As seen on my blog: 
 What a beautiful start to a beautifully written book. The conclusion, however, left much to be desired-which I suspect, was purposefully done. Fables have a way of giving you a story without actually giving you a story-but I so desperately wanted this one to wrap up more unambiguously. 
 Minou is a 12-year old girl, living on an extremely remote island in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Up until the mysterious disappearance of her mother, the only residents of the island were Minou, her father, her mother, a retired magician named Boxman, his dog "No-Name, and a priest, referred to as "priest". These characters were not developed past a certain point, which was a little upsetting, considering the book revolved around specifics, or specific truths. Minou was raised with conflicting ideas: imagination vs. solid fact. Her father encouraged the ideas and teachings of famous Philosophers, while her mother leaned heavily on the freedom of imagination. It is clear that Minou grew to favour the comfort of fact, like her father-who was apparently related to the one and only, Descartes. 
 The book opens with the pair finding a dead boy's body washed up on the shore, they then take him back to the house and lay on him on the absent mother's bed. As the story progressed, I kept expecting the dead boy's presence to have more of a significance, but eventually, I forgot that he was even there until he was mentioned again. The story-line zigzags between the present and the past, which got slightly confusing, though it wasn't an aspect that disturbed the flow of the content too much. Minou is the only one that strongly believes that her mother is still alive, and, following her Father's favourite past-time, spends hours a day deducing and contemplating the truths she knows about the situation revolving around her disappearance. 
 I think I eventually gave up on this book having a solid story line, and immersed myself in Jakobsen's fantastical writing. I found myself underlining quotes like a mad women. The landscape, the dialogue, the interactions, the simple, daily tasks-it was spectacularly magical. Her writing allowed me to feel like being stuck in the middle of the ocean, on a tiny island, is the only thing I ever want to aspire to do. 
 I suspected the "twist" from a mile away, and was quite saddened that it didn't lead the story to anywhere but it's plain conclusion. I wanted it to mean so much more in terms of why her mother disappeared-I wanted so many things in the book to give me answers. It was a beautiful little tale, but definitely more of a filler book. Recommended as a quick, thoughtful read.