The Invisible Mile

As described in the Sydney Morning Herald, the novel depicts its "odyssey with symbolic force and poetic finesse."{{cite web|last1=Woodhead|first1=Cameron|title=The Invisible Mile review: David Coventry's poetic odyssey in the Tour de France|url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-invisible-mile-review-david-coventrys-poetic-odyssey-in-the-tour-de-france-20160718-gq7vib.html|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald|accessdate=8 July 2017}} In doing so the novel creates its own legends around the riders and pays homage to ancestral competitors.{{cite web|last1=Short|first1=Joe|title=Book Review: The Invisible Mile|url=http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/732399/The-Invisible-Mile-book-review-David-Coventry-cycling-news-Tour-de-France|publisher=Daily Express|accessdate=8 July 2017}} A major theme in the novel is the individual's encounter with the trauma and opacity of a present, yet inaccessible, history and how this drives mythology. Here, personal history is inescapably connected to the shifting occurrences which mold modernity.{{cite web|last1=Macassey|first1=Olivia|title=DAVID COVENTRY – THE INVISIBLE MILE|url=http://www.takahe.org.nz/t86/reviews/david-coventry-the-invisible-mile/|publisher=Takahē Magazine|accessdate=25 January 2017}} Coventry has been quoted as saying "My motivation to write the book was not cycling. Cycling was a perfect way to get lost in the language of war and the memory of war."{{cite web|last1=Hakkert|first1=Theo|title=WIJ VAN DE ANDERE KANT VAN DE WERELD|url=http://verstwee.nl/interview/wij-van-de-andere-kant-van-de-wereld/|publisher=VERSTWEE|accessdate=25 January 2017}} Indeed, the "suffering of these athletes (many of whom, save for the unnamed narrator, are based on real-life figures) resonates with their shared trauma from a war that played out just 10 years earlier.... In varying parts philosophical action-adventure, travelogue, family drama, war chronicle and psychological puzzler, is suffused with the ever-querying perspective of its haunted central character."{{cite web|last1=Stuart|first1=Jan|title=Debut Novels for Armchair Olympians, Rom-Com Fans, and More|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/books/review/debut-novels-for-armchair-olympians-rom-com-fans.html|work=New York Times|accessdate=8 July 2017}} In regard to the symbolic drive of the novel, Coventry has stated "The book is not trying to be a metaphor for the war, but for remembering the war."{{cite web|last1=Niedenthal|first1=Alec|title=New Routes in Fiction: David Coventry with Alec Niedenthal|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2017/12/fiction/New-Routes-in-Fiction-David-Coventry-with-Alec-Niedenthal|website=The Brooklyn Rail|publisher=The Brooklyn Rail|accessdate=19 January 2018}}

The New York Times stated the book is "Gorgeous.... Coventry’s brooding narrative, in varying parts philosophical action-adventure, travelogue, family drama, war chronicle and psychological puzzler, is suffused with the ever-querying perspective of its haunted central character."{{cite web|last1=Stuart|first1=Jan|title=Debut Novels for Armchair Olympians, Rom-Com Fans, and More|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/books/review/debut-novels-for-armchair-olympians-rom-com-fans.html|work=New York Times|accessdate=8 July 2017}}

The Brooklyn Rail described the novel as "Masterful..... Coventry breaks the rules, every one he can find, and learns a higher music. What emerges is a novel in the tradition of Don DeLillo (Libra), Toni Morrison (Beloved) and Thomas Mann (Doctor Faustus), writers who try to think through the way history takes hold of the individual, the almost demonic violence inspired by the place where people and events meet. These are books with a metaphysical heft."{{cite web|last1=Niedenthal|first1=Alec|title=New Routes in Fiction: David Coventry with Alec Niedenthal|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2017/12/fiction/New-Routes-in-Fiction-David-Coventry-with-Alec-Niedenthal|website=The Brooklyn Rail|publisher=The Brooklyn Rail|accessdate=19 January 2018}} The Guardian described it as "a literary novel of the highest order."{{cite web|title=Gifts and Misses|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/09/gifts-and-misses-publishers-pick-their-books-of-2016|website=www.theguardian.com|publisher=The Guardian|accessdate=19 January 2018}}

Critically acclaimed in New Zealand, the novel has been described as "[O]ne of the most gruelling novels about sport ever written in New Zealand. But it’s quite a bit more than this . . . A truly extraordinary first novel."{{cite journal|last1=Reid|first1=Nicolas|date=13 June 2015|title=Ride Along|journal=The New Zealand Listener|volume=249|issue=3917|pages=52, 52}} Whilst Kiran Dass of The New Zealand Herald wrote "... it's such an accomplished and beautifully refined novel. It almost makes other writers look like they're just mucking around."{{cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11634819|title=Contest for top book should be a thriller|last1=Christian|first1=Dionne|date=7 May 2016|accessdate=19 January 2018|website=www.nzherald.co.nz }} Brian Clearkin at Landfall wrote: "a brilliant tour de force of writing talent and style that richly rewards the reader. I leave it to you to decide whether or not this debut effort immediately places David Coventry among the elite of New Zealand authors."[19] With Olivia Macassey at Takahē magazine stating "Coventry seems to have arrived fully-formed in our literary landscape with this fascinating debut."{{Cite news|url=http://www.takahe.org.nz/t86/reviews/david-coventry-the-invisible-mile/|title=David Coventry – The Invisible Mile|date=2016-04-03|work=takahē magazine|access-date=2018-01-20|language=en-NZ}}

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Category:2015 novels

Category:Novels about cycling

Category:21st-century New Zealand novels

Category:New Zealand historical novels

Category:2015 debut novels