The Lace Reader is the best-crafted modern adult novel I’ve read in the last five years. As soon as I finished I knew I would read it again, and soon, too. The subtly-woven plot is at times startling, but is never misleading. The sense of magic in the book is firmly grounded in the environment. The sense of place is remarkable. The characters are as vivid as the imagery. This is the type of book that you should just read: don’t bother to read the back or find out what it’s about; just get ahold of it and read it.