It's a little difficult to imagine Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) crafting a children's fable. After all, he was known as a purveyor of gloom, a pessimist and a misanthrope--imagine Samuel Beckett fashioning a children's tale about two kids waiting for a friend who never shows up. Nevertheless: a doctor is walking through the snowy woods at night and trips over Victor Halfwit, freezing to death. His wooden legs have broken. It seems he was trying to get through the woods at night in less than an hour to win a bet. Crazy? The doctor carries him to town where they meet the man, who has now lost his wager and must pay up.
Strange indeed. But Sunandini Banerjee's gorgeous illustrations--mysterious, dream-like collages on heavy stock paper--turn this simple tale into an eerie voyage into the Freudian subconscious. It's as if Germany's brooding Grimm Brothers accidentally collided with a "Fractured Fairy Tale" from Rocky and Bullwinkle. --Thomas Lavoie, former publisher