From best-selling German author Cornelia Funke comes this extraordinary, thoughtful story about the magic of books and the power of an author’s imagination. Meggie lives alone with her bookbinding (and book doctoring) father, Mo, who’s instilled in her the same profound love of and respect for books that he himself has. The only oddity is that, for all his love, Mo refuses to read books out loud, thus forcing Meggie to experience them on her own terms. Their life is good, if quiet, and has been ever since Meggie’s mother left nine years ago under unspecified circumstances. Then a mysterious wanderer, a fire-eater and street performer named Dustfinger comes to pay a visit, and Meggie’s life is turned upside-down. Aware there’s a problem, but unable to get a straight answer from Mo, she goes with him to visit her aunt Elinor, a book collector who guards her treasures jealously. But Dustfinger follows, the harbinger of something much, much worse.

In no time, Mo, Meggie, and Elinor are brought under the malevolent influence of Capricorn, the dark villain of a book called Inkheart, an evil figure accidentally brought forth from the book nine years ago by Mo’s power to bring books to life. Now Capricorn wants Mo to do a little more work for him, to bring forth treasure, and much worse, from other books. Can Meggie, Elinor, the unpredictable Dustfinger, and even the very author of Inkheart himself stop Capricorn from realizing his wicked dreams?

Told with a profound love for books, and a respect for the power of imagination, Inkheart exists on a certain metafictional level, blending fantasy and reality, the real world and the literary one seamlessly. It evokes The Never-Ending Story, The Princess Bride, even The Eyre Affair in the way it crosses boundaries and plays with expectations. Meggie is a delightful protagonist, stubborn and resourceful, though short-sighted as only a twelve-year-old can be, while Dustfinger is wonderfully capricious. Even Capricorn and his men overcome the one-dimensional characterization they’re entitled to due to their unique book-within-a-book origin. This is a book written for book lovers, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only drawback is a certain repetitive yo-yo effect: heroes escape, heroes are recaptured by Capricorn, heroes escape, heroes are drawn back to deal with Capricorn… Luckily, it all advances the plot in the end. Do check this out.