Original language:
Dutch Translated from: Dutch
Authors: Al Galidi, Rodaan
Translated by: Avižienė, Birutė
Full translated source bibliographical description:
Rodaan Al Galidi. Originally published with De Bezige Bij, Antwerpen, 2009
ISBN: 978-609-95657-8-1
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2015
Publisher: Gelmės
The events in this novel surround a boy who is diagnosed with autism. The book is not difficult to read, it is simply presented by the author, creating a nice flow of an everyday life. It is easy to emphasize with the story because of the short chapters. Although, if we focus on the main protagonist’s inner world, we might misunderstand him, but plenty of other characters help the reader to feel him better.
The novel from the very beginning starts with a different protagonist Geert life story. The boy was born in an unusual way and once he got older, his unmarried mother Janine realized how different he is from other kids.
Geert spent most of his time in the antique store where his mother worked as a seller. It was a special place for Geert, where he could stop over-thinking and calm his genius mind. His curiosity brought him to the store every night wanting to explore all the different devices, instruments and the luminous and melodic machine world. The store had not only devices but also various post cards, shoes, clothes, teapots, citrus juicers – everything that their past owners did not need any longer and Geert was there to befriend every single one of them.
Every evening in the antique store was like a trip where things could become thoughts and thoughts could transform into things. To be friends with them, the boy had to carefully look through each item, lighting up the dark lonely world they were in. After a while, Geert started thinking about the purpose of light. He thought to himself that it’s purpose is to defeat the darkness and to be the pathway. After all, light directs us to new worlds, things and experiences. A violin was discovered in that light of the famous musician Antonius Stradivarius. Some parts were broken, but that did not displease Geert, he wanted to bring it back to life. That is how the boy opened a new undiscovered world of art.
An important role in this novel goes to a carrier-pigeon, which was found in Geert’s new house. The boy had tried several times to give it away to anyone that was interested, but the pigeon would always come back. Therefore, the pigeon not just connected Geert to so many people, but also became his special friend. As previously mentioned, the author wished to simplify the story and the world around Geert. Although the world did not seem so simple to the boy – it was full of challenges and problems, but aside that adventurous and welcoming to discover other worlds.
In 2011, and Iraqi origin author was awarded with European Union Prize for Literature. On the cover there is found underline “different novel”, which means the book received numerous awards and was acknowledged as a modern classic.