Lungdon

"I write these lines on the pages of a stranger’s magazine, by candlelight, inside the belly of a gigantic fish. I was swallowed." Long ago, a lonely carpenter from a small town in Tuscany carved a marionette doll out of a pinewood log. That’s how the world-famous story of the adventures of a wooden boy begins.

“Swallowed” is a new take on an old fairy tale—this time through the eyes of Giuseppe, the father who went in search of the willful wooden child and ended up, for several years, in the belly of a giant fish. There, consumed by guilt, he reflects on fatherhood, mistakes, and loss—awaiting the day when he can be reunited with his son, whom he himself once pushed away.

“This is the real diary of Giuseppe, the creator of the disobedient Pinocchio—what he wrote while sitting inside a giant fish. Madly inventive and touching.” — Margaret Atwood “A sincere and quirky meditation on what it means to be a son, a father, and an artist.” — Kirkus Reviews “Not a Disney fairy tale, but a highly artistic, piercing sketch about guilt, madness, spiritual searching, and inevitable retribution.” — Booklist