THE ADVENTURES OF THE INGENIOUS ALFANHU

In his dedication, Ferlosio describes this exquisite fantasy novel, first published in 1952 and now beautifully translated into English, as a "story full of true lies." Much honored in his native Spain, Ferlosio is a fabulist comparable to Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino, as well as Joan Miró and Salvador Dali. Cervantes also comes to mind. The publisher's blurb saying the book has been as popular in Spain as the Harry Potter books in the English-speaking world is somewhat misleading. Ferlosio's hero, a gentle and observant little boy apprenticed to a master taxidermist, is no Harry Potter. In the home of the taxidermist, who names him Alfanhuí, he witnesses a series of marvels, among them a deaf and dumb maid who "moved about on a plank set on four wooden wheels, and, although she was stuffed, she did occasionally smile." Ferlosio's prose is effortlessly evocative. A chair puts down roots and sprouts "a few green branches and some cherries," while a paint-absorbing tree becomes "a marvelous botanical harlequin." Later, Alfanhuí sets off on a tour of Castile, meeting his aged grandmother "who incubated chicks in her lap and had a vine trellis of muscatel grapes and who never died." This is a haunting adult reverie on life and beauty—and as such will appeal to discriminating readers, not a mass audience. (Aug. 9)