Inkheart: For Those Who Love Books About Books
I
If you’ve never heard of Cornelia Funke, you must find this book and read it. Funke has been called the German J. K. Rowling. Both women have written a fantastical series featuring a child protagonist. Funke’s is a trilogy: Inkheart (2003), Inkspell (2005), and Inkdeath (2007). The “ink” is a clue that these are stories about books and people who love books—people like me and you. This translation from the German by Anthea Bell is quite well done.
“Only in books could you find pity, comfort, happiness—and love. Books loved anyone who opened them, they gave you security and friendship and didn’t ask anything in return; they never went away, never, not even when you treated them badly.”
Funke was working as an illustrator and social worker in Germany when her son asked her to write a story about people who come out of books. We readers love to slip inside stories ourselves—in a figurative way—but imagine having Hermione Granger or Katniss Everdeen suddenly standing beside you? Or worse, imagine the Death-Eaters hovering over your bed!
Meggie is a twelve-year-old girl Funke named after her daughter. She gave her a wonderful father, who Meggie calls “Mo” (short for Mortimer) with a fantastical gift. Mortimer Folchart is a Book Doctor, a bookbinder/restorer and great lover of books. These words are etched on a metal plaque on the door to his workshop:
Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.
But Mo is also something else. He was nicknamed Silvertongue by the characters he read out of Inkheart.
“Mo could paint pictures in the empty air with his voice alone.”
His gift comes with a price.
While reading Inkheart aloud nine years before, Mo accidentally pulled out three eccentric characters created by Italian author, Fenoglio. Capricorn is one of literature’s nastier villains. Basta is a superstitious, knife-wielding thug. And Dustfinger is a loveable fire-eater with a strange horned marten.
But, at the same time, Mo read Meggie’s mother, Theresa, INTO the book, and they lost her. After that horrific mistake Mo’s refused to read aloud ever again. He fears losing his daughter too. Capricorn destroyed all copies of Inkheart except the one he keeps for himself. He does not want to be read back into the book.
Like any good villain, Capricorn has his own agenda.
The tale begins in Germany where Mo and Maggie live. Dustfinger arrives with a warning: Capricorn is hunting Mo. He’s discovered another third-rate reader who’s read out some characters, but all have flaws. His reading is just not up to snuff. Capricorn has enough thugs and now wants treasure. Unflawed treasure. Pirate treasure. Gold. Mo and Meggie flee to northern Italy to take refuge at Meggie’s great aunt Elinor’s mansion full of books. Elinor is a collector and books are her world.
“A famous writer once wrote, ‘An author can be seen as three things: a storyteller, a teacher, or a magician—but the magician, the enchanter, is in the ascendant.”
Mo is so obsessed with finding a copy of Inkheart and reading his wife home, they track down old Fenoglio to see if he has some stashed away. The charming old man joins them on their journey.
“Inkheart.” Fenoglio rubbed his aching back. “Its title is Inkheart because it’s about a man whose wicked heart is as black as ink, filled with darkness and evil. I still like the title.”
Eventually, they all end up imprisoned in Capricorn’s village in southern Italy. When Meggie reads Tinkerbell out of Peter Pan, she realizes she’s inherited Mo’s gift.
Unfortunately, so does Capricorn.
Allusions to classic literature paint the story along with much talk about books and reading. Wonderful quotes from our favourite children’s stories begin each chapter. This is a story to sink inside—not literally, of course—but to fall asleep with while you’re wrapped safely in words and soft quilts.
Is there anything in the world better than words on the page? Magic signs, the voices of the dead, building blocks to make wonderful worlds better than this one, comforters, companions in loneliness, keepers of secrets, speakers of the truth … all those glorious words.”
Inkheart was made into a movie featuring Brendan Fraser in 2008. Although it was produced by Cornelia Funke, I really don’t want to spoil things by watching it. This story is all about the written word and I can’t see how a film could do it justice.
I recently found a used hardcover of Inkspell, with Funke’s illustrations, in my local Indie bookstore, and now, like Mo, I’m searching for the rest of the trilogy. I just read Inkheart on Libby so I’d be ready for book two. If you see any other hardcover copies in thrift stores, do let me know. Like Elinor, I’m beginning to build my library of book loves.