I bought this based on all the reviews here and was sorely disappointed. My assessment of the book is this: when the author didn't know what to do next, he introduced some character out of nowhere, no connection, no realistic explanation, no reason at all other than to un-stall the storyline. When he needed something else to happen, he made some other character mysteriously disappear under seemingly nonsensical circumstances.....rinse, repeat, ad nauseam.I don't know...I love to read, but I didn't like the storyline, the characters, or the way the author wrote. Great books I'd recommend are Blindness by Jose Saramago, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and Life of Pi by Yann Martel.