Borrowed Man - Tapa blanda

"Gene Wolfe novels are often like those ingenious Japanese puzzle boxes--familiar, elegant surfaces that slide apart in unexpected ways." -The Chicago Tribune "Intriguing and rewarding novel, fast paced and lively." --Los Angeles Review of Books "Gene Wolfe has always been one of the most inventive and literary science fiction writers of our day." --SFRevu "Wolfe (The Land Across) builds this SF noir into a strange, unsettling story, deceptively simple and old-fashioned in style and plot, but full of disturbing details that are intensified by the deadpan humor and matter-of-fact flatness of Smithe's narrative voice." --Publishers Weekly "Best known for his four-volume Book of the New Sun series, Wolfe is often regarded as one of speculative fiction's most literary craftsmen, infusing his works with multiple layers of meaning. Without relinquishing his superlative skill at creating interesting characters while spinning a good story, Wolfe offers a refreshing change of pace here with a futuristic mystery novel featuring an unusual first-person narrator." --Booklist "The best thing about A Borrowed Man is the way its not-human hero grips your sympathy ... Don't ask what happens if he's returned overdue. Librarians hate when that happens."--Tom Shippey of the Wallstreet Journal "What initially seems an oddball murder mystery that is, almost inevitably with Wolfe, a good deal more than it initially seems to be." - Locus "Wolfe is a grand master of the genre, and this is an absorbing tale, full of noirish elements and fun sf flourishes." -Library Journal

In the twenty-second century, our civilization has retained many familiar characteristics, but the population is smaller. Technology has made significant advances, and there are robots - and clones. One such is E. A. Smithe, a borrowed person, a clone who lives on a third-tier shelf in a public library. His personality is an uploaded recording of a deceased mystery writer. As library property, Smithe is not a legal human. The father of Colette Coldbrook, a wealthy library patron, has disappeared and been proclaimed dead. She decides to check Smithe out of the library because he is the surviving personality of the author of Murder on Mars. A physical copy of that book was the sole item in her father's safe, and it contains an important secret, the key to immense family wealth. Her brother, Conrad, turned up dead in the family home shortly after giving the book to her. Colette has reached the end of her options. She's afraid of the police, and there are others who might want the book's secret. Smithe is her last hope. Borrowing him might help her find the connection between the deaths and Murder on Mars. Together they find something far beyond their expectations - something almost anyone would kill for.