It didn't take me more than a few pages of reading The Starless Sea (#845) by Erin Morgenstern to remind me why I loved The Night Circus (See my post of 5/7/12.) so much. It's been a long wait between books.
This novel revolves around a vast underground world filled with books and stories. It's dying, but there are those on the surface who are eager to hurry its demise along. Zachary Ezra Rawlins, a New England graduate student, is unwittingly pulled into the arcane politics at play here when he finds an uncatalogued book in the college library stacks. As he begins to read the battered old volume, he realizes that that some of the stories in the book are about him. Who wrote it, and how did they know what he did when he was younger so precisely?
If you are looking for an ordinary book with a chronological narrative, The Starless Sea is not for you. Erin Morgenstern uses many short stories and anecdotes to weave her tale. At first, the connections between these fairy tales and hero legends are not apparent, but gradually the threads tying the narratives together become apparent through symbols and metaphors. The stories themselves are enchanting. Who can resist a place piled with stacks and stacks of books everywhere, beeswax candles, and a Kitchen which can instantly produce the most delicious snacks and beverages? Add in a mysterious young women with pink hair, a Keeper whose job it is to look after things, a man lost in time, the Owl King and cats, lots of cats, and you have a small idea of some of the pleasures that await between the pages of The Starless Sea.
It's been a long time coming, but The Starless Sea was well worth the wait.
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