The Thief Lord is a story by Cornelia Funke about two orphaned brothers who run away to Venice from their aunt who threatens to separate them. The older of the two, Prosper, is the well-behaving, cautious one who is unwanted by their aunt, and the younger one, Bo who is only around seven or eight, is the playful, misbehaving one whom their aunt wants to keep.
In Venice the boys are helpless, homeless and cold, when they befriend a gang of street children. These children live in a disused cinema and rely on their leader, the mysterious so-called Thief Lord, who brings them stolen valuables for them to sell. He calls himself the master of stealing and can get into any house without being caught. While all this happens, there is a detective named Victor Getz who is searching for the boys, by order of their aunt. And as the gang is set to the task of stealing a magical treasure from a forgotten past that can spin time itself, Victor becomes more and more involved and another new story is unravelled.
Throughout the whole book, the identity of the Thief Lord is not clear. All we know is that he comes back very late from wherever he has been, and that he is still only a teen. The more I read, the more I started wondering who he really was until at the end, everything was revealed.
I enjoyed this book because it showed the dodgier, darker and dirtier side of Venice with homelessness and poverty, as well as the popular, tourist attracting and prosperous side. However, I think it would appeal more to younger readers as a bedtime story because it is simple, about a magical treasure, has a cliche happy ending and obvious 'good' and 'bad' characters, and no particularly unexpected plot twists. The way it was written allows readers to understand social classes and society issues in an easy, more visual way as well. It also isn't a very big book, so if you are looking for a quick and easy read, I would recommend this.
Popular Posts
A LITERARY CRITIQUE OF THE WHALE RIDER, BY WITI IHIMAERA
Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider —International Edition (Reed Publishing, 2003), pp. 154. Ihimaera is arguably the most influential Maori author in existence, publishing the first collection of short stories by a Maori writer called Pounamu Pounamu in 1972. The following year, he followed suit by being the first Maori to author a novel— Tangi. However, his magnum opus is indubitably his 1987 The Whale Rider. Fifteen years later the film adaption was released, with the eminent Niki Caro as the supervising director and Keisha Castle-Hughe's entrancing performance as the protagonist. As one commentator accurately observed, "A film so specific to one area, and grounded so firmly in New Zealand and Maori culture, has enthralled audiences from different countries partly because of the universal theme of heroic triumph over adversity, but mainly because of Castle-Hughes' and [Rawiri] Paratene's stunningly natural and utterly convincin...
Short Stories: WHERE IS DANIEL?
The time was an early morning in the winter of 1941. Falling snow packed onto the hard labourers of Gulag 10 WLA as they begin setting off into the mines and factories somewhere in the far east. Malnourished, mistreated and muddy, the inhabitors of this typical Gulag were kept under strict control of General Victor, who gave harsh punishments to any prisoner who dared riot or worse, insult the government. It was a normal evening. The prisoners were escorted back to the Gulag through the freezing taiga by cattle carriages. They waited in line for their daily rations: Rubbery potatoes, dried bread and lime water. If one behaved well and boasted high production, he/she would sometimes be rewarded with a small knob of fresh corn, a snack the guards would gladly feast on. General Victor was feasting on a large chicken when Archie, or formally, Guard Number One burst into his room reporting misbehaviour between two prisoners. Ben (Guard Number Two) and Mile...
The Book of Heroic Failures
The Book of Heroic Failures By Stephen Pile The Book of Heroic Failures, was written by Stephen Pile and first published in 1979. This book is essentially a collection of hilarious, ironic and unusual people and events. This sole theme is that of ironic failure, each story being anywhere from a few sentences to several paragraphs. The book itself is split into eleven different sections so that the reader may dip in and out of the book at will, which is a very helpful format considering the layout of the stories. My favourite sections include the glory of the stage , stories we failed to pin down and the art of being wrong. From the poet whose footnotes were longer than his poems, to a bill ruling that the value of pi was four, there is no shortage of entertaining stories within this books pages. To those who wish to read only the best of these stories I would advise that you read some of the longer ones as more tends to go wrong, causing a domino...
Comments
Post a Comment