I was struck from the beginning, at the brutality this young and beautiful girl is able to survive in her long life. Anna is made immortal while only 10 years old, during a consumption outbreak in her small village. It got her father first, and she finishes the gravestone
…more he began carving before his death. The rector of the church tells her they will unbury him and burn his body to prevent the devil using him to harm others. When Anna gets consumption, she is brought to the rectory for care, but her grandfather strides in and takes her away with him, to his home 20 miles away. As she begins to fade away, her immortal grandfather decides she, too, will be immortal, and he drinks her blood. He explained, "The World, my dear child, all of it, right to the very end if there is to be an end, is a gift. But it's a gift few are strong enough to receive. I made a judgment that you might be among those strong few, that you might be better served on this side of things than the other." And she goes on to prove him correct.
The story flips between the time of her passage to immortality and the last three months of 1984. This allows the story to slowly unfold between her most current enterprise as a French woman teaching art to young children ages three through five, at her home operated pre-school and her life unfolding through the years, in many countries, across many ages.
At the art school, 'Collette,' as she is called, has a handful of well-off children and a special soon to be six year old student, Leo, with a genius ability to draw. She is pulled to him, and her life during the end of 1984 is radically impacted by him and his family. The mother, we come to understand, is either incredibly clumsy or being abused by her husband. As the story unfolds, we find that all is not as we first thought. We see her increasing affection for Leo and her fear for his safety.
Immortality comes with unusual needs, and Collette is tormented with the getting of nourishment. At first, she had many cats, that when used carefully could sustain her needs. But over time, she needs more and is hungry more, and is fearful, more often that she might do something that she will regret, something like what she remembers from her past.
She has nightmares at night thinking of all the people she had not been able to protect from the ugliness around them—poverty, neglect, abuse, orphanhood, loss. She has so many years of experience, of people, of war, fear, hatred, resulting in chasmic depth of sorrow, guilt, depression.
The alternating chapters contain information from the past, enabling the telling of her tale over the last one hundred and forty years. She learned early not to trust people in villages and towns. She moved in with her grandfather, but she died after a failed procedure by a doctor of the day, and she began to fade. Grandfather decided to suck her blood and put a bell in her hand and he would await her return to life immortal, Shortly afterward, she was sent to Europe to stay with a very old woman, Piroska who raised her as 'Anya' as long as it was safe to do so. There were two twin boys there too, Yano and Ehru. They grew longer together and their faces narrowed but they didn't really age. Anya grew to love Yano, and be cautious of Ehru.
During her time at the house, she learned to fear the villagers and their superstitions; the village she came from in 1830 New York, was superstitious with the consumption outbreak, considered it from the devil, or other evil doers, it required religious interference. The resulting fear caused the villagers to become violent. The villagers near Piroska's grew fearful, of Ehru and his large size and fearful ways. The end result was violence and 'Anya' running way into the forest. Where, she meets a wonderful man who teaches her to paint, and who teaches her about love and loyalty and kindness. Until, things change (she suspects Czernobog).
I appreciated that she had lovely experiences, people being kind to her and people she was kind to people she loved with all her heart. But her struggles with her appetite; her struggles with Czernobog, the bad god, the god of endings; her premonitions of death; her wishes for her own death; these struggles highlight this step of Collette's next step to the transformation will take place. Perhaps Leo will go with her.
The story is imaginative and quite compelling. I could not put it down. The author's writing is lyrical and poetic, particularly when a character is speaking a truth. I look forward to reading another great book from Jacqueline Holland, soon. (less)
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