A Story of Magic and Love
‘It was Thomas Edison’s belief that the spirits of the dead, along with every word spoken, exist among us…they are, in effect, whistling in the wind, hoping to be heard.’
This is the fifth book I’ve read by Kevin Ansbro, and I’ve loved them all. Like his others, there is a sprinkling of magical realism that is so subtly woven through the story, along with a quirky charm and subtle humour that keeps me smiling while I read.
This story begins in 1970 in Denmark’s Silkeborg Forest with an infant bundled up against the elements in the hopes she will be found, her parents lives cut short by the exposure to toxic waste. It quickly turns to England in 2020, and to Mexico, wandering back and forth through time and place.
This is the story of a family that is fashioned under unusual circumstances, but there is no standard formula for how a family is created. Luna, the infant found, is the beginning of this family that will grow in size and in love.
‘Overhead, a splendour of stars spangled the sky, reminding Luna that her parents were still out there somewhere in the Universe. In her formative years, they had visited her in hollow-voiced dreams, their features as indiscernible as ripples on the surface of a lake.’
Shared with Ansbro’s unique and magical charm, I fell easily under the spell of this story, and delighted in visiting these places and these people. I only wish I could linger in these pages a bit longer, this was filled with so much love.
—Cheri C.S.
FUN and Unexpectedly Moving
Fantasy, science fiction, camp James Bond-ish caper where people deserving of comeuppance get creamed? I’m not sure how to classify this book. Much easier just to say it’s fun. There’s time travel and a super natural being and lots of good food. It’s funny and warm, gentlemanly, charming, once even goose-bump-inducing, and—well, I already said it—it’s fun. And a great escape from the current cultural and political strife.
Because of the style—an almost comic book-like matter-of-fact telling of the fantastical—I was completely unprepared to find myself bawling at the end. I mean sobbing uncontrollably, moved, believing, caring about these people and suddenly overwhelmed with a truth that is much more real to me than the petty things of life. The title spells out: we all live in a shadow of time, and there is so much more going on than what we experience in this limited little slice we inhabit together.
—Betsy Robinson
