David Almond – Kit’s Wilderness

ISBN: 0340727160

I read this book in the sun and found the lyricism and tenderness of its exploration of relationships, past and present, visible and invisible, beautifully represented through a language which seems accommodating and finally redemptive.

Interestingly the novel uses the space of Kit’s Wilderness to bring together ancient stories with more contempary tales, celebrating the possibility that somehow stories can and do save us. David Almond’s second novel seems as moving and powerful as Skellig and I read the novel entranced by the easeful manner in which Almond brings together all the disparate elements of this riveting tale and makes them ‘meet’ and then relate to each other.

I thought of Graham Swift’s now AQA anthologised tale Chemistry as I read this, but this is far less bleak and offers up a far more redemptive message about the capacity of a young person to reach and heal another…specifically in this tale, Kit’s grandfather , whose gradual deterioration is the main thread of the narrative. The permeability of Kit’s relationship to time, privileges an awareness of knowing and of being that seems transcendent and enduring.

I was also interested in the similarities to Carol Ann Duffy’s recent poetry as Poet Laureate where she offers her readers the possibility of resurrrection through time travel. This I will explore in a larger paper!

‘ What I’d like to give you most of all is what’s inside. The tales and memories and dreams that keep the world alive.’

Reviewed By: Tusitala

Posted in Book Reviews