INDEXES IN FICTION 3 & 4

I am very happy to post about two novels that mention indexes that I read recently.

The first one is A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne.

A Ladder to the Sky, was written by John Boyne in 2018. It is about Maurice Swift who stops at nothing to become a famous writer.

On page 303, Maurice Swift, the main character, looks at the biography of Dash Hardy to see if he is in the index.

“He took the book down and moved directly to the index at the back, running his finger down the names. To be included ran the risk of something negative being said but to be ignored would be wounding. But no. there he was, Maurice Swift, 131, 284. Just two entries and not spread across multiple pages.…..”

The second book I want to mention is Akin by Emma Donoghue.

This is the second novel by Emma Donoghue I have come across that mentions indexes. The other book was called The Pull of the Stars.

Akin is about Noah, a retired professor from New York who takes his young grand-nephew to Nice, in France.

On pages 87-88, Noah sees a book in a bookshop and couldn’t resist skipping to look himself up in the index. When he “flicked back to the passages they turned out to be mere mentions of occasions when he’d been with his grandfather in Nice”.

I intend to keep adding names of novels I come across which mention indexes to this blog so I am delighted when I come across any.

For anyone writing a book which needs a proofread or an index, hire a professional from AFEPI (Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders & Indexers of Ireland) , the Society of Indexers, or CIEP (Charter Institute of Editing and Proofreading) to lighten your load!