Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Raven Girl

Raven Girl  by Audrey Niffenegger

The ballet and the author's article at The Guardian

Niffenegger, the author of The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry is back with something even more different. Does that make any sense?  Tasked by the Royal Ballet to write a story for them to perform, she created the story of bittersweet fairy tale, Raven Girl, a poetic tale, which she also illustrated.

A postman has a letter that goes to an address he's never delivered to before. When he gets there, he finds a raven, who was pushed out of the nest.  He takes her home, they fall in love, marry and pretty soon, there is a very large egg in the nest.  Their daughter, the titular raven girl has the body of a human, but she is all raven inside.  Her greatest dream is to fly.

The raven girl, who speaks only in the squawks of a bird, finishes school and is sent off to university.  There she meets a doctor who may be able to make her dreams come true.

I think this lovely story and its accompanying illustrations will ring true with a lot of readers. Sure, none of them have hollow bones and a need for wings, but there are many other reasons why we sometimes feel different on the inside than is reflected on our outsides.  For some that's clearly a bigger issue than others.  

I can't wait to see what Niffenegger does next.

1 comment:

The HoneyNerds said...

This sounds really cool! I enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife, and fairy tales are one of my favorite things, so I need to check this out. Thanks for the review!