Review: The Shadow Of the Object by Chloe Aridjis

It has been said to never judge a book by its cover. In this instance, however, it feels appropriate to mention that the cover for The Shadow Of the Object, the Booker Prize longlisted novel by Chloe Aridjus fits the story perfectly.  The short and beautifully written novel opens with Flora in hospital. She has been bitten by the family dog, whilst on a trip home to visit her mother and stepfather in Mexico. Recovering in hospital she strikes up a friendship with Wilhelmina, an elderly German woman who became ill with pneumonia during a trip to Mexico. There is something magical about their conversations. So too is the show Wilhelmina puts on for Flora and the other patients with her magic lantern. And all too soon, everything changes.  

I enjoyed the first half of the novel, set in the hospital in Mexico. The second half, set in London after Flora's recovery and Wilhelmina's passing never quite really lives up to the first half. The narrative was at its best when it shaped around Wilhelmina and the unlikely meeting and friendship between her and Flora, whereas what happened next in London had more of a feel of the inevitable, when Flora meets Wilhelmina's son. The prose itself is beautiful with a dreamlike quality about it. And there is something lovely about the way the narrative tells fragments of other stories. (Shadows, perhaps?)

A unique story with beautiful, dreamlike prose.

Recommended. 

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