Review by Booklist Review
Magician Anatole is revisiting Tiger Castle as a tourist. The tour guides tell stories about the Whispering King and a princess who was abducted on her wedding night as well as a man who was kept in the dungeons for nearly a hundred years. When Anatole lived there, it was still the castle of Esquaveta, a kingdom which no longer exists. Anatole recounts the events leading up to the date of Princess Tullia of Esquaveta's politically motivated wedding to Prince Dalrympl of Oxatania. When Tullia falls in love with an apprentice scribe, her parents demand that Anatole create a potion to ensure that she goes through with the marriage. Anatole is faced with a difficult choice between his fondness for the princess and his concern for his reputation. What follows is a fairy-tale adventure through the thorny wilds of memory and history via a rather unreliable outsider's narrative of love, redemption, and some interesting failures. Sachar's first foray into adult books lacks some of the madcap whimsy of his middle-grade work, but readers will be entertained and enchanted.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
National Book Award--winning YA author Sachar (Holes) makes his adult debut with this melancholy, heartfelt, and utterly immersive Renaissance-esque fantasy. Anatole, a confessed coward who self-deprecatingly considers himself "a hairless man who studied plants and bugs," serves as the court magician of Esquaveta at a time when "science and magic were virtually indistinguishable." After Princess Tullia falls in love with the new apprentice scribe, Pito, and refuses to marry Prince Dalyrmpl of Oxatania, Anatole has six weeks to save the marriage, the kingdom, and his foundering career. His initial plan to brew a memory potion to make Pito and Tullia forget each other brings up recollections of his own lost love and how he failed to defend her from a capricious nobleman. The ensuing crisis of conscience leads Anatole to feats of courage and magic he had not believed himself capable of. There's a lovely sparsity to Sachar's fairy tale--esque prose that belies the careful scaffolding underneath, which sketches out a gentle love story and offers fascinating commentary about the fallibility of received wisdom, the nature of memory, and the lost histories of common people among the more publicized narratives of monarchs. Readers who grew up with Sachar will be especially thrilled, but even those new to his work won't be able to put this down. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group. (Aug.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
This adult debut from Sachar, the singular children's book author, is a heartfelt fable about courage and love. As Anatole--the titular magician--tells his story, he's speaking from the present day and describing events that happened 500 years ago. Tiger Castle is now a tourist destination, but in Anatole's heyday, it was home to the king and queen of Esquaveta. As the court magician, Anatole was charged with ensuring that Princess Tullia went through with her marriage to Prince Dalrympl of Oxatania, a long-standing arrangement that was suddenly threatened when Tullia fell in love with Pito, the king's young scribe. The queen told Anatole that if he could not convince Tullia to marry Dalrympl, she and the king would coerce their daughter into behaving. Anatole had known Tullia since she was born, and had a fatherly affection for her. He was desperate to protect the princess--as well as his own career. He decided to brew a potion that would make Pito and Tullia forget they ever knew each other, let alone loved each other, and readers will want to find out for themselves how that led to Anatole's unnaturally extended lifespan. Sachar's wry, distinctive voice will remind grown-ups what made him such a success as a children's book author, and it translates perfectly into a book in which the middle-aged father figure is the focus, rather than the star-crossed young lovers. Sachar tells the comical story with the slight detachment of a fairy-tale narrator, focusing less on the fantasy elements than on the relationships among the characters, which are straightforward and touching. As Anatole tries to manage the youthful antics of Tullia and Pito, he grapples with more mature themes of loss, regret, and hope for the future. A sensitive and sincere tale told with Sachar's inimitable wit. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
