Road to acceptance Book review

‘‘Today I can see myself in the mirror from three steps away. This distance is getting shorter. A year ago I could see myself from five steps.’’

This has to be the most moving book published this year or even this decade.

It is a simple story, narrated by a 10-year-old girl, Mafalda, who has a list of all the things she cares about. ‘‘Climbing up the school cherry tree’’ is on page 3.

The cherry tree plays a key role in Mafalda’s story and her life. She has a rare eye disorder, Stargardt Mist, a form of macular degeneration, which causes her sight to gradually decline. Part one begins with the words ‘‘70 metres’’. This is the distance from which Mafalda can see the cherry tree. By Part Three it is ‘‘40 metres’’.

Mafalda’s delight in climbing ‘‘her’’ cherry tree is inspired by a book her father gives her. (Italo Calvino’s romantic fable, The Baron in the Trees.) Like the baron, Mafalda sits in her tree and reads. ‘‘Who’ll read to me?’’ she wonders, ‘‘Who’ll read me stories when I’m left in the dark and Mum and Dad are at work?’’

Estella, the school caretaker, is a remarkable character. A Romanian, who describes herself as ‘‘Estella from Transylvania, Queen of the Amazons’’, she has to rescue Mafalda from the tree after she drops her glasses. It is also Estella who inspires Mafalda to face the coming darkness.

When Mafalda tells her story, there are beautiful, almost poetic, passages. There are also comic moments, like Mafalda’s plan to live in the tree and take her lessons by listening at the classroom window. As Mafalda’s vision fades, she finds true friendship with the impulsive Filippo although there are some droll misunderstandings and alarming mishaps.

The final section where Mafalda overcomes her fears and finds the ability to cope with the encroaching darkness is both unsettling and reassuring.

Author Paola Peretti also has Stargardt disease for which there is no cure.