Woman in the Wall by Patrice Kindl

This one remains one of my favorite off-beat quirky tales. Basically, Anna, an extremely shy young girl, begins to “fade” in her household. She becomes the proverbial cipher, so withdrawn that her own family stops noticing her. The story takes on fantastical elements, as Anna hides inside the handbag of a visiting school official, eventually, Anna begins to live inside the walls of her home. She makes only ghost-like appearances to her family, baking or sewing things as they need, but the family appears to forget her altogether. While it sounds sad, I did not find it so and was totally engaged by the first person narrative from the intriguing opening page. Perhaps I like it because I recognize that element in ourselves that put up walls to protect us from others. I also like the literary “fling” that Kindl takes – mixing mystery, fantasy and reality in a blend that is vaguely reminiscent of Kafka and his ilk. The book also has a strange similarity to Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s picture book, “The Wolves in the Walls” (published later). I haven’t been able to sell this one to many students. They see it as too disturbing, perhaps, to be forgotten like this, but I think if folks are willing to enter Anna’s world, they would find some magic they don’t expect. If you are a fan of David Almond’s “Skellig”, try this one out as well.