Holiday Sale! Get an annual membership for 20% off!

Book Summary and Reviews of The Curiosity by Stephen Kiernan

The Curiosity by Stephen Kiernan

The Curiosity

by Stephen Kiernan

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Jul 2013, 448 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

The Curiosity, Stephen Kiernan's debut novel, is a gripping, poignant, and thoroughly original thriller that raises disturbing questions about the very nature of life and humanity - man as a scientific subject, as a tabloid plaything, as a living being, as a curiosity.…

Dr. Kate Philo and her scientific exploration team make a breathtaking discovery in the Arctic: the body of a man buried deep in the ice. Remarkably, the frozen man is brought back to the lab and successfully reanimated. As the man begins to regain his memories, the team learns that he was - is - a judge, Jeremiah Rice, and the last thing he remembers is falling overboard into the Arctic Ocean in 1906.
 
Thrown together by circumstances beyond their control, Kate and Jeremiah grow closer. But the clock is ticking and Jeremiah's new life is slipping away...and all too soon, Kate must decide how far she is willing to go to protect the man she has come to love.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"[T]he characters are never much more than mouthpieces for what appear to be the author's pieties. Still, this is a gripping novel with a clever concept." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. [A] smart, heady, and irresistible science thriller...Kiernan gets every element right in this breakneck, entertaining, and thought-provoking tale about time, mortality, the ethics of science, and the meaning of life." - Booklist

"The ending, if not exactly ingenious, is at least fitting and somewhat touching. A derivative but unmistakably engaging debut. " - Kirkus Reviews

"I absolutely loved The Curiosity. It's as thought-provoking and powerful as Flowers for Algneron and the writing is breathtakingly beautiful. And that ending? Poignant, luminescent, and absolutely perfect." - Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of The Light in the Ruins and Midwives

"The Curiosity is a true page-turner, mixing cutting edge science with an all-too-human love story, while simultaneously taking on the Big Questions. It's one of the most assured debuts in years, a book that will stop your heart and start it again." - Justin Cronin, bestselling author of The Passage

This information about The Curiosity was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Stephen Kiernan

Stephen Kiernan is an award winning journalist whose latest book is a novel, The Curiosity. Author of the nonfiction books Last Rights (about how to improve end-of-life medical care) and Authentic Patriotism (about renewing America through volunteerism and philanthropy), he has won more than 40 awards for his work in newspapers. He lives in Vermont with his two amazing sons.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more thrillers...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Before the Mango Ripens
    Before the Mango Ripens
    by Afabwaje Kurian
    Set in 1971, this work of historical fiction begins in the aftermath of an apparent miracle that has...
  • Book Jacket: Margo's Got Money Troubles
    Margo's Got Money Troubles
    by Rufi Thorpe
    Forgive me if I begin this review with an awkward confession. My first impression of author Rufi ...
  • Book Jacket: Our Evenings
    Our Evenings
    by Alan Hollinghurst
    Alan Hollinghurst's novel Our Evenings is the fictional autobiography of Dave Win, a British ...
  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl disappears, leaving a mystery unsolved for fifty years.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

In youth we run into difficulties. In old age difficulties run into us

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.