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BOOK REVIEW

‘By Blood: A Novel’ by Ellen Ullman

By John Freeman

 |   

  April 08, 2012

All of us eavesdrop, even when we try not to do so. The ear craves narrative; and so we listen. The news, our family stories, even the snatches of conversation caroming around the street, all of it gives us a preview of history’s melody. But what about us - the listener? Are we not implicated in the music we hear? Those questions are at the heart of Ellen Ullman’s extraordinary new novel, in which the reader becomes a kind of eavesdropper.

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