There are possible echoes of Williams’ “Masquerade,” Ian McEwan’s “Atonement,” and even episodes of Dr. There are genre-bending tricks and puns galore. There are sly criticisms about the literary industry’s obsession with prizes and lists. These themes are refracted through Oyeyemi’s cubist prism, her melding of imaginary lands with our own: mobile phones, YouTube and Tumblr alongside mail pigeons, sachets of magic powder, and fireflies that speak Korean. (As in her previous work, Oyeyemi plants her flag at the intersection of fantasy and realism.) Their unhappiness is hinted at rather than explored.Īfter a medical scare, Perdita recuperates at home, where one night Harriet narrates her past to her daughter and a gang of cheeky talking dolls, cousins to the puppets in Oyeyemi’s scalp-tingling story, “Is Your Blood as Red as This?”įrom adventures with her changeling friend, Gretel, to a stint as a Gingerbread Girl to escape to England, where she and Margot get caught in the web of the wealthy Kercheval family, Harriet spins a personal myth tinged with the brutality of capitalism and race, the painful depths of the mother-daughter relationship. In London, three women - teenage Perdita Lee, her mother Harriet, a teacher, and her sardonic grandmother Margot - plod through lessons and neighborhood meetings, living off gingerbread baked from a recipe they’ve used since Harriet’s childhood in Druhástrana. Helen Oyeyemi’s new novel, “Gingerbread,” is a masquerade of its own, a loose re-imagining of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, each character clothed in an array of disguises.

A runaway bestseller, this whimsical book tapped European folklore, a fresh twist on old legends. In 1979, British author Kit Williams published “Masquerade,” a blend of child’s fable and quirky illustrations that promised a literal treasure to the reader who could solve its intricate puzzle.

Oyeyemi gingerbread