In 2021, the writer Jean-Claude Mourlevat, very well known in France, won the most important prize for children’s literature there is, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. His book Jefferson was subsequently translated into Dutch and enthusiastically received. That story is a classic whodunit about the hedgehog Jefferson accused of murdering his barber. An exciting and humorous book.
Now a second book has been published by the writer who is known for his innovative role in the fairytale tradition. The flowing river is an adventure fairy tale about 13-year-old Tomek who gets 12-year-old Hannah to help her in his grocery shop. He instantly falls in love with her. Tomek sells everything, but Hannah is looking for water from the backflowing river Qjar. That water makes you immortal. Hannah hopes to use it to save her sick finch. It is the beginning of an adventure in which Tomek goes in search of the river Qjar. He travels through the Forest of Forgetfulness, across the enchanting flower meadow to the village of the Fragrance Makers. A journey by sea follows to the island of Nowhere Land, before finally traveling overland to the backflowing river Qjar and its source on the Holy Mountain.
Cursed poppies
There is quite a lot that Mourlevat wants to cover in the 150 pages of this first part of a diptych. And by telling so much in so few pages, it never really gets exciting. There is too little suggestion or conflict for that. Yet that is not as bad as it sounds, because precisely because of the lack of tension, this book is an experience for the somewhat younger reader. They can enjoy an imaginative story that also seems to pay homage to a number of classic works at certain points. For example, the Forest of Forgetfulness is reminiscent of the Old Forest Under the spell of the ring and the meadow of flowers in which Tomek falls asleep to the meadow full of cursed poppies The Wizard of Oz. Mourlevat always gives it his own twist. For example, the sleeping Tomek is not carried from the flower meadow by mice, as was the case with Dorothy, but by ‘Scent Makers’ who put him in a bed where they will read to him until they find his ‘waking words’ – the magic trick to make him wake up.
Slipper slipper
They do that more often. There was that time when the Fragrance Makers had to read someone for six years. The waking words were then ‘slipper slipper!’
The village elder explains to Tomek, “’The same word twice in a row! Try to find that in a book!”
“But how did you manage to do it?”
“Well we were so desperate that we finally brought in Tzergom. He was a good boy, but not very bright, unfortunately, and he couldn’t read either. We took him into the bedroom and asked him to say whatever came to mind. After ten minutes Mortimer awoke.”’
Here we see the humorous look of Mourlevat, who hardly feels the need to ask profound questions in this story about the hunt for immortality. Only once does he allow himself to do so: “Isn’t the idea of living forever much scarier than the thought of one day dying? And suppose you die, when will you see the ones you love again who have already died?’ These are questions that a young reader can digest. By not increasing the tension too much and not larding the story with profound posturing, an adventure story is created in which the young reader can simply enjoy a beautiful trip over land and sea, through a rich imagination.