The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World

E.L. Konigsburg (author)

Walker Books, UK: 2007; 227pp

ISBN: 9781406311761

Genres: realistic fiction

Issues: choices, family, friendship, gifted, history, holocaust, social condition, values

NB: extension concepts & vocabulary

Amadeo Kaplan, intelligent son of an artistic father and a high-powered business woman, finds settling into his new area awkward at first. He lives with his mother in a modern mansion but has no friends, aside from his rather eccentric neighbour, Mrs Zender. It is due to Mrs Zender that he gets to know William Wilcox and ‘in a school as variegated as argyle socks, William Wilcox was not part of the pattern.'

Together they help prepare Mrs Zender's enormous collection of things - crockery, cutlery, glassware, books, music, furniture, clothes, linen etc - for sale. Amadeo has always wanted to discover something that was lost or unknown. Mrs Zender's house of treasures may be just the place to do it.

E.L. Konigsburg is a gifted writer who writes powerful, absorbing novels about other gifted individuals. This is one of her best, exploring uncomfortable aspects of Mrs Zender's past and touching on the motivations that drive human choices. Amadeo and William, from two very different backgrounds, share an integrity and compassion that brings them, at times, into unexpected conflict before forging an alliance. Konigsburg likes to place her characters in morally ambiguous situations that force them to reveal their true nature. In this instance the reader is seduced by her use of language: lyrical descriptions filled with humour and wit. In a story that interweaves the anti-Semitic movement of World War 2, art and family, Konigsburg has once again presented the reader with an unforgettable, thought-provoking and enjoyable read.

Highly recommended.