Ania Szyszko Szyszko itibaren 07-111 Brzeźnik, Poland
Sort of coming-of-age story, but of who? the child or the parents? Since the narrator is eight, and tells things very openly, guilelessly (as kids can do) – even terrible things like locking a blind girl in a doghouse as a trick – there is a sense of having to question everything you’re told. The father teaches his daughter pure fact; the mother teaches her things like how there is a Loch Ness type monster in the lake near their house or that Grace’s fascination with everything in a book called the Encyclopedia of the Unexplained is totally fine. It’s an unlikely marriage, an unlikely childhood (very wacked-out socialization and education), and full of unlikely characters and events that come to a fairly unsatisfactory conclusion.
I first read this book back in the late 90's....and still own a beaten up copy. A lovely, easy, and even inspiring read... Would suggest.