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Like a Fading Shadow
Like a Fading Shadow: A Novel | Antonio Muoz Molina
12 posts | 4 read | 7 to read
A hypnotic novel intertwining the authors past with James Earl Rays attempt to escape after shooting Martin Luther King Jr. The year is 1968 and James Earl Ray has just shot Martin Luther King Jr. For two months he evades authorities, driving to Canada, securing a fake passport, and flying to London, all while relishing the medias confusion about his location and his image on the FBIs Most Wanted list. Eventually he lands at the Hotel Portugal in Lisbon, where he anxiously awaits a visa to Angola. But the visa never comes, and for his last ten days of freedom, Ray walks around Lisbon, paying for his pleasures and rehearsing his fake identities. Using recently declassified FBI files, Antonio Muoz Molina reconstructs Rays final steps through the Portuguese capital, taking us inside his feverish mind, troubled past, and infamous crime. But Lisbon is also the city that inspired Muoz Molinas first novel, A Winter in Lisbon, and as he returns now, thirty years later, it becomes the stage for and witness to three alternating stories: Ray in 1968 at the center of an international manhunt; a thirty-year-old Muoz Molina in 1987 struggling to find his literary voice; and the author in the present, reflecting on his life and the form of the novel as an instrument for imagining the world through another persons eyes. Part historical fiction, part fictional memoir, Like a Fading Shadow masterfully explores the borders between the imagined, the reported, and the experienced past in the construction of identity.
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review
Wannabe_Quijote
Like a Fading Shadow: A Novel | Antonio Muoz Molina
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Panpan

Book 53 of 2020! This one wasn‘t very interesting for me... but just interesting enough to keep me going to finish it. The chapters that alternated between the author‘s memoir and the fictional account of James Earl Ray was an interesting concept, but it didn‘t really work for me here.

review
Emilymdxn
Like a Fading Shadow: A Novel | Antonio Muoz Molina
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Pickpick

I loved everything about this book (my fourth #manbookerinternational2018 one) apart from the section that was just ANOTHER narrative about a misunderstood male ‘artiste‘ who has to cheat on his wife because she‘s ‘mediocre‘ and doesn‘t get him. I don‘t need to read that plot again. But that was only part of it and I loved all the description, the ideas, the connections between things. A great book overall. That‘s Spain done for #litworld2018gb

Simona I was between so-so and pick ... still thinking about odd structure, and how incoherent this novel is, but the part about killer was excellent! 6y
GatheringBooks i first learned about molina through alameddine‘s book (tagged here) and i am determined to know more of his novels - i am linking this post up here so you can be eligible for book prizes https://gatheringbooks.org/april-june-2018-linky/ 6y
24 likes2 comments
blurb
Emilymdxn
Like a Fading Shadow: A Novel | Antonio Muoz Molina
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Finally got some time to read Like a Fading Shadow. I‘m crawling through this book so slowly but I‘m really enjoying it! It‘s so original and the writing is gorgeous. I have to travel q a long way for work today so hopefully I can get through some more on the train

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Emilymdxn
Like a Fading Shadow: A Novel | Antonio Muoz Molina
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Very excited to be reading my next #manbookerinternational2018 book! Only a few pages in but loving this one already. Also (less excitingly for me) announcing that I‘m officially putting myself on a book buying ban for one calendar month. My spending has got crazy recently and I have to force myself to save some money - so I‘m seeing if books will make a difference!

MicheleinPhilly You‘ll probably be shocked to see how much of a difference not buying books makes. 😬 6y
BlameJennyJane I‘m considering doing the same thing. It‘s gotten really bad. I‘m a therapist so when a client says something like “hoarding” or “drinking too much” I realized if I insert “buying books” then I have a problem too. 😂 6y
21 likes2 comments
review
Simona
Like a Fading Shadow: A Novel | Antonio Muoz Molina
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Pickpick

Two completely different stories (one about author‘s intimate reflections on writing, literature and his life, and one about the killer of Martin Luther King) have one common point - Lisbon. Individually they are excellent, but the structure doesn‘t feel as whole coherent novel, more as forced ... but it is absolutely an interesting blend of perspectives, genres and styles. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

57 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Simona
Like a Fading Shadow: A Novel | Antonio Muoz Molina
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I think I will succeed in reading the longlist before announcements of the shortlist 🤓

Cinfhen WOW! I haven‘t read any....some I never even heard of😱#impressive 🙌🏻 6y
batsy 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 6y
Simona @Cinfhen Me neither ... majority of the titles (and authors) were unknown to me, and that is the reason why I like Man Booker Prize, especially International version. 6y
See All 11 Comments
Simona @batsy Next year? 😜😘 6y
batsy 😂😭 It's not over yet! There's the shortlist and I'm going to work on my willpower 🤞🏽😘 6y
Simona @batsy Yes you will, I believe in you 🙌🤟😘 6y
Emilymdxn I‘m on 3 so far! I didn‘t pick up on it till quite late :( doing my best tho! 6y
Simona @Emilymdxn I started a day after announcements and is still a race with the time .... do you think you will managed? 6y
Emilymdxn I don‘t think I will at all, I only started a week ago or so (I‘d already read one of them coincidentally before I started trying to tick them all off). I think I‘ll manage the whole shortlist when it comes out tho 6y
Simona @Emilymdxn Timelines between longlist - shortlist and shortlist - winner could have been reversed. 6y
LeahBergen Wow!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 6y
65 likes11 comments
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Simona
Like a Fading Shadow: A Novel | Antonio Muoz Molina
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Epitaph from my next read ...

#shadows #quotsyapril18

peacegypsy How is this book so far? 6y
Simona @peacegypsy I‘m about 100 pages in, and is okay so far. Nothing extremely special or overwhelming ... 6y
53 likes1 stack add2 comments
blurb
nightwitch
Like a Fading Shadow: A Novel | Antonio Muoz Molina
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#booked2018 picks this far for Jan - Mar! Thanks @Cinfhen , @4thhouseontheleft , and @BarbaraTheBibliophage for organizing this! ❤😁

Cinfhen Great graphics!!! Awesome choices! I love Roxane Gay 💕 6y
nightwitch @Cinfhen Glad to hear it! I haven't read her yet, but I've wanted to for a while! 6y
16 likes2 comments