The Tiny Wife 
by Andrew Kaufman
This small but perfectly formed novella could be the wackiest thing you’ll read this year. A modern fairy tale about a bank robber that doesn’t steal money, but items of sentimental value from everyone held up.
He explains before he leaves, that those items give him 51% of everyone’s souls, and that will have ‘bizarre and strange consequences‘ in their lives, and they’ll have to learn to grow them back or die. Strange things do indeed begin to happen, and the victims meet to share their experiences, some of which are rather unsettling to say the least.
The story is recounted by the husband of Stacey, who had been in the bank. She’d handed over her calculator on which she worked out everything – at first she thought she was just losing weight, but it soon becomes clear that Stacey is shrinking! Will she work out how to stop it, and even reverse it, before she pops out of existence like the Incredible Shrinking Man did?
This story has a large amount of charm, which is augmented by wonderful illustrations in silhouette by Tony Percival. however it’s not all nice – parts of it are totally grim, (or should I say Grimm!). The story is deceptively simple, yet packs the suitable moral punch that all good fairy tales need. I will be definitely be searching out Kaufman’s previous short novel My friends are superheroes, after reading this great little book. (9/10)
My ARC came from publisher The Friday Project – thank you!
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If you like modern fairy tales, I can also wholly recommend The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw, and Tokyo, cancelled by Rana Dasgupta. Links below:
To explore further on Amazon, click below:
The Tiny Wife
All My Friends are Superheroes
The Girl with Glass Feet
Tokyo Cancelled
Incredible Shrinking Man [DVD]
I’m very selective when it comes to fairy stories, but I loved The Girl With Glass Feet andThe Boy With The Cuckoo-Clock Heart, and I do like the sound of this one. I shall be checking those links.
Ali Shaw’s new book is another – The man who rained – but it’s not out until after Christmas. I haven’t read the Boy with the Cuckoo-clock heart – one for me to check out.