Taal JK ( )

Originally published in 1949 as part of the story collection Nils Karlsson-Pyssling, this brief tale from celebrated Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren - perhaps best known for her Pippi Longstocking books - was first translated into English in 1998, for a special supplementary edition of the Swedish Book Review, intended to highlight the literary depiction of Stockholm in Swedish letters. This volume from UK-based publisher Floris Books, however, marks its first English-language appearance in book form - something to be celebrated! - and appears to draw upon a recent Dutch edition, utilizing the same artwork from award-winning illustrator Marit Törnqvist.

The story of Goran, a young boy confined to his bed by an unspecified leg injury, who is taken on an extraordinary evening journey through an alternate Stockholm by Mr. Lilyvale, his diminutive magical guide, In the Land of Twilight (I skymninslandet in Swedish) is a tribute to the power of the imagination, its potential to free us, however temporarily, from the constraints of our physical bodies, and from the burdens of our emotional pain. Overhearing his mother voicing her fear that he might never recover, Goran is in a very dark place when Mr. Lilyvale arrives, but is soon off to the Land of Twilight - the "Land That is Not" - where nothing really matters, and nothing can hurt you. Driving a train through the air, and then through the water; flying past St. Clara's Church, and down into Kronoberg Park; meeting the King and Queen of the Land of Twilight - Goran is taken out of himself when he needs it most, and finds himself somewhere where it "doesn't matter if you have a bad leg, because... you can fly."

With a simple but powerful narrative, one that managed to evoke a strong emotional response in me, despite (or perhaps because of) its understated, matter-of-fact tone, and appealing artwork that conveys the sense of dreamlike magic to be found in the story - Marit Törnqvist's work has a classic feeling to it, and put me in mind of artists like Edward Ardizzone - In the Land of Twilight is a marvelous book, and one that well deserves an English-language audience. I am so very glad that it is finally being made available to child readers in that language! ( )