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Of the various tales that run through this book the melancholy Firebird’s Tale and unsettling Assassin‘s Tale were among my favorites. But if you enjoy sophisticated storytelling, challenging imborglios, and fox-headed pirates, then The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden is for you. If you’re looking for light summer reading, this aint it.

The brevity of the individual chapters (no more than five pages in length) also helped put the various narrative pieces in perspective. But a little patience and perseverance paid off and, eventually, it became easier to track the various stories and characters. The story-telling structure is rich and complex and, as someone who forgets his co-workers names on a daily basis, I’ll admit to having been confused at times, especially early on when I found myself having to backtrack and re-read certain passages in order to keep everything straight. The tales are at once familiar and unique, a colorful mix of reinvented European and Eastern lore. Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden offers stories within stories within stories, fashioning an intricate web of myths and fairytales that weave in and out of a narrative that continuously circles back in on itself. They are actually finely-scripted verses and song: “Together they make a great magic, and when the tales are all read out, and heard end to shining end, to the last syllable, the spirit will return and judge me.” The boy begs to hear the tales and she agrees, telling him the story of Prince Leander who runs afoul of a frightening old crone who tells him a story of her youth, when she was imprisoned with her grandmother who told her a story of her own…Ĭatherynne M. Touched by his kindness, she tells him that the tattoos are the work of a spirit.

Considered a demon by many on account of the mysterious dark tattooing that covers her eyelids, hers is a lonely existence – until the day she is approached by a curious young boy. A young girl, shunned by her community, is forced to spend her days wandering the grounds of a palace garden.