New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z By Title
Archives: A-Z By Author
Advanced Search

All-Time High Scores
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Books In Our Forums

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed books.

Osprey Island
A Novel
by Thisbe Nissen


N/A

based on 9 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?

based on 0 votes
read user comments
rate this book

Compare prices at pricegrabber.com

Buy it at powells.com

Buy it at amazon.com

Buy it at amazon.co.uk

Official Publisher Site

A book about summer, that most incandescent and evanescent season -- about lazy days, fleeting love, and tempers that flare in the heat. In the uniquely ephemeral atmosphere of a summer resort, Thisbe Nissen unfolds an ever-deepening story of ancient loyalties and betrayals, while showcasing the qualities that readers have come to expect from her: exuberant wit, fierce intelligence, and unforgettable warmth and compassion. [Knopf]

Alfred A. Knopf, 304 pages
06/29/2004
$24.00

ISBN: 0375411461

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Library Journal Beth E. Andersen

Nissen (The Good People of New York) is the kind of writer who sends the reader compulsively in search of everything else she has written. Highly recommended. [15 June 2004, p.61]

The New York Times Book Review Emiliy Barton

As the dramatic struggle over the boy plays out, enfolding the owners and employees of the hotel, as well as the other islanders, the novel's intensity is heightened by the enclosed space in which it unfolds.

Kirkus Reviews

Sometimes choppy narrative, ditto tiresome dialogue, and ponderous chapter headings ("As They Flee You'd Think They Float on Wings") don't quite obscure Nissen's acute sense of the messy ambivalence of love, while her depiction of a child's grief is heartbreaking.

Washington Post Susan Adams

Nissen handles a complicated plot with skill and paints an especially poignant picture of what it means to go home again.

Publishers Weekly

The book's plotting is labored, driven by the calculated disclosure of a host of dark secrets.

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Westervelt

So enchanting are the characters that the story they inhabit is not only secondary, but almost seems to get in the way at times.

Boston Globe Barbara Fisher

Waiting to discover what will ignite and who will get fried is no picnic.

Chicago Tribune Beth Kephart

Real people are far more nuanced than the novel's characters are, and the characters speak as they think, which is to say without poetry, without great insight, with a tremendous reliance on familiar turns of phrase.

The New Yorker

Nissen's characters are not quite clichés, but they always act according to their well-defined types, leaving us saddened but never surprised.

The average user rating for this book is 0.0 (out of 10) based on 0 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Discuss this book in our forums

Return to top of page

Osprey Island A Novel by Thisbe Nissen

Osprey Island
A Novel
by Thisbe Nissen