Wheeler Burden is the last heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens; he's also a philosopher, student of history, legend's son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, recluse, half-Jew and Harvard baseball hero. Wheeler lives in San Francisco, and so it is with some surprise that he comes to one day in 1897 Vienna where, coincidentally, it's 91 years before his last memory and half a century before his own birth. Indeed, it's a shock to realise that he's now older than his father (a WW2 hero), and indeed much older than his grandfather (a man of rather uncertain temper).
And when Wheeler meets the delectable Wheezie, and they fall in love, things start to get complicated - and then some - once Wheeler discovers Wheezie holds the key to a crucial secret, a secret she's completely oblivious to...Helped (or hindered) by, among others, Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Gustav Mahler and Buddy Holly, Wheeler has to unravel a lifetime of memories before he can discover who he really is or what's gone on
Thirty years in the writing, Selden Edwards' dazzling first novel is an irresistible triumph of the imagination. Wheeler Burden-banking heir, philosopher, student of history, legend's son, rock idol, writer, lover, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero-one day finds himself wandering not in his hometown of San Francisco in 1988 but in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: Vienna, 1897. Before long, Wheeler acquires a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young woman, and encounters everyone from an eight-year-old Adolf Hitler to Mark Twain as well as the young members of his own family. Solving the riddle of Wheeler's dislocation in time will ultimately reveal nothing short of one eccentric family's unrivaled impact upon the course of human history.
Edwards, author of The Lost Prince , brilliantly weaves romance, art, history, and culture in this unforgettable and dazzling debut novel.
And when Wheeler meets the delectable Wheezie, and they fall in love, things start to get complicated - and then some - once Wheeler discovers Wheezie holds the key to a crucial secret, a secret she's completely oblivious to...Helped (or hindered) by, among others, Sigmund Freud, Mark Twain, Gustav Mahler and Buddy Holly, Wheeler has to unravel a lifetime of memories before he can discover who he really is or what's gone on
Thirty years in the writing, Selden Edwards' dazzling first novel is an irresistible triumph of the imagination. Wheeler Burden-banking heir, philosopher, student of history, legend's son, rock idol, writer, lover, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero-one day finds himself wandering not in his hometown of San Francisco in 1988 but in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: Vienna, 1897. Before long, Wheeler acquires a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young woman, and encounters everyone from an eight-year-old Adolf Hitler to Mark Twain as well as the young members of his own family. Solving the riddle of Wheeler's dislocation in time will ultimately reveal nothing short of one eccentric family's unrivaled impact upon the course of human history.
Edwards, author of The Lost Prince , brilliantly weaves romance, art, history, and culture in this unforgettable and dazzling debut novel.