A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom by John Boyne

It took me a couple of very confusing chapters to understand what was going on. It's the story of a man, his brother and sister, and parents starting back in AD1 where his parents are named Martinis and Floriana. In the second chapter you have moved to Turkey in AD41 where his parents are now called Merek and Folami. As you move through each chapter you move from country to country and forward in time until you travel through present day and to the future. Each time the names change in keeping with the time and country but keeping the same initial letter. When you have understood this, the writing is brilliant, taking you through a story with slight changes as befit the time and place, but with a common thread.

The narrator is an artist, and stays with his family, whilst his brother is more bloodthirsty and leaves home to follow adventures. The artistry changes again dependant on the time and place - carving statues, painting, woodwork, book binding to name but a few, however some terrible things happen to him, and he feels he has to avenge these.

This would have had an easy 5 stars except for the fact that I really hated the last few chapters. The more current days, and the future. I felt these were self indulgent politicising and completely unnecessary - spoiling my enjoyment of the whole book. The final chapter was a huge disappointment and an author of his standing could have done so much better to pull the book together at the end. A real shame.