Andrew Miller - Pure

This is an extraordinary book. Detailed, well researched, beautifully written and I can see why it won the Costa Award.
I think it would make a very good reading group book. Mainly because it is very difficult to categorise why this novel works. Much happens, the period detail is exquisite and you really feel like you are IN pre-revolutionary Paris. The tension building is almost palpable. The subject matter, the demolishing of Les Innocents cemetery and the removal of the bodies is bizarre and gruesome in a fascinating sort of way.
However the characters are not very likable and it is difficult to
become emotionally invested in them, as a reader we are very much an observer - and yet it works. I could not put the book down. It is almost as if Andrew Miller makes us as readers voyeurs to this drama. I highly recommend it!