Ah - the protagonist you love to hate - so cathartic! Maurice Swift is a terrible, awful, no-good very bad person, and a truly excellent character. His ruthless climb to the top of the literary world is perfectly crafted, and every time you think he has hit rock bottom as a human being, Boyne says "wait, there's more!" I read this book hungrily hoping for an epic comeuppance, and fearing the revelations that would precede it.

The behind-the-curtain look at publishing, along with the use of real and characters in this fictitious situation, lent the book a realism that made Maurice all the more sinister as a character. Much of the novel stayed with me after I finished reading it. I have already passed it along to my husband with a "you will love this" endorsement. Can I give it 6 stars?

This exceptional book looks at talent, greed and accomplishments in the writing world. It is eerily on target in this day of electronic and social media. It is applicable across all professions.

Through exceptional writing, character development, and story line, it considers decisions we all face every day. What makes a story, or ad or design, your own? Have you seen things in social media or at conferences that would make you and your company more successful? Have you woven ideas heard at a dinner gathering, conference, or neighborhood pool party into an award-winning product? Was there a mentor that opened doors for you?

Today I sit at my desk pondering a good ad idea that was developed by a competitor in a neighboring city. We're loosely held together through a national organization that provides basic layouts and copy to adapt to our local needs. We've also always taken the unofficial stance to use whatever another member has developed to help get across our message.

Should I get credit for the ad I develop based on their layout and even use of some copy disguised as coming from my city?

How far would you go? What is your ladder to the sky? Read this book today.

John Boyne's Heart's Invisible Furies was my favorite book I read last year (out of 50 mostly literary titles), and this book may be my favorite for this year. Maurice Swift, our protagonist, is the type of villain that readers can love to hate. Boyne cleverly reveals the story of Swift using different perspectives, and by doing so, he surprisingly is able to create quite a few well rounded supporting characters too. This book echoed others for me such as American Psychopath, Lolita, and The Talented Mr. Ripley, but in a more subtle way that was more engaging and fun to read as opposed to leaving the reader filled with disgust. The icing on the cake is this book is about ruthlessness in the literary world so it feels like an insider peek into the industry.

This book was well-written with an unexpected ending. The story kept my interest and Maurice Swift's unwavering ambition to be a renowned writer prevails to the end. Maurice's efforts to reach his goals go from being fairly manipulative to disturbing and even frightening. This is one of the most intriguing books I've read this year. I highly recommend this book.

Once again John Boyne has crafted a very engaging story. Told through various narrators Boyne tells the tale of Maurice Swift and his ruthless climb to success. For me, the mark of a good book is one that calls to me while I am reading it making it hard to put down and stays with me after I turn the last page. I could not stop thinking about this story once it was over, I highly recommend this book. I think it would make an excellent book club book.

Mr. Boyne is such a great storyteller that I was compelled to read this in one sitting! It is the story of a wannabe writer named Maurice Swift - who not only shares his last name with another famous Brit/Irish writer, Jonathan Swift, but Mr. Boyne has used one of that writer's most notorious writing techniques to fill the pages of his tale of Maurice - that being irony! This is a dark tale of the writing and publishing world; it is so engrossing that you will want to read it quickly if only to find out how much the main character manages to get away with. Once I finished, I could not help but wonder if some of it might possibly be true!

The title "A Ladder to the Sky" caught my eye as someone's climb to the top of his/her career. The novel did not disappoint me. With great ambition, Maurice Swift, protagonist, labors to be the best writer. However, his problem is how he reaches the top early in his climb and then has a dry period. Ambition is not his problem, finding ideas are. John Boyne keeps his readers hooked with the clarity of his language and structure of his novel. Now that I have read Boyne's excellent writing, I am going to read "The Heart's Invisible Furies".

I was thrilled to receive an ARC of John Boyne's latest novel A Ladder to the Sky from BookBrowse. I am an avid fan of Mr. Boyne's books and have read all but one of his adult novels. In my opinion he is one of the most accomplished authors writing today. His latest did not disappoint, I loved it and could hardly stop reading. It was like watching an Alfred Hitchcock movie! The author has a marvelous dry and dark humor, yet he can also write with such empathy and compassion. I urge everyone to read A Ladder to the Sky and then move on to all Mr. Boyne's other novels if you haven't already, you are in for some great reading.