YONAH AND DEVORAH’S TRAVELING MUSIC THEATER

In Leonie’s novella, a Dutch artist in the Netherlands inherits a peculiar chest whose contents plunge his life into crisis.

Eli Schmidt never enjoyed a warm relationship with his grandmother, Cecile; in fact, the two were perennially at odds, and she gave him every reason to believe that she loathed him. This makes it surprising when, after she dies, she leaves Eli a cedarchest that she instructed him by letter never to open, but to protect forever. Overwhelmed by feelings of defiance and curiosity, he picks the lock on the chest to find a doll who can move and talk on her own; she nearly immediately begins screaming for her beloved, Yonah, claiming dramatically that that the pair are “destined to be together for all eternity.” A stunned Eli is horrified by the “unpleasant shrillness” of the voice of the doll, who calls herself Devorah; he’s a misanthropic person who prefers to live in quiet solitude. Devorah cryptically claims that she was one half of Yonah and Devorah’s Traveling Music Theater, before some sort of accident separated the pair; she demands that Eli help reunite them. He realizes that he can use Devorah to his advantage; he’s a famous artist with a major exhibit coming up, and he plots to make her its centerpiece. He convinces her the publicity will help them locate Yonah—but when it doesn’t, she cunningly retaliates. Over the course of this novella, Leonie slowly and deliberately unveils the extraordinary secret that Cecile harbored from her family, and the possibility that that the inheritance with which she entrusted Eli is part of some grander plan—maybe even a “villainous ploy.” Still, at the heart of this novella is Eli’s own struggle to overcome his mental afflictions, the author also hilariously reveals his protagonist’s deep aversion to people of all stripes as the story goes on. Overall, this is a high-flying comedic story that’s delightfully strange, refreshingly unpredictable, and surprisingly thoughtful amid all the oddity on display.

A playful brew of madcap humor and inventive intelligence.