The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz is not an easy book to read. The first half of the book is all I got through before I realized that this isn’t a book for me. It’s constructed as part anthropology, part history and part Gulliver’s Travels. The narrator starts off describing an island where he spent many years. Each chapter is a look into a different aspect of the island and the natives who live there. The history (or as much as the narrator can determine) of the island starts popping up. The narrator (currently living in Europe) is not only reminiscing about his time on the island and also starts out with events from Europe.

It’s an interesting story, but a bit too much meta narrative for me. The book starts off interesting, but I found myself caring less and less about it as I dove deeper in.