Patrick Ness brings his magical and elegiac flair to this novel. George, one of the character's main protagonists, wakes up in the middle of the night hearing a strange sound. He runs down to his garden and finds a crane with a wounded wing. He tends to the crane and. while a profound experience, puts the matter to one side.
George owns a print shop and, on a whim during idle hours, starts making cuttings of different models from old books. One day, a woman called Kumiko calls into the shop and George is immediately drawn to her. She shows George her own art, made from feathers and stuck on tiles, showing different scenes. She begins to add George's cuttings to her artwork and anyone who sees them pleads to buy them with a frenzied desperation.
George, and his daughter Amanda (whom eventually meets Kumiko), know there is something strange and almost magical about Kumiko but they don't know what. Kumiko is extraordinarily reserved with what she reveals about herself, which frustrates and intrigues them in equal measure.
The main story is inter-spliced with the narrative of the tiles that Kumiko is creating, about a crane and a volcano who are both in love and utterly loathe each other, and their relationship affects and impacts the earth in the most powerful and destructive of ways.
The story, which I would put into the genre of magical realism, is a well-crafted, and minutely managed tale. Though nothing much 'happens' per se, the story is alluring and compelling, with the way the characters interact with each other and the dynamics of their relationships with they have to work through in sometimes painful and confusing ways. Not least of all, Amanda, who seems to push away everyone she loves (apart from her son) while being completely confused and frustrated about why she does this.
It was a very enjoyable read, and certainly something a bit different if you're looking for a fresh new story.
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