Inkheart

Inkheart / Cornelia Funke; read by Lynn Redgrave.— New York : Listening Library, 2003.

14 sound discs (14 hr., 36 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Unabridged.

Compact discs.

English translation by Anthea Bell

ISBN: 0307282279

1. Characters and characteristics – Fiction. 2. Fantasy fiction. 3. Books and reading -- Fiction.

833.914

Meggie loves books. Her father, Mo, has made her a box, painted bright red as a poppy, to take with her whenever they go on a trip. It’s a decorated wooden chest to hold her favorite books. The lid proclaims it as Meggie’s Treasure Chest. They do a lot of traveling; Mo says that as a bookbinder he’s often called to libraries, the shops of antique dealers, and the homes of wealthy collectors across Europe to repair old and valuable books. Meggie takes her books along because they are, “familiar voices, friends that never [quarrel] with her, clever, powerful friends—daring and knowledgeable, tried and tested adventurers who had traveled far and wide.” They were her home.

One rainy night when Meggie is twelve a strange man with a strange name, Dustfinger, appears at their door in the middle of the night. He calls her father by a strange name, “Silvertongue.” Meggie wonders who would call on the services of a bookbinder in the middle of the night, and why? Who is this stranger; where does he come from, and what does he want with her father? She eavesdrops. Dustfinger warns her father that Capricorn and his men are coming soon, and that they will do anything to obtain it. As soon as he leaves, Mo orders Meggie to pack her clothes and treasure chest. They have to leave immediately. As they are packing she sees her father wrapping a book in plain brown paper. When he sees her, he hides it behind his back. He doesn’t want her to know about this book at all.

It turns out to be not an old book with an expensive binding, but a modern sword and sorcery novel titled Inkheart. It’s set in an enchanted world full of fairies, knights, heroes, and some very evil villains, including one called Capricorn. As Meggie learns what this book is, she also learns where Dustfinger came from and where her long-lost mother disappeared. Her mother went into the book when Mo accidentally read Dustfinger and the evil Capricorn out of Inkheart and into Meggie’s world.

Funke has a talent for bringing the fantastic plausibly into the contemporary world. She displays it brilliantly as literary characters and treasure are brought out of books and into a criminal gang’s hideout in modern Italy. And what more cold-hearted capo could lead such a gang than Capricorn, the man whose heart is as black as ink. Redgrave’s eerie reading brings a spine tingle to life in this capture and escape tale to as skillfully and Meggie’s father can bring a character out of the Arabian Nights to life.