Serialized novels have been popping up here and there in the past couple of years: The New York Times Magazine, Harpers. Now the Washington Post has taken up the baton with Jezebel’s Tomb by David Hilzenrath. You can read it in bi-weekly installments or order a hard copy via print-on-demand.
In 1883, a Jerusalem merchant claimed to have purchased from a Bedouin an unusual text found in a cave near the Dead Sea. He was on the verge of selling it to the British Museum for £1 million when he was denounced as a fraud.
Disgraced and destitute, he committed suicide. His artifact was lost to history.
Generations later, the forgotten man holds the key to a Jerusalem bombing and a 2,000-year-old mystery.
Critical Mass has more on the story; links to more serialized stories and on-line fiction can be found in the comments.
Stephen King was the first to do something like that when in 1996 “The Green Mile” was released as a serialized novel. Of course that was in bookstores.
This looks like the older days (in England i think) when novels were published in newspapers over several issues. I’m wondering if the “Serialized Novel” will be replacing the “Short Story.” I’ve been hearing over and over how commercial magazines have cut short fiction from their publications. Perhaps this could be the beginning of a trend back to fiction as a regular feature.
Either way It looks interesting. If it’s free I will have to check it out.
I’m wondering if the “Serialized Novel” will be replacing the “Short Story.”
Good point, I hadn’t thought of that.
I think it is free. The cover is certainly intriguing.
I read the first part of the WaPo one, “Jezebel’s Tomb.” There’s only the prologue. But so far it seems interesting.