The novel is not as surrealistic as I expected; there is a plot, of sorts, and it is easy to follow. But people say and sometimes do things that would strike you as unreasonable in a realistic novel, and nobody seems to mind. 3 1/2 stars, rounded down.

For me, the novel took off in the second half. At a good 150 pages, the sudden intrusion of 30 pages of found narrative right out of Dan Brown/Foucault's Pendulum/Indiana Jones/Knights Templar came as quite a surprise. It's straight horror-adventure fare, told in documents, not surreal at all. Or am I just so used to this kind of fiction that it doesn't strike me as odd anymore? Very enjoyable to read. From then on, the book takes an even weirder turn into apocalyptic winter.