Catherine Chidgey (Pet; Remote Sympathy) offers a singular combination of compassion, desperation, dark humor, and slow-building terror with The Axeman's Carnival, set in rural high-country New Zealand. The story is told through the unusual perspective of a magpie fallen from the nest and rescued by a woman named Marnie, who lives on Wilderness Road with her husband, Rob, a sheep farmer and competitive axeman. They're "under a lot of pressure," a refrain that contributes to a general sense of foreboding: a drought threatens their livelihood; Marnie mourns a lost pregnancy; she is isolated from the world beyond their farm. An ominous thread runs through their lives in ways that readers gradually become aware of.
Marnie names the magpie Tama, and Tama's view of events is curious, in both senses of the word; "that was how houses worked," he repeatedly notes, with each strange or sinister observation. The sheep station suffers setbacks, and Rob's temper and drinking become increasingly menacing, even as he trains for the annual competition where he hopes to win his 10th golden axe, which will offer both the affirmation he craves and a badly needed monetary prize.
Tama relates the story with humor and wisdom. He mimics human speech and understands it well enough to communicate, and the reader benefits from his viewpoint as he describes events, with grim foreshadowing. Rob's temper, his taste for crime shows and murdered women, his axes and admirable strength, his jealousy and Marnie's fear, all contribute to the reader's trepidation about what is to come. But The Axeman's Carnival has tricks up its sleeve, and Tama himself should not be underestimated. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia