Specimen Days

by Michael Cunningham

Review by Stephen Clark

There’s something for everyone in this novel of three parts. 

The first is a ghost story set during the industrial revolution. A man is crushed inside the workings of a machine press.  His brother takes his job, but after a while is convinced he can hear a voice from within the machine: his brother’s voice. 

Part two is set in the present; it’s a crime thriller involving children, strapped with explosives, picking people indiscriminately before blowing themselves up. Cat Martin is on the case and on the front line as the children begin to call her before dying. 

Part three is pure sci-fi.  Set centuries in the future we follow an illegal robot and a female refugee from another planet trying to escape the city in search of answers.

Michael Cunningham won a Pulitzer for his previous novel ‘The Hours’ so you know this guy can string a few words together. All three parts are set in New York, all three are connected, though I shall not elaborate further and spoil a good read.

Publisher: Forth Estate (2005)

ISBN: 000-719-384-X  - Uncorrected Bound Proof (312 pages)

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2005)

ISBN: 0374299625  - Hardcover (320 pages)

Publisher: Thorndike Press (2005)

ISBN: 0786278951  - Hardcover Large Print Edition (560 pages)