L'orologio di Maria Antonietta

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Narrated by Alexander Short, a stylish young reference librarian with arcane interests, this novel takes readers through a card catalog of desperation, delight, intrigue, and theft. It’s a suspenseful tale that unfolds with clock-maker precision and storytelling surprises. The narrative begins with Alexander facing job insecurity and a troubled marriage. Enter the uniquely named Henry James Jesson III, a bibliophile who hires Alexander for after-hours research. The task involves reconstructing an incomplete cabinet of wonders that chronicles the life of a mysterious eighteenth-century inventor. As the investigation intensifies, Alexander uncovers numerous secrets hidden within Jesson’s elegant Manhattan townhouse. Armed with a notebook, he dives deep into the search, only to find that the void in the cabinet mirrors an emptiness in his own heart. This delicious tale features quirky colleagues, erotic pop-ups, deviant passions, and miraculous thefts, presenting a grand and complicated “timepiece” told with a devilish sense of fun. The colophon notes a tiny gear, a freehand rendering of an escapement wheel from Breguet’s masterpiece pocket watch, which remains lost since its theft from a Jerusalem museum in 1983.