Name: Little Nothing
ISBN: 9780399167928

Marisa Silver

"The story of a girl, scorned for her physical deformity, whose passion and salvation lie in her otherworldly ability to transform herself and the world around her"--Amazon.com.

Little Nothing

In an unnamed country at the beginning of the last century, a child called Pavla is born to peasant parents. Her arrival, fervently anticipated and conceived in part by gypsy tonics and archaic prescriptions, stuns her parents and brings outrage and scorn from her community. Pavla has been born a dwarf, beautiful in face, but as the years pass, she grows no farther than the edge of her crib. When her parents turn to the treatments of a local charlatan, his terrifying cure opens the floodgates of persecution for Pavla. Little Nothing unfolds across a lifetime of unimaginable, magical transformation in and out of human form, as an outcast girl becomes a hunted woman whose ultimate survival depends on the most startling transfiguration of them all. Woven throughout is the journey of Danilo, the young man entranced by Pavla, obsessed only with protecting her. Part allegory about the shifting nature of being, part subversive fairy tale of love in all its uncanny guises, Little Nothing spans the beginning of a new century, the disintegration of ancient superstitions, and the adoption of industry and invention. With a cast of remarkable characters, a wholly original story, and extraordinary, page-turning prose, Marisa Silver delivers a novel of sheer electricity.

Moray Lyle McIntosh

Pavla's birth is difficult in many ways. Born to elderly parents whose desperation for a child has led them to consult a local witch she is born a dwarf and faces rejection from her disappointed and guilt-ridden mother. Over time the infant manages to overcome her mother's reservations and become her parents' darling but even as she grows beautiful and clever (if not tall) they worry for her future and turn to the disreputable Dr Smetanka and his assistant Danilo in the hope of a cure. As one might expect, things do not go to plan. So begins Pavla's tale of many transformations as she is buried, stretched and anointed in the quest for height and passes through forests, freakshows, prisons and several physical forms. Her story is paralleled by that of Danilo who is haunted by his role in Pavla's life and passes from doctor's assistant, carnival performer, madman and engineer as he seeks to make amends. 

Silver has created a pitch-perfect modern fairy-tale with shades of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Angela Carter and Catherynne M. Valente. She uses the familiar tropes of transformation and redemption with great skill and such unwavering confidence that the reader is easily swept up in the fairy-tale logic of their childhood with no inclination to break the spell with unwarranted disbelief. But despite the feeling of familiarity she manages to surprise at every turn, the sudden shifts and shocks always supported by her evocative prose.

The tales of Pavla and Danilo beautifully compliment each other, both centring on the exploration of the self whether this is through physical change, from childhood to adulthood, from dwarf to wolf-girl or a change in situation and role. It is also a meditation on the way we use stories (and stories use us) to shape our identities and speaks for the transformative power of love and the consequences that our desires for our loved ones can have, for good and for ill. "Love is not always kind," a young Pavla realises, "and it is never simple."

Little Nothing

Reviews

Highlights