Tadzio Koelb

This is a bleak first-person story covering more than twenty years of Abe Kunstler's life. He lives in a lifetime prison of his own construction, forged from lies and distrust.

We've all met negative and judgemental people but here is someone who doesn't seem to have an inkling of how he could enjoy life or bring pleasure to other people. He is not a very pleasant person but he does inspire loyalty. The clever use of dialogue means we do glimpse some of the other characters in a more honest way then from Abe's jaundiced and selfish view. We can see that Abe distorts everyone's motives, always assuming others are similarly self-serving and manipulative. But Abe isn't powerful because he is always fearful of discovery - he is living a lie.

As I said, bleak, and also humourless. I expected the title city might have itself provided a lighter touch. Although Tadzio Koelb does provide a reason why Abe is so attached to Trenton (presumably the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey) the reader doesn't feel this attraction.… (mere)

Wow!

Trenton makes' absolutely blew me away. This might well be my favourite book of the year so far. The plot was shocking and kept me turning the pages one after another right till it was finished. I was totally captivated by this book, the characters were real and well portrayed, the reader could look at each one in many different ways, I myself was fascinated by the main character 'Abe' but at the same time I had no empathy towards him. I believe that this book could one day be a classic, it is timeless, and as the author states at the start of the book, not so unbelievable as not to be true. This book is an expertly crafted read, and I could not rate it more highly, I will be recommending this title to friends, and will be reading more by this author.… (mere)