NATURE is at the forefront as a healer in two books I want to tell you about – and from these books it is clear that we need to restore our relationship with the earth to find ourselves and reconnect with our imagination and creativity. The first is a children's book, but one of those not at all for children only, and which connects with and addresses the child in each of us. The second is a novel, a domestic noir with substance; the story of a woman who completely unravels and finds healing in the countryside, in the shade of a rag tree. Read on to find out what a rag tree is.
Does everyone love beautiful books as much as I do? Books like they once were made, in hardcover, with illustrations in colour, laid out lovely. An object of beauty and filled with dreams to boot. They no longer publish many such books; it's simply too expensive. But publishers realise we are sometimes at a loss when it comes to picking gifts, and that such books appeal to many. I am thinking of The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, with its lovely sketches. The handwriting was a bit difficult for me to read, though. Profound life lessons were dished up in a casual way. Now a brand-new stunner is on the shelf: Trevor Noah's Into the Uncut Grass.
On the cover a boy with a slight resemblance to little Trevor, holding a teddy bear, like Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh. The boy is referred to only as “the boy" and the teddy bear is called Walter. Noah tells us in the foreword that the book was inspired by his eternal battle with his mother: She who was forever laying down rules and he who wanted to run away, loaf and dream. He dedicates it to the imagination that lives in each of us.
The illustrations by Sabine Hahn are works of art. One morning, the boy persuades his teddy bear to run away with him rather than make their bed and start their chores. They disappear into the tall grass behind the house and venture into the real world, away from the house where his mother is making waffles for breakfast.
They experience a day full of adventures and wonder, with fear mixed in. Snails race one another, boy and bear wrestle with monster leaves and muster up the courage to explore the unknown. They learn to see and listen. And that the best of adventures always lead you back home.
The boy experiences all kinds of insights, such as it being convenient to carry your house on your back like a snail, but if you do, you cannot go on a sleepover and do not have a home to return to after an adventure. From the dancing coins, he learns that sometimes you make the right decision and things don't work out, but sometimes you make the wrong decision and things do turn out all right.
He realises if you still call it “home", you can always go back there.
It's a lovely book that prompts you to think and dream. The ideal gift.
Into the Uncut Grass by Trevor Noah was published by Penguin and costs R359 at Graffiti.
Cecelia Ahern's Into the Storm is a lovely, lyrical novel that is also extremely suspenseful: There is a dark secret to unravel. It is set in Ireland, land of dense fog and poetry. The main character, Enya, is a doctor; a general practitioner. One stormy, rainy night on a winding road, she encounters an accident. A boy who reminds her of her own son lies motionless on the road. She applies CPR and manages to get a pulse going until the ambulance arrives. Her life is never the same again.
It becomes apparent that Enya has been losing it for months. Her beloved hippie-herbalist-healer-writer-mother died on her 47th birthday, when she suffered a heart attack while swimming in the ocean. Now Enya's 47th birthday is approaching and she believes she too is going to die. She can't imagine living longer than her mother. Moreover, her marriage is a rocky road. Her husband, Xander, with whom she shares a practice, is an egotist: Prescriptive, cold and selfish. He and their son, Finn, have a close bond and it seems that Xander is keeping her away from Finn. She feels redundant in her family.
Typical of domestic noir, the protagonist is an unreliable narrator. She doesn't tell you everything. In time, the truth comes out.
What is striking about this novel is Enya's connection to nature and how, as it did for her mother, it becomes her guide. She leaves her husband and, out of necessity, her son and becomes a GP in a rural village where she has to make house calls and work day and night. She rents a house far from everything, in the shade of a rag tree. It is an old Irish custom to attach pieces of sick people's garments to a certain tree, which is believed to have healing powers, in the hope that they will return to health. At first, she finds the tree, leafless, barren and hung with faded rags, off-putting. In addition, the dry branches scrape against the roof and knock on the window. But she gradually comes to love the tree and gets in tune with the rhythm of nature and the customs of the local people.
She dances on the edge of the abyss, struggling to retain her sanity. The rag tree tells a thousand stories, but will she be able to muster up the courage to tell her own story?
It's a riveting novel that triggers questions about one's own existence and our dependence on nature, the environment we are destroying.
Into the Storm by Cecelia Ahern was published by HarperCollins and costs R255 at Loot.
♦ VWB ♦
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Deborah Steinmair is an award-winning author and insatiable reader. She has been named twice as Rapport-kykNET book reviewer of the year.
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