The dictionary defines a fable as: “a fictitious narrative or statement: as a: a legendary story of supernatural happenings b: a narration intended to enforce a useful truth.” I’ve been thinking a lot about this definition after having finished Sonya Hartnett’s lyrical novel The Ghost’s Child. On the surface it’s a lovely story about an old woman who comes home to find a mysterious boy in her parlor and proceeds to tell him the story of her life. Matilda’s story spans most of the 20th century – from her shy childhood to the 2 year sea voyage she and her father went on looking for ” the most beautiful thing in the word” – to her brief time spent living with a mysterious man she named Feather – through her service in the World Wars helping wounded soldiers and her professional adult life as a doctor – it is both full and rich, but also missing something very important.
The magical and supernatural weave delicately into the story taking Maddy and the reader to the edge of imagination to seek answers to questions about love, life and beauty. Hartnett’s language is poetic, her imagery and character development are skillfully crafted, and the story floats along like a feather in the breeze. But there’s more too it than just a mystical narrative – there are truths, both bold and subtle – that Maddy and the reader discover along the way. This novel could be read and enjoyed for what it is on the surface: a narrative about a woman’s life filled with supernatural qualities and mysteries; or it can be savored for the deeper truths that are discovered when one reflects on the many paths of a life richly lived.
- Posted by Cori