booktrade.info - Book Reviews - The Old Child And The Book Of Words By Jenny Erpenbeck,

Monday 13th February

The Old Child And The Book Of Words By Jenny Erpenbeck,

Posted at 11:25AM Tuesday 30 Dec 2008

The Old Child & The Book of Words
ISBN: 9781846270581

In The Old Child, an awkward, slightly oversized girl is admitted to a children's home, where she sets about cultivating her own stupidity and insignificance to deflect attention. But her quiet relish for institutionalisation has an uncomfortable cast in Erpenbeck's restrained prose, which sets up the sharp twist in the tale's tail.

The Book of Words is initially opaque and unsettling. A child's world in an unnamed totalitarian country is circumscribed by curious questions asked of her parents, excursions with her wet-nurse, piano lessons, and peripheral figures sliding out of her life with little explanation. The subtle interplay of childish interpretation and adult euphemism, gradually unravelling its grim meaning, is thoroughly chilling.

Financial Times Review

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Tags: James Urquhart | Fiction

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