First introduced in the madcap time-travel adventure The Eyre Affair, literary detective Thursday Next continues her unpredictable journey in this aptly titled sequel, which smacks of postmodern trickery. As a LiteraTec agent, Next protects the contents and characters of novels, a responsibility which entails jumping in and out of fictional narratives, all the while chasing literary criminals and raising a reconstructed dodo bird. Picking up where The Eyre Affair ended, Next has to grapple with her celebrity status and newly married life with Landed Parke-Laine. But the villains from her past are determined to get their revenge by eradicating her husband, threatening her famous LiteraTec father and hastening the end of existence. Fans of The Eyre Affair can expect the same cast of characters, as well as the impeccable logic that holds together a world turned inside out and upside down as fictional and so-called real people meet. Fforde pulls off the clash between slapstick and literature with panache.
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