Inkheart
by Cornelia Funke
Translated by Anthea Bell

For five reasons I am excited to be writing a review of this book: (1) It’s going to be a “major motion picture” soon; (2) It’s the first part of a trilogy whose second book, Inkspell, is about to be published; (3) It’s by the same author as Dragon Rider and The Thief Lord; (4) The paperback just hit the shelves of bookstores in the U.S.; and (5) A million people have sent me messages insisting that I read it RIGHT NOW. But apart from that, I’m glad that I can share it with you because it’s an excellent book.

Before I sing the praises of Cornelia Funke, I must sing of Anthea Bell, who translated this book from its original German. In my “day job” I have come across a lot of translated material, and you can almost always tell it was translated. Something of the original is always lost in translation, and there is always just enough awkwardness in the syntax to remind you that the translator is trying hard. Anthea Bell’s translation is one of the few exceptions—so effortless, so smooth, so idiomatic that you can hardly believe it wasn’t written in English to start with. To put a point on it, the translator is invisible. Bravo!

In fact, the translation is so good that it left me wondering whether the quotes from all my favorite books, which head each chapter, were chosen by Funke or by Bell. Most of them were originally in English. And I also wonder whose idea it was to make the setting so vague—there’s a lot of talk about “the north” and “the south,” and although American readers will probably picture most of the story as taking place in Mexico, I’m pretty sure Frau Funke has Italy in mind.

As for the story, it nestles comfortably into the tradition of the classic stories it quotes from. Readers of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, or of Michael Ende’s Neverending Story, may recognize the basic idea. For in Inkheart, it is possible for “real” people (from our world, that is) to cross over into the world where characters in a book live. And the characters in the book, in exchange, can cross into our world. The magic in this unique story comes not from the book itself, or from a diabolically clever gadget, but from the voice of certain people reading the book out loud—any book will do, as long as it is well-written. Some people have the gift of making the words come to life, painting the scenery with their voice, transporting their hearers (in their mind, at least) to a magical world, making them see and hear and smell and feel the things the book describes. And some people—very few, thank God—take it a step further: when they read aloud, objects and creatures and even people sometimes disappear from one reality and appear inside the other.

One of those people is a bookbinder named Mo, who lives alone with his adored and adoring daughter, Meggie. Mo and Meggie both love to read books, but Mo never reads to Meggie aloud. She wonders about this sometimes. Then one dark, stormy night a suspicious stranger visits Mo, and the next day they are on the run from their home. A villain is after them, a villain who came out of a book called Inkheart, and whose heart is as black as the title suggests. The villain is named Capricorn, who has been stealing all the copies of Inkheart in the world and wants to steal Mo as well, because Capricorn believes that Mo has the power to read him and his vile henchmen back into the book they came from.

I will say no more about the plot, except that it is suspenseful, filled with colorful characters—some of them flamboyantly evil, and the rest of them complex and fascinatingly flawed—and that a lot of really deadly peril lies in store for Meggie and her friends as she tries to find a way to “set the story straight.”

I am really interested to know where the sequel takes these characters (the ones who survive, anyway), after the excitement and drama of this book. Truly this is a book for people who love books, about people who love books. It will come alive as you read it almost as if the characters had stepped off the page...a thought that makes me shiver, though I cannot tell whether it is from pleasure or from dread...

Robbie Fischer
USA

Recommended Age: 12+

6/9/2005

If you would like to contact Robbie, you may do so here.