The Wind Rises
By Timothée de Fombelle
Europa Editions – August 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction/Children’s African History Fiction/Children’s Africa Books/Action & Adventure
Via: Library
Pages: 410
“The things that really matter are those that only one or two people know.”
Once up on a time there was a valley. Lines of elephants dotted its distance. Wind rippled its grasses. Singing insects and swaying giraffes crowded its plains. Hidden by treacherous cliffs, the valley saw the birth of three children: A girl, Alma, and her two brothers, Lam and Soum. There was also a zebra with no stripes. And a little boy who runs away.
“The only reason everyone else in this game are winners is because they’ve lost everything. Everything down to their names and the names of their villages that no longer exist. They’ve lost their children. They have nothing left. And yet they pay for everything.”
Setting & Socks
Set in the late 18th century, The Wind Rises is one of those historical fiction tomes worth waiting for. It pretty much knocked the socks off one of us. Hi, Mom.
Story
The story revolves around three young teens. From vastly different worlds and backgrounds, their lives unexpectedly and suddenly collide in this skillfully crafted and expertly written story.
It includes orphan and cabin boy Joseph Mar. Also Alma, one of the last of her tribe, the Oko. She’s gifted with the ability to hunt. In fact, when Alama’s kid brother Lam vanishes from her family’s hidden valley, Alma goes after him, determined to find the boy. Amelie is French and fourteen. When her ostensibly wealthy father and ship owner Monsieur Bassac dies suddenly, Amelie is stunned to discover she’s bankrupt. What secret did Bassac harbor that cost him so dearly? And what really happened to his ship’s last carpenter and apprentice? There are also rumors of gold hidden aboard The Sweet Amelie.
“Captives, middle passage, prime slaves … he knows all these words but has never wanted to think about the meanings they hold.”
Meanwhile, young Joseph serves aboard The Sweet Amelie. He joins the ship in Lisbon, where it slowly becomes a slave ship, later stopping in ports along the African coast to trade the ship’s cargo for captives. The slave ship is owned by Amelie’s father. It’s skippered by Captain Gardel. This guy gives pond scum a bad name. Vicious and ruthless, Gardel makes Captain Bligh look like a piker.
“They’re here. There are many of them. They’re alive. And they’re telling each other so.”
Dad With a Past
Alma’s father is “Mosi.” When he was a boy of twelve, Mosi rowed among the boatman of Shama off Africa’s Gold Coast. He could never have imagined that one day he might lose a son to the slave trade, too. Because “Mosi,” a Fante, was once known as “Moses Shackle,” the most feared and relentless slave hunter on the entire continent.
“Only a parent would believe that among the tens of thousands of human beings torn from this coast each year, it’s possible to find a child by taking to the water with only a canoe and paddle and repeating a name in the steerage of every ship, the dungeons of every fort.”
Page Turner
What unfolds next is a heartbreaking saga of epic proportions. We’re taking Major Page Turner here.
Without giving too much away, let’s just say that one of the strengths of this book is its subtlety. A variety of emotions swirls through its pages: Despair. Desperation. Anger. Frustration. Loss and sorrow. Bewilderment. Hope. But the author resists the temptation to spoon-feed his audience. Or smack readers upside the head with all of the above. He’s smarter than. Instead, de Fombelle draws scenes, characters, settings and dialogue with a kaleidoscopic word brush. And instead of filling in the emotions for you by over-writing, he lets readers pick up the brush themselves and color in the details.
It’s brilliant.
“Memory must fight to survive. It must rise up. It must grow.”
Lyrical & Luminous
Told in lyrical prose, the writing is hauntingly beautiful. It’s luminous and incandescent, with ghostly shadows of sorrow, loss and hope wandering across every page.
There’s also “Adam” and “Eve.” A murder mystery. Pirates. The five gifts of the Oko people. St. Elmo’s fire. One day, there will be light. Much more.
I’d grab a copy now ‘fize you. Cuz this one’s a keeper!
Note: The target audience for this book is young readers eight to twelve years old. It might fit better into thirteen years old and up, especially considering the length.
The Wind Rises is Book 1 of The Alma Series. It’s cliffhanger ending will have readers wanting more. We can’t wait for the next installment!
Pages & Paws 