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Product Description
Product Description
A young man investigating his father's untimely death. A woman's initials, carved in an ancient tree. A half-forgotten hex sign revealing a crooked path. An Appalachian community that closes ranks to preserve its secrets. A tale of moonshine, murder and Blue Ridge Mountain magic by the author of "The Road to Harmony."
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I took The Toy Maker to read on a train journey. It kept me engrossed for half of the journey, and then I was really annoyed at the author for not making it longer. I couldn't not like a story that has a starring role for trees. I found the sense of place and atmosphere, and the sense of living in and with and of the land and the rhythms of its seasons, powerful, and there were extraordinarily vivid and evocative descriptive touches placed like jewels. Two motifs at the core of the story work well. The behaviour of the children in the novel was extremely well observed and convincing. The two lovers in the back story were also convincing in that they were not made to be perfect, nor the murdered father an entirely innocent victim or saint. The author deftly avoids several possible cliches and easy forms of characterisation in favour of something altogether more realistic. I liked the detail of food and drink and the acknowledgement of their importance.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was keen to read this after enjoying Ballam's "The Road to Harmony". I wasn't disappointed. It's another fine book. It has a particular gentleness about it which comes from the relationship the protagonist Matteo has with the place itself and the people within it. Half mountain boy and half Italian, his interactions with the neighbours' children are pitch-perfect and exceptionally sensitive. The mountains are nowhere more obvious than in the characters of Jonas and Ephraim and their voices are as important as any other element that might conjure location for the reader. The beauty of the place is beautifully conveyed in the writerly descriptions of it: there is a unique sense of strangeness and unknowable-ness. The climax is super, and the long cramping up of tension at the end is expertly done. It's a craftsman's book. A grand read. Treat yourself.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I strongly recommend John Ballam's novel , set in the Appalachian country so lovingly described in his earlier boyhood memoir The Road to Harmony (1999). It is perhaps not surprising that the children and their close relationship with the land are so well depicted. The isolated landscape is a major character in the book, as is the slow adaptation, season by season, of Matteo to his childhood home. Although the pace is slow in this respect the subtle and gradual unravelling of the cloak of secrecy, wrapped around the death of Matteo's father, is totally absorbing and devastating. There is an interesting contrast between the lavish depiction of the location and the economical handling of the changing relationships and the dialogue.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A sense of place
Ballam is on familiar ground here. I bought this having read Road to Harmony, his masterly account of growing up in Maryland, then took it to read on a visit to the Czech Republc. Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2009 by Donald Scott
A Compelling Read
J.D. Ballam's latest book is a compelling read. Set in his boyhood Blue Ridge Mountains, and re-created with the same deft touch of his memoir, A Road to Harmony, The Toy Maker's... Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2008 by J. Wren
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