This is an extraordinary book -- my favorite in several years.
The story begins when Esme, the protagonist, about six years old, discovers her fascination with words. The early scenes, in which she discovers discarded word slips from the men assembling the Oxford English Dictionary, are almost magical in their worldly details and emotional description.
Esme is an instantly captivating character. She becomes even more so as she grows up and encounters a range of issues that we all face: relationships, work, politics, and war. She is utterly unique but somehow relatable. (This was particularly notable for me because most of the fictional protagonists with whom I have connected most closely have been male).
At each stage in Esme's life, Pip Williams creates an emotional authenticity that I've rarely experienced in literature. In this sense, Williams' own facility with words was the perfect complement to Esme's discovery of their power: she has created art in which form and content beautifully build on each other.
