Cruel Tales

Stories.
They are us. We undone. They twist the pages in our hands to climb on us, we slay.
All in all, a good story is able to haunt us for months or years. This means their importance.
So here is that of a little girl, Krysta. Like all children, Krysta loves stories. This is why Greet, his housekeeper, tells him in profusion. At least, his own tales to her. Black stories that end badly. Such is life. Despite the strong disagreement of his father before this attitude, Krysta can not help but be captivated by the stories Greet. It must be said that the girl has just lost his mother and his life, yet ordinary, rocked since. Especially since his father was not a lot of time for him with his work. Every day, he goes in a strange clinic to treat patients and returned in the evening with red paint on their hands. His father therefore important things, things that ignores Krysta at the bottom. Regardless of the way, what would she do without her father and without Greet?

On the other side, there Lilie. Found by the naked young Benjamin and totally lost in the streets of Vienna close to an asylum, the woman does not know very well where she is. Fortunately, she is in Josef, eminent physician of the time, a providential help. It quickly surprised by the state of Lilie. She speaks little, eat little ... and seems to know his name. It is said to be a killing machine came a horrible monster. Quickly, past Lilie also becomes obsessive for the doctor that he dedicates his feelings. Could it comes from this secret place for the rich and one claims that it contains amount of girls against their will? Could it be here that Monster Lilie is land? It will take nearly 440 pages to understand precisely how these two stories have something to do. Gretel and the dark leaves us floating a while, a good time actually. But the surprise is all the more painful.

This bold novel is the first written by British author Eliza Granville. Released today by the young (but strong) Miroboles editions, Gretel and the dark has everything to intrigue. Two reading axes enigmatic that nothing seems to connect, folk tales revisited by a morbid imagination and sober coverage class (a habit for the editor). Split between the two narrative son (one chapter is devoted to Krysta then another and then back to Lilie Krysta ...), the novel takes some time to take off after a prologue as nebulous as it is captivating. It is immediately apparent that the style of Granville was not ashamed of his youth, it is mastered and poetic while maintaining a fascinating morbid part. The only real complaints about Gretel and the Dark is that, during a big half Lilie history drags on and is struggling to take off. Granville repeated it, too certainly, but it also does a very specific purpose, which fortunately limits the damage (especially as the constant delight of his style catches the thing). So initially the history of Krysta the reader will set the largest share of his attention.

Granville explores childhood and the inherent curiosity of this age. The British pound us an anthology of tales and legends, modified to match the gloomy mood of the famous Greet housekeeper. This is, to be precise, the story begins to take depth. Under cover of talk about Krysta and his immoderate love stories, Granville passes psychoanalytic and psychiatric prism its young heroine quickly we guess it has some worrying problems. Especially worrying that the girl did nothing too serious in it, it is simply a victim of its environment as well as events. Among them, the death of his mother, very little attention but that haunts much of the early history. Therefore, Greet, stories, Lottie (the doll) are all voice of expression for Krysta. Who knows, after all, who or what is real? Who really knows if the housekeeper tells stories as black or if Krysta modifies according to his moods? Granville plays with the reader, often manipulated, but always manages to land on his feet.

Gradually, as the stories move forward, strange similarities emerge. Strange echoes. The reader will be sure that the two accounts may have in common that towards the very end of the story. Meanwhile, Granville gradually descends in horror. The strange tale turns into sticky nightmare where reality is sometimes far more terrifying than the imagination. Always manipulating child vision and the unspoken with a cheeky talent (the grandiose idea of ​​Sandman and its real meaning), English twists the facts, our vision, and we picked, slowly but surely. Everything is done slowly and Gretel in the Dark, the better to mark with a hot iron thereafter. More than an atmosphere, it is a universe between reality and tales being developed Eliza Granville. Both son gradually take more sense and the very history of Lilie is more unhealthy, more disturbing. Pedophilia shows his face dirty, violence and hatred unleashed increasingly, in the midst Lilie and Krysta are an oasis. Then difficult to say more without spoiling the surprise. Let's just say that Eliza Granville knew what she was doing from the start and justifies his two narrative arcs methodically and elegance. The emotion that emerges with the terrible things that we discover covertly becoming more pervasive at the discretion of the pages.

Memory narrative account of indescribable and unspeakable, Gretel and the Dark is not interested in simply provided the most down to earth look of events that will be revealed to the reader. More than a simple testimony, Eliza Granville is interested primarily in the power of stories, all those stories that we tell in the dark to hold off the darkness. In what extent a story he reflects its author, his feelings and his own background? This is one of the crucial points of the novel, his greatest achievement as well. By the power of books, myths, legends, tales and anecdotes, Granville shows that the human brain can survive anything, even the worst hell. It there is neither misery nor drama breast tears, but great accuracy of tone on the paramount importance of culture, curiosity and memory. Are we not also the product of our memories? Humanity is it not the fruit of his past? By the stories we tell and tells us that we, our soul grows. Gretel and in the dark, only the incredible storytelling power of a child manages to save her from her worst nightmares. In a way, it saves even more than that.

Imagine this book Eliza Granville is his first novel. Difficult to guess with such mastery, such ambition and above all so successful. Gretel and the Dark drowns his reader into a world of dark tales where a child is looking into the night a glimmer of hope.
And believe it or not, you do not come out unscathed ...
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