Of some interest to students of contemporary German literature.
German novelist Nadolny conjures up a slow-moving tale that takes in the sweep of modern European history through the eyes of a wizard.
It’s hard to write about magic these days without inviting comparison to J.K. Rowling, but Pahroc, Nadolny’s protagonist, is no Harry Potter. Of improbable origin—his father was a Paiute Indian who “could ride bareback, shoot a bow and arrow, and dance like a god” but whose greatest ambition was to be a German—Pahroc is an old man when we meet him, writing long letters to his granddaughter Mathilda, who shares some of his magical powers. About those powers, Pahroc is ambivalent: He points out repeatedly that while sorcerers are able to do certain things that ordinary mortals can’t, on the whole those ordinary mortals lead happier lives: “It’s normal men and women who turn out to be shooting stars,” he writes. Certainly the sorcerers don’t have Potter’s gracefulness: To fly, Pahroc recounts, you have to zoom as high as you can, then flatten out and glide toward some earthbound object on which you’ve fixed your sight, then repeat the process. That’s good enough for Pahroc to have gotten away from Stalingrad even as his childhood nemesis, another sorcerer named Schneidebein, or Cut Leg (“sounds like cutlet!” Pahroc exclaims), signs up for the Nazi cause and works a little magic on behalf of the Führer. Pahroc joins the resistance, but because ethical sorcerers aren’t really supposed to use their powers to kill or to influence the course of history, his contributions aren’t very distinguished. The story owes something to Hermann Hesse, but along with the Harry Potter stories, it bears comparison to Günter Grass’ The Tin Drum, which treads on similar territory more memorably. The reader will benefit by knowing some of the basics of 20th-century German history, including the country’s division after World War II.
Of some interest to students of contemporary German literature.Pub Date: June 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-58988-146-4
Page Count: 265
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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