Bambert's Book Of Missing Stories

The Sunday Age

Sunday January 18, 2009

Frances Atkinson

BAMBERT'S BOOK OF MISSING STORIES

Reinhardt Jung,

ills. Emma Chichester Clark

Egmont, $24.95

This peculiar book is about an unusual man. Bambert is short, has a bad hip and no neck. He lives in a large house with an electric chairlift that carries him to the attic where he records stories in his Book of Wishes - stories that are told to him by the moon. Riddled with insecurities and neuroses, Bambert never leaves the house for fear that adults will pity him and children would tease him. A moment of creative frustration leads him to tear out each of his stories and send them "off into the night" in tiny balloons with a letter requesting that the finder return the stories and let him know where they were discovered. Slowly the stories return from far-flung places revealing some maudlin, moving and jovial tales. The final story is a sad one, and reveals Bambert's dream to live in a world free of judgement.

© 2009 The Sunday Age

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