddie’s hunt for this woman and research into the past events surrounding the author of the fragments. That’s the nutshell version.
The past and present stories are told alternately, in separate chapters. Both are well done and not at all confusing. I found the past story to be the most compelling parts of the book.
There are clues to the mystery, woven in bits and pieces throughout the narrative of the 1938 story. Somewhere around the two-thirds mark, a single sentence brought all those clues together for me and pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. I knew the key fact, although not all the details. I’m usually disappointed if I can figure things out before the conclusion, but this time it felt satisfying, as did reading the rest of the book for those details. The ending was just right.
The present story was interesting enough, but I had a couple of issues with it. The fire that destroyed the books was described as fierce and all-consuming, yet a few very fragile pieces of paper survived. How that happened isn’t explained, and neither is how those fragments wound up in a museum. Caddie, having found Jamie, and a couple of clues with his help, turns her back on him and seeks help from Philip, the self-serving, immature professor who had dumped her once before. His behavior couldn’t have been more obviously selfish, but she works for him anyway, expecting to solve the mystery and actually get credit for it. It made me question Caddie’s maturity. She pulled herself together before the ending, just barely. I really didn’t like her much.
In contrast, Inga and Rachel, in the past, are both excellently developed characters, easy to relate to and with intriguing stories of their own.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and definitely recommend it. It’s a great mystery.