GoodReads: Linda’s Review
Róisín Sorahan’s excellent modern day folk tale has more twists and turns than anything the Grimm brothers could have dreamed up. ‘Time and the Tree,’ has that perfect blend of whimsy and pure darkness that is present in so many of the classic fairy tales that we all know and love.
Reminiscent of ‘Alice and Wonderland,’ and ‘The Giving Tree,’ this story takes place in a dense forest, and portrays the friendship between a boy and a very wise, very old tree. The life of a tree may be something that we all secretly envy. Standing in one place, stoically holding our own against the bitterest winter winds, our roots warmed by the earth, but this story is about a tree whose peace is regularly shaken.
Not by the Boy, of course, but by the many wanderers who happen to come through the forest and present problems that the Boy and the Tree have to put their heads (metaphorical head for the tree, of course) together to solve.
Mostly, the peace is disturbed by the blustering of Time. Time is, of course, the concept of time as represented by a man who wears a brass cap and a waistcoat. Time is generally shadowed by Shadow, a creature that he calls his slave who worships and serves him.
Of course, things aren’t all that simple between the pair, but telling too much about that would spoil the book, and this is one that you should definitely read in your own time (see what I did there?)
Every aspect of this story positively drips with magic and wonder. Sorahan’s writing is beautiful and almost otherworldly in the way it transports the reader. Every sentence seems to sing across the page. This book is something special that has to be experienced to be believed.