Lanny by Max Porter

Around the World in 80,000 Pages - Book 7

Lanny by Max Porter

You can read about my Around the World in 80,000 Pages challenge here.

Miles travelled: 364

Pages read: 2,693

Disclaimer: I'm rather behind on my reviews, so they will be super brief until I get caught up again.

In a quiet commuter village somewhere near London, a boy (Lanny) goes missing. The response to this is both modern (in the finger pointing at the strange outsider) and traditional (in its links with shadow figures from the villages semi-mythical history.

Lanny begins as a rather fractured tale but quickly gathers momentum. Porter plays with the physical form of the words on the page. Some sections cascade and swirl, in a way which is unsettling and also draws the reader away from being on a purely passive journey. There is no clear order in which to read some pages, and indeed whether it should all be read in detail or just a general impression gleaned, is up to the reader. It gives one a feeling that the truth is there somewhere, but is obscured by the telling of the story, in the way that folk tales often obfuscate their own origins.

Lanny is original, beguiling, and disquieting, and I highly recommend it. It scored 118/140, gaining ★★★★★. The associated flag is that of Hertfordshire, and the music is Sam Lee's rendition of the English folk classic, John Barleycorn.