Tonight at Powell’s (1005 W Burnside, 7:30 pm), Steven Hall, the author of Raw Shark Texts, will appear to read from his debut novel. I am racking my brain to think of the last time a debut novel got his much attention (White Teeth ?)—this one definitely ranks high on the list for debuts in recent years. (Alas, I have not yet read the book, so everything I write is heresay.) People have compared the Brit’s book to Haruki Murakami, Paul Auster, Damien Hirst, Lewis Carroll, Moby Dick, the Matrix, Michel Gondry, Jorge Luis Borges, etc. That’s a lot to live up to, but people are saying that Hall pulls it off. The best reviw I’v read so far comes straight from the Powell’s website:

I defy anybody out there to find a more original and audacious debut novel this year. Hall’s prose shifts effortlessly between the despair of his character’s mnemonic void, the menace of the unknown, and the tender recognition of loss, as he skates across various stylistic devices such as mystery and adventure, diary fiction, the epistolary novel. Reading this novel reminded me of the first time I read Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. Hall displays a lot of the same literary ambition, compulsive readability as Mitchell did (and continues to). And, like Ghostwritten, The Raw Shark Texts leaves a trail of ciphers, some of which emerge immediately, some of which stay buried awaiting a re-read. In this regard, The Raw Shark Texts is a logic puzzle of immense proportions.

Some readers may tire easily of the games that Hall plays with typeface, especially the flipbook shark which goes on for about fifty pages. But these tricks serve to remind the reader first and foremost that they are reading a book, turning it into a literal page-turner. Hall isn’t afraid to risk estranging the reader with his typographical smoke and mirrors, and by doing so, brings the adventure novel (to use a very broad term) into the post-modern realm.

It is very rewarding to read a debut novel like The Raw Shark Texts, and the sense that you get of not only better things to come, but the satisfaction of getting in on the ground floor of what is sure to be an amazing literary career. I have the feeling that a few years down the line, Hall will be a Booker shortlisted author, and there will be teams of readers smug with the knowledge of having discovered him the first time out.

*Don’t forget—it’s First Thursday in the Pearl, so you might want to leave your car at home.