On May 10, Solaris books released Paul Kearney’s newest fantasy, The Wolf in the Attic. The story is devastatingly beautiful, combining stunning prose with a story that reads like a folktale.
Anna and her father are Greek refugees in 1920's England. They lost the rest of their family to the Turks’ invasion and fled their homeland only to slowly grow apart. Anna’s father turns to booze and women while she wanders the streets of Oxford alone at the age of 12. Her only friends are her doll, Pie and a Romani boy named Luca. The story takes a turn when Anna discovers a darker world living outside the big city. What does this world mean for her and will she be able to live through the knowledge of it?
Kearney’s prose reads like poetry and his written cameos from C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien are worked in remarkably well. They are background figures in Anna’s life giving her some strong male role models besides her philandering father. Anyone thinking they are main characters in the story, however, will be disappointed. They weave through her life in Oxford, but ultimately don’t mean a lot to the plot.
The book is a dark coming of age tale with a paranormal twist. It’s a fairy tale for modern times, but not one written for children. The saga has a sinister feel, despite the protagonist’s age, much like Neil Gaiman’s novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Parents will want to be sure their teen is sufficiently mature before reading the story. Even though there are no explicit sex scenes, there are allusions to it and there’s plenty of violence marking the story.
This is the best book I’ve read so far this year. The writing style hooked me immediately, and the story grabbed me soon after. If you like magical folktales with a historical bent, this book is hard to beat. Expect to be genuinely moved.