Chekhov’s Axe

I don’t want to talk in too many specifics about this book.  I loved coming into it completely unawares, like stumbling on a deer grazing in a meadow and realizing a wolf is watching it too.

This story was evidently inspired by the story of the Forest Boy, who you may remember stumbled out of the woods a few years ago and claimed he had been living in the German woods for five years with his father.  That “true” story was utterly fabricated, and this book only retains a few, passing resemblances to that story.  This is a story about a girl, betrayed in various ways by all the adults in her life.  A story about madness, about survival, and family.  This is a story about lies, promises, and the things we choose to believe to keep ourselves going.

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