Author: Nina Allan

Publisher: Other Press

ISBN: 978 11787472556


This is an unusual love story in that it prioritizes the documentation of the journey instead of specific,events leading up to a grand finale. So throughout the book we get stills, not only of whatever is happening, but also how the protagonists live their moments even as they reach out to each other. Not only do the protagonists reach out to each other, they bring an extraordinarily unreserved intimacy to their interaction as they reveal details of themselves and their past backgrounds and decisions. Throughout this book, the journey is paramount, the end being more or less accepted as a consequence within reach.

Andrew Garvie is a dwarf who lives in London. Early on, he develops a passion for exotic dolls, as he regards them as having their unique personalities. After working as an accountant in an office, and being the butt of jokes, because of his size, he realizes that he could eke out a living by making dolls.One day, he finds an advertisement in a dolls’ magazine asking for information on the life and works of the famous writer and dollmaker, Ewa Chaplin. The advertisement has been placed by Bramber Winters, who is a single female in her mid-forties, an avid doll-lover, and who lives in an institution of some kind in Bodwin, Cornwall. They start corresponding, and both find their mutual interaction very satisfying. After about a year of correspondence, Andrew decides to go and meet Bramber in person. Bramber does not know this. It is this journey, the thoughts and events that surface, that forms the major focus of this book.

Andrew obtains a copy of Ewa Chaplin’s book, “Nine Modern Fairytales”, and takes it along to read on the way to meet Bramber.The journey would take a few days as Andrew wishes to stop overnight at various stations along the way. He reads the Chaplin book on the road and over the course of the tri completes five of the nine stories in the book. These stories are Interspersed within the narrative, along with Bramber’s letters. Within the main narrative, we also get to meet important people in both Andrew’s and Bramber’s lives and see the archetypal themes that play out in Andrew’’s and Bramber’s lives. There are stories within stories and it is easy to get lost in the complex nature of the main characters and their associates.

Ewa Chaplin’s stories form a huge part of the book She had been a refugee from Poland during World War II. In England, she started off as a seamstress.She went on to make dolls and, in this profession, succeeded brilliantly..She also wrote books but these were published after her death

Chaplin’s stories are of a surreal nature. Some of the themes include  a dwarf’s love thwarted and his subsequent revenge, a wanted artist gets to flee the country, and the consequences, a woman who attempts to kill her aunt who has stolen her boyfriend and how she ends up . There is also the story of a teacher who cannot come to terms with a particular student and also the story of  an actress who rehabilitates a particular beggar.

There is a special kind of writing in this book.t.e.it describes every seemingly unimportant event in its minutiae. This is probably to set the ambience on the physical plane while the stories by Ewa Chaplin  set the tone on the emotional plane.This makes the novel very evocative and readable, and would appeal to many readers who like their characters to be conscious, intelligent and violence free.

Besides, this kind of detailed investigation of the events in the book, complemented by inputs from the stories by Ewa Chaplin, leave scope only for a specious analysis.Some things  are best left understated and un-analyzed.

Personally, I enjoyed reading the book very much.I recommend it warmly.