Gingerbread by By Robert Dinsdale

By Robert Dinsdale

HarperCollins/Paperback/421 pages/$27.82/Books Kinokuniya/****

Set in an unnamed Belarussian town, Gingerbread tells the tale of a boy and his papa who, upon the death of the boy's mother, make a promise to take care of each other, no matter what.

She leaves behind just a worn and wooden horse, a sweetly scented shawl, a handful of her homemade gingerbread cookies, which carry her memory in the spicy warmth of every bite.

And she leaves a last request: to be buried in the woods where she was born.

Gingerbread

PUBLISHED ON MAY 4, 2014 12:21 AM

She can have no idea what price keeping her promises will cost.

Mysticism, mystery and folktales swirl among the pages of this book like thick flakes of Slavic snow.

It is a grisly yet enchanting novel, where folktales hold no Prince Charmings or happy endings but are told as warnings against the darkness of human nature.

Hundreds of pages turn without a glimmer of humour or happiness. There is only survival, grief and the strength of a promise which keeps the characters, and the book, moving forward.

The trees of the ancient forest whisper to the boy and his papa, calling to the wilderness within them.

Author Robert Dinsdale similarly holds a subtle but firm grasp on the reader, pulling him down into what is a grim and intense tale by creating a sympathetic protagonist in the boy.

Despite having no name throughout most of the novel, the boy's youthful hope and love of his increasingly mad papa make the reader root for him.

The hints Dinsdale leaves of familiar fairy tales, such as Hansel And Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood, stand out like flares in the dark, suggesting a triumph despite the dismal odds. In this way, the writer sustains the reader.

Though the story drags a bit in the middle, the end is gripping, intense and worth forging through the tale's darkness for.

If you like this, read: Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (2002, Tor Teen, $11.75, Books Kinokuniya). Upon the death of her grandmother, a young girl learns that there is more truth than fiction in the older woman's gruesome tales in this modern retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fable.

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