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How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky: A Novel Audiobook
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Beyond the skyline of Toledo stands the Toledo Institute of Astronomy, the nation's premier center of astronomical discovery and a beacon of scientific learning for astronomers far and wide. One of these is George Dermont, a dreamer and a man of deep faith, who's trying to prove the scientific existence of a Gateway to God, and speaks to ancient gods and believes they speak back. Its newest star is Irene Sparks, a pragmatist and mathematician invited to lead the Institute's work on a massive superconductor being constructed below Toledo. This would be a scientist's dream come true, but it's particularly poignant for Irene who has been in self-imposed exile from Toledo and her estranged alcoholic mother, Bernice. When Bernice dies unexpectedly, Irene resolves to return to Toledo, and sets in motion a series of events which place George and Irene on a collision course with love, destiny and fate. George and Irene were born to be together. Literally. Their mothers, friends since childhood, hatched a plan to get pregnant together, raise the children together and then separate them so as to become each other's soulmates as adults. Can true love exist if engineered from birth? Lydia Netzer's How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky is a mind-bending, heart-shattering love story for dreamers and pragmatists alike, exploring the conflicts of fate and determinism, and asking how much of life is under our control and what is pre-ordained in the stars.
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"No one writes like the brilliant Lydia Netzer; she’s a visionary with a huge voice and an impeccable ear for language. HOW TO TELL TOLEDO FROM THE NIGHT SKY evokes an Ohio where math has married mysticism, where a woman at war with falling in love can find herself flying into it instead, where a man will fight both his demons and his deities to finally connect. It’s a powerful reinvention of the love story---sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes glorious, but always truly original. Compelling, rich with ideas, and perfectly written, it left me breathless. I love this book, and you will, too"
— Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of A Grown Up Kind of Pretty
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“A powerful reinvention of the love story—sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes glorious, but always truly original.”
— Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author -
“Two star-crossed stargazers twinkle in Lydia Netzer’s spritely How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“Lydia Netzer’s second novel, the antically inventive, often outrageously funny How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky is set in a world that’s pretty different from ours…Netzer’s fans are likely to be quite entertained by this second charmingly weird novel of hers that grapples with big questions. Is love written in the stars? Where does inspiration come from? Who decides our fates? Netzer’s wise answer: ‘The most important things are mysteries.’”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Winning…Two flawed souls whose love is as quarky as it is quirky. They make this summer valentine bittersweet, showing us the redemptive power of love as a truly cosmic force.”
— Boston Globe -
“Netzer’s sophomore effort may be even stronger than her excellent debut…Readers will be unable to stop thinking about this book, stunning in its poignancy, long after the last page has been read.”
— Romantic Times (4½ gold stars, Top Pick) -
“Here is a diverting romp through two generations of well-intentioned friends and lovers as Netzer tells the story of übernerds Irene Sparks and George Dermont and explores the concept of soul mates…Fabulous.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“Netzer’s poetic storytelling results in a surreal yet believable tale of two lives intertwined more than they could have realized. As in the author’s first novel, the imaginative characters are full of eccentricities, adding a touch of humor to a story that’s also tinged with remorse and regret. Recommended for all literary fiction fans.”
— Library Journal -
“Lydia Netzer has a refreshing way of looking at the world that captivates me…In her novels, she combines math, magic, and science in a unique alchemy that gives us an entirely new kind of love story. In How to Tell Toledo From the Night Sky, she writes about ‘twin souls who collide and love each other forever.’ I urge you, dear reader, to collide with this book. It may just change the way you think about love.”
— David Abrams, author of Fobbit -
“Narrator Joshilyn Jackson is well suited to conveying the book's inherent sense of wonder.
— Library Journal
Awards
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A Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week, June 2014
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A 2014 Library Journal Editor’s Pick
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About Lydia Netzer
Lydia Netzer was born in Detroit and educated in the Midwest. She lives in Virginia with her husband and two children. When she isn’t teaching, reading, or writing, she plays the guitar in a rock band.
About Joshilyn Jackson
Joshilyn Jackson is the bestselling author of Backseat Saints, Gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, and A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages and short-listed for the Townsend Prize. She won the SIBA Book Award for Fiction in 2005, and, as a former actor, was nominated for an Audie Award and received a Listen Up Award from Publishers Weekly.