Description:
A thrilling literary puzzle that explores the haunted life and mysterious afterlifes of a writer and her work.
Who was Eliza May Drayden? Is she just the quiet, intensely private person she seems to all the world in her little village of Bridge Fowling in the shadow of the West Yorkshire hills--or is there more to her than meets the eye? It is only after her death that Haeger Mass, her one book--a dark and cryptic novel--assumes a life of its own. In each new chapter of this literary treasure hunt that spans almost three hundred years, we see the conundrum through the eyes of a new generation of characters, each providing competing and interlocking versions of the life--and cursed vision--of this Emily Brontë-like figure. Scholars immerse themselves in the mystery of her life and are led to ruin; the curse that hangs over her comes to visit a young couple; a mysterious diary emerges with her strange and indecipherable poetry and sketches. Elements and symbols repeat in relentless and varying combinations from one story to the next as the years pass: as if the truth at the center of her work is fighting to break free. The Song of Stork and Dromedary is a philosophical puzzle that unfolds with the exuberance of a historical romp, ingeniously pivoting from Gothic horror to quantum mechanics to memento mori. In this thrilling, recursive tale, Anjet Daanje gets to the frantically beating heart of why we tell stories, and how we try to create meaning with them in a world filled with brutality and death. Daanje has crafted a conundrum that is as diabolical as it is heartbreaking. When we finally open the box that contains the secret behind the life of Eliza May Drayden, what will we see there--a vision of heaven or a vision of hell?Brief description: Anjet Daanje writes novels, short stories, and screenplays. Her work was little known until 2020, when her novel The Remembered Soldier was long-listed for the Libris Literature Prize, won the Bordewijk Prize, and received a five-star review in the NRC Handelsblad. The Song of Stork and Dromedary was a Dutch bestseller and the first book ever to win both major Dutch book prizes: the Libris Literature Prize and the Boekenbon Literature Prize. In 2023, Daanje was awarded the prestigious Constantijn Huygens Prize for her body of work.
Review Quotes:
"The reader advances across Mr. McKay's superb translation as though compelled by a fierce highland wind. In the book's telling, the Drayden sisters' imaginative visions are so powerful that they reshape the way people experience reality. Readers, too, will finish this vast, teeming novel with a sense of a world transformed." --Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"A sprawling meditation on death, sisterhood, and the mysteries that refuse to be buried. . . . [Daanje] boldly grapples with unsettling questions, challenging our conception of time and the ways it governs our experience of death and grief. . . . The Song of the Stork and Dromedary stands as another example of Daanje's brilliant storytelling, cementing her status as a writer to watch for years to come." --Chicago Review of Books
"Daanje works a deep literary vein that's full of sly allusions . . . And there are sublime moments throughout, even when death comes into play . . . A challenging book that rewards its readers with great depth and beauty." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)