Everywhere the birds; sparrows and skylarks, thrushes and starlings, bellbirds and fantails and pipits – but above them and louder, the magpies. We are here and this is our tree and we are staying and it is ours and you need to leave now.
The Axeman’s Carnival is a riveting read told through the eyes of Tama the magpie. Set on a debt-ridden South Island high country farm, owned by gentle Marnie and her controlling and sometimes brutal husband Rob.
Marnie grieving after a miscarriage, finds a tiny magpie chick and brings it home to nurture it. Rob objects and questions having a magpie living with them.
“He peered in at me too, his riverstone eyes red- rimmed, scratched with broken veins. His hair a dirty yellow. His face tanned but the squint lines white. “You know if it keeps me awake I’ll have to ring its neck.”
Tama is given a room where he sleeps in a bed that looks like a cage and a ceiling with hanging clouds and stars.
He witnesses things he cannot understand. The banging and thumping in the night .The blue marks on Marnie’s body.
He watches Rob train for the event of the year “The Axeman’s Carnival.”
A great mimic Tama learns to talk. While his comments may be inappropriate, they provide humour. Marnie posts Tama on the internet and everything changes. Tama becomes an immediate success. As more postings of him appear he is inundated with requests to see him.
Life changes as Marnie gets an agent, advertisers and Tama merchandise.
Tama is famous.
Meanwhile we watch through Tama’s eyes Rob’s daily training for the Carnival.
The reader senses a deep foreboding in this book that climaxes after the carnival. A very memorable read.
The Axeman’s Carnival has been shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards to be decided on May 17.
As part of Featherston Booktown, Catherine Chidgey is talking with Linda Clark on Saturday 13 May.
Book Picks for May with Mother’s Day in mind:
Fiction
‘Hello Beautiful’ by Ann Napolitano
Literary fiction. Heartbreaking and heart mending tale of four sisters.
‘The Last Days of Joy’ by Anne Tietman
Ann is a New Zealand author. A family saga ,heartbreaking, funny and poignant.
Non Fiction
‘Winter Warmers’ by Philippa Cameron
Recipes and stories from a NZ High Country Station
‘A Forager’s Life’ by Helen Lehndorf
A warm memoir combined with foraging recipes, practices and principles. A NZ story.
