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Codex: A Novel

Codex: A Novel

by Lev Grossman

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | April 4, 2005 | Trade Paperback

Based on 11 ratings | Rate this | 5 reviews
About to depart on his first vacation in years, Edward Wozny, a hotshot young investment banker, is sent to help one of his firm''s most important and mysterious clients. His task is to search their library stacks for a precious medieval codex, a treasure kept sealed away for many years and for many reasons. Enlisting the help of passionate medievalist Margaret Napier, Edward is determined to solve the mystery of the codex-to understand its significance to his wealthy clients, and to decipher the seeming parallels between the legend of the codex and an obsessive role-playing computer game that has absorbed him in the dark hours of the night.

The chilling resolution brings together the medieval and the modern aspects of the plot in a twist worthy of earning comparisons to novels by William Gibson and Dan Brown, not to mention those by A. S. Byatt and Umberto Eco. Lev Grossman''s Codex is a thriller of the highest order.

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Reviews of Codex: A Novel

5 reviews from our community
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  • 7 years ago
    Intriguing
    This book was a great mystery and certainly educated me on the subject of antique forms of writing. Edward was a very different main character. Why he is picked for the job is not fully explained. There was quite a deal of nail-biting towards the end of the book. The ending was not anything what I expected. I still do not fully comprehend why it ended that way it did and of what value it was to the secondary character. The computer game was intriguing. Actually there were still a lot of loose ends at the finish
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  • 7 years ago
    yips!
    Reading this book was like a sore tooth, it hurt to read, yet I just kept on reading it. There was information that didn't help the story at all, just upped how many pages the book ended up being. But To give this guy his due, I did contiue to read it. Then I got to the ending and wanted to shoot myself in the foot. Just to forget about the entire thing faster.
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  • 8 years ago
    Great research, weak story
    While the book is full of fascinating research (about codexes), the surrounding plot is weak and seems like an afterthought. Read it for the history, not for the mystery.
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  • 8 years ago
    Good Story, Very Bad Ending
    I really enjoyed this novel, right up until the end, anyways. Although it was slow moving and at times it felt like there should be alot more happening, most of the book was quite exciting and mysterious and kept me wanting to read more. However, the book ended very abruptly and there were alot of questions unanswered.
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  • 8 years ago
    Bad Ending
    Great story tieing in an ancient manuscript with a real life-like video game. However, the ending is, well, there is no ending. Literally. The story isn't wrapped up, and nothing is explained. I felt like I've been robbed of an ending.
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– More About This Product –

Codex: A Novel

Codex: A Novel

by Lev Grossman

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From the Publisher

About to depart on his first vacation in years, Edward Wozny, a hotshot young investment banker, is sent to help one of his firm''s most important and mysterious clients. His task is to search their library stacks for a precious medieval codex, a treasure kept sealed away for many years and for many reasons. Enlisting the help of passionate medievalist Margaret Napier, Edward is determined to solve the mystery of the codex-to understand its significance to his wealthy clients, and to decipher the seeming parallels between the legend of the codex and an obsessive role-playing computer game that has absorbed him in the dark hours of the night.

The chilling resolution brings together the medieval and the modern aspects of the plot in a twist worthy of earning comparisons to novels by William Gibson and Dan Brown, not to mention those by A. S. Byatt and Umberto Eco. Lev Grossman''s Codex is a thriller of the highest order.

From the Jacket

A National Bestseller "A genuine treat with its sneaky plot and richly textured storytelling." -San Francisco Chronicle Edward Wozny, a hotshot young banker, is about to leave for vacation when he is sent to help an important yet mysterious client. His task: search the family library for a precious, centuries-old codex that may not even exist. Enlisting the expertise of medievalist Margaret Napier, Edward is determined to solve the mystery of the codex and to decipher the parallels between the codex legend and a computer game that absorbs him in the dark hours of the night. Weaving the medieval and the modern aspects of its plot in a chilling twist, Codex is a thriller of the highest order. "Takes its place on the shelf of self-referential, bibliophilic page turners like The Name of the Rose, Possession and A Case of Curiosities, and it''s as entertaining as any of them."--The New York Times Book Review "This puzzle of ''nested secrets within secrets'' is tailor-made for fans of The Name of the Rose and The Club Dumas." --Detroit Free-Press [Author photo] LEV GROSSMAN is Time magazine''s book critic. He has written for the New York Times, Salon, Entertainment Weekly, and Time Out New York. He lives in Brooklyn.

About the Book

About to depart on his first vacation in years, Edward Wozny, a hotshot young investment banker, is sent to help one of his firm's most important and mysterious clients. His task is to search their library stacks for a precious medieval codex, a treasure kept sealed away for many years and for many reasons. Enlisting the help of passionate medievalist Margaret Napier, Edward is determined to solve the mystery of the codex-to understand its significance to his wealthy clients, and to decipher the seeming parallels between the legend of the codex and an obsessive role-playing computer game that has absorbed him in the dark hours of the night.
The chilling resolution brings together the medieval and the modern aspects of the plot in a twist worthy of earning comparisons to novels by William Gibson and Dan Brown, not to mention those by A. S. Byatt and Umberto Eco. Lev Grossman's Codex is a thriller of the highest order.

Format: Trade Paperback

Dimensions: 368 Pages, 5.12 × 7.87 × 0.79 in

Published: April 4, 2005

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Language: English

The following ISBNs are associated with this title:

ISBN - 10: 015602859X

ISBN - 13: 9780156028592

Read from the Book

EDWARD WOZNY STOOD squinting at the sun as crowds of people excused themselves past him in both directions. It was hot and bright. He was wearing a very expensive gray handmade suit, and he had to check what seemed like dozens of inside and outside pockets of various sizes and shapes before he found the scrap of paper he was looking for. He turned it over. It was roughly triangular, with one clean right angle and one ragged edge, the corner of a piece of copier paper rescued from the recycling bin at his office. On one side was a fragment of a xeroxed memo beginning "...insofar as all holders of any equity funds..." On the other side was a name and an address written in blue ballpoint pen. He folded it neatly in half and put it back in the tiny inside pocket-within-a-pocket where he found it. Edward checked his watch and set off up Madison Avenue, stepping over a NO STANDING sign that had been wrenched out of the concrete and lay across the sidewalk. In front of the corner bodega a man was spraying down trays of cabbage and lettuce and Swiss chard with a hose, filling the air with a ripe, wet, vegetable smell. A branching delta of glittering rivulets ran down toward the gutter. He stepped fastidiously between them and turned the corner onto Eighty-fourth Street. He felt good-or at least, he was doing his best to feel good. Edward was on vacation, his first time off since he''d started work four years ago, and he''d forgotten what it was like. He was free to go wherever he wan
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From the Critics

"Transcends the current vogue for the archaic--linking the 14th and 21st centuries by considering the powers of parchment and PlayStation."

About the Author

LEV GROSSMAN is Time magazine''s book critic. He has written articles for the New York Times, Salon, Entertainment Weekly, Time Out New York, and the Village Voice. He lives in Brooklyn.
Lev Grossman was born in Massachusetts in 1969 and studied literature at Harvard and Yale. He is currently a writer and book critic for Time Magazine. He has written feature articles for Salon, Lingua Franca, Entertainment Weekly, Time Out New York and The Village Voice, and was previously the producer of timedigital.com, Time magazine''s personal technology website. This is his second novel. He lives in Brooklyn.
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