Inkdeath;
By Cornelia Funke; Scholastic India
Pages: 683; Price: Rs 395
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A plump, gorgeous book that spans 81 chapters, most about five pages long and some as short as two, Cornelia Funke’s Inkdeath proves worth its wait. The last of the Inkworld trilogy, Inkdeath also brings with it the fullest sense of Funke’s ability to construct the most realistically appealing of stories even in the context of a fantasy. She has peopled the Inkworld trilogy with normal folk who have stumbled upon something so incomprehensible that it demands an unravelling only by experience. By default, and because Funke is such an effective writer, the reader also participates in this experience. Nowhere has this reviewer found it more apparent than in the Inkworld trilogy, which is so evocatively of books and by books, and therefore takes the reading of the three works to quite another level.
But before we get there, this reviewer has always found that a spell-binding series full of fine details demands a re-reading of its earlier books so that the latest may be fully appreciated. And so it is that we must re-acquaint ourselves with Mo, the kind-hearted bookbinder, who reads aloud with such felicity that he draws characters out of their books — this brings with it some devastating consequences. Thus, once the enchanted book Inkheart (also the first in the series) draws lovable Meggie and the equally wonderful Mo into its chapters, their world is never quite the same again.
Inkheart is tinged with sadness by the (to start with) inexplicable loss of Meggie’s dear mother Resa, who vanishes into the story, out of which emerge the evil Capricorn and his cohorts. Nine lonely years later, during which the father and daughter (and what a heartwarmingly etched relationship Funke draws) never lose their enduring love for books, they are hurled headlong into an adventure wrought by the unreliable Dustfinger and enlivened by the book-collecting aunt Elinor and Farid, a boy from Arabian Nights whom Mo accidentally brings out as well. Inkheart goes on to give its readers a satisfyingly happy ending but not without a craving for more.
In Inkspell, its sequel, Meggie reads herself and Farid into Inkworld, which they discover to be fascinating. As with the first book, Funke takes many unexpected turns with her plot: Mo nearly dies, Fenoglio loses control over his story, and there are some saddening deaths. Inkspell leaves readers riding a crest of suspense and, by this time, Funke’s control over her plot is so complete and real that don’t be surprised to find yourself looking over your shoulder and wondering if you have transited into Inkworld by mistake.
In Inkdeath, as the very name suggests, the end is never far away. Left with no choice because his world is threatened by an eternal winter, Mo inks a dangerous deal with Death itself. But hope does not die. Will Mo succeed in filling the pages of the cursed book fast enough to escape? Inkdeath, which even comes with an alphabetical listing of characters in a handy ‘A-Z of Inkworld’ appendix, hurls to a glorious end at breakneck speed. The Los Angeles-based Funke, who credits the City of Angels with having fed her ‘with beauty and wilderness and with the feeling that I had found my Inkworld’, proves herself a worthy writer of love and loss.
Inkdeath also benefits from Funke’s superb illustrations, and her unique ability to identify lines of eclectic and unfailingly apt extracts to begin every chapter with. At the start of Herbs For Her Ugliness [Chapter 33], for instance, is this sparkling quote, ‘The soul is silent/ If it speaks at all/ it speaks in dreams'. [From Louise Gluck's Child Crying Out]. It’s easy to see why Funke identifies with, and emulates, her many favourite writers. She is astonishingly well-read, too. But the dark and forbidding cover of Inkdeath is the ugliest of the trilogy, with not even butterflies and green creepers able to relieve the leery skull of its strange contents — a sepia-tinted castle and a forlorn unicorn.
That said, don’t miss The Thief Lord, Funke’s earlier book, which was not a fantasy (as Dragon Rider, her other famous book, was) and told the story of a bunch of runaway kids — a charming troupe of vagabonds who bring Venice alive in a manner that is rare and utterly disarming.
Despite ruling bestseller lists for months and winning multiple awards, despite having Inkheart adapted to a major motion picture starring Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany and Helen Mirren, and despite making it to Time magazine's 100 Most Influential Men and Women in 2005, Funke has not been subjected to the sort of hype and intense scrutiny that J.K. Rowling endured for her Harry Potter series. In fact, Funke’s books surprise also because nobody thought to analyse them to death.
Although an imprint of Scholastic’s Chicken House, the Inkworld trilogy, like the writing of Rowling and that young prodigy, Chistopher Paolini, works at different levels and holds appeal for readers of all age groups, even though children must be its greatest fans. Funke, an introduction tells us, worked as a designer and illustrator of children’s books before ‘disappointment in the way most tales were told, combined with her desire to draw fantastic creatures and magical worlds rather than familiar situations of school and home, inspired her to write her own stories’. The world of books is a better place for it.
Book Reviews 
Inkheart is tinged with sadness by the (to start with) inexplicable loss of Meggie’s dear mother Resa, who vanishes into the story, out of which emerge the evil Capricorn and his cohorts. Nine lonely years later, during which the father and daughter (and what a heartwarmingly etched relationship Funke draws) never lose their enduring love for books, they are hurled headlong into an adventure wrought by the unreliable Dustfinger and enlivened by the book-collecting aunt Elinor and Farid, a boy from Arabian Nights whom Mo accidentally brings out as well. Inkheart goes on to give its readers a satisfyingly happy ending but not without a craving for more.
In Inkdeath, as the very name suggests, the end is never far away. Left with no choice because his world is threatened by an eternal winter, Mo inks a dangerous deal with Death itself. But hope does not die. Will Mo succeed in filling the pages of the cursed book fast enough to escape? Inkdeath, which even comes with an alphabetical listing of characters in a handy ‘A-Z of Inkworld’ appendix, hurls to a glorious end at breakneck speed. The Los Angeles-based Funke, who credits the City of Angels with having fed her ‘with beauty and wilderness and with the feeling that I had found my Inkworld’, proves herself a worthy writer of love and loss. 
That said, don’t miss The Thief Lord, Funke’s earlier book, which was not a fantasy (as Dragon Rider, her other famous book, was) and told the story of a bunch of runaway kids — a charming troupe of vagabonds who bring Venice alive in a manner that is rare and utterly disarming. 
