CoffeeAndThorn reviewed The Amber Crane by Malve Von Hassell
Review of 'The Amber Crane' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This elegant historical novel has all the trademarks that I associate with Malve von Hassell - the gentle, measured storytellling, the subtle and unique characterisation, the meticulous historical detail, the beautiful writing which allows her to convey difficult truths without either sensationalising or compromising.
This is a coming of age story for three young people, each precisely located in a unique time and place and context, beautifully researched but not part of the usual cannon of historical fiction. And in the course of the book, each of the characters traverses a superb arc of character development. Peter, the main character, is an apprentice amber craftsman living towards the end of the thirty years war in 1644, who starts as a selfish irresponsible adolescent, who makes bad choices throughout the book, and yet grows through his experiences into a more thoughtful, responsible young man. Effie is his sister, a strange, mute …
This elegant historical novel has all the trademarks that I associate with Malve von Hassell - the gentle, measured storytellling, the subtle and unique characterisation, the meticulous historical detail, the beautiful writing which allows her to convey difficult truths without either sensationalising or compromising.
This is a coming of age story for three young people, each precisely located in a unique time and place and context, beautifully researched but not part of the usual cannon of historical fiction. And in the course of the book, each of the characters traverses a superb arc of character development. Peter, the main character, is an apprentice amber craftsman living towards the end of the thirty years war in 1644, who starts as a selfish irresponsible adolescent, who makes bad choices throughout the book, and yet grows through his experiences into a more thoughtful, responsible young man. Effie is his sister, a strange, mute girl whose story and talents are disclosed only in the silences and the unsaid of her life, as other lives move around her - and yet she too is able to grow. Lioba is a German girl, surviving on her own, with only a stray dog as a companion, fleeing from the Russians in World War II, 300 years later. Their dreamlike meetings, precipitated in some way by the contraband amber that Peter is harboring, are hauntingly and ambiguously depicted. The time-travel components of the story are conveyed with a lightness of touch that renders them simultaneously plausible and mystical. The day to day details of each of the characters' lives are crisp and crystaline. The matter of fact reality of living through war are conveyed with clear eyes.
This is a book that in different ways calls to mind many books that I have loved in my long life - Tom's Midnight Garden, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Time Travellers Wife, even Slaughterhouse Five... all books in which lonely people meet across impossible barriers and find themselves more fully alive in worlds where they cannot be, with friends that they cannot have.