THE BOY, THE FATHER, AND THE BEAR

Surreal details and unusual art mark this coming-of-age tale from Sweden.

“Once upon a time, a boy lived with his father where the forest and the blue sea met.” So begins this fable. When the child expresses an interest in seeing the woods and sea for himself, his father tells him that there are bears in the forest and sharks in the sea. Things take a turn for the odd as the father ages and the boy does not. Now elderly, the father becomes a tree in their home, bearing the boy like a boat when rains wash them away. At sea, the boy comes across a bear, who shares the tree with him, and, later, a shark, who saves them both from drowning. A friendship blossoms between boy and bear, and the book ends with a poem, which concludes: “Good new thoughts come every day / And darkness lets me be.” Each of the tale’s four chapters presents sketches in four different pencil colors. At times, such art can be disturbing, as when the boy’s father becomes more grotesque and gnarled with age. More often, though, it’s dreamlike and engaging, as in two silent two-page spreads of the boy and tree in the sea, silhouetted against the waves. The story is similarly cryptic, beckoning readers to consider deeper meanings. Human characters have skin the color of the page.

Perhaps a metaphor. Perhaps not. An unconventional consideration of friendship and the wisdom of experience over time.