Folktail combines magic, coming of age
In present-day San Francisco, a young cabbie named Frank sees a flash of white as a girl darts past his taxi window. Elena, in her white cape, is on her way to Baba Vera’s house to cook, clean, garden and learn the basics she’ll need for everyday life. The lives of Frank and Elena are about to become more entwined than they ever expected. Barbara Sapienza’s “The Girl in the White Cape” is a modern spiritual folktale following a girl without a mother, about priests, cabbies and witches, and basks in the magic of opening oneself up to life’s transformations.
Elena resides in the attic of Our Lady of Sorrow, the church where she has lived and been cared for by Father Al for the 15 years since she was left on the doorstep. She has only the Russian fairy tale of Vasilisa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga and a small doll named Kukla by which to remember her mother. Living a sheltered life where she is instructed to study with her Baba until her plan is fulfilled, Elena must use her intuition, guardians and the lessons of the Russian fairy tale to guide her through life.
Each day, Elena makes her way past the other teens of San Francisco,
with their colorful Jansport backpacks and cellphones in hand, as she travels on foot to Baba Vera’s house, where guinea pigs scamper in the hay and Dedushka Victor keeps her company.
Elena’s tasks from her adoptive grandmother change daily — gathering acorns for acorn bread, sweeping hay, and killing a duck to clean and eat. Knowing there must be a reason for the odd requests, she wonders, “What is Baba preparing her for?”
Simultaneously and serendipitously, the 25-year-old cabbie, Frank, is pulled into the mystery of Anya, a Russian woman who claims to be searching for her daughter, when he is tasked with driving Anya to Our Lady of Sorrows. But Anya is not who she appears, and Frank fears her intentions with Elena do not lie in the best of places. He finds himself drawn to Elena as a protective figure, curious about the ways in which their lives overlap that seem like more than a coincidence.
As he digs into the truth, Frank experiences a brush with the otherworldly, where witches and magic exist alongside coffee shops and cellphones. Witnessing flashes of the supernatural as he investigates Elena’s life and her world, Frank feels like he’s “fallen into this web of alternate reality.” He’s gone from driving people to their office jobs in San Francisco to being entwined in a woman’s hunt for the daughter she got rid of 15 years ago. He is pulled further into the mystery than he could ever imagine, compelled by the discovery of something spiritual within him, and a deeper connection to the world around him.
Although “The Girl in the White Cape” is Elena’s story, as the title suggests, it is equally a story about Frank, who was “chosen to be part of the mystery” — by fate or by circumstance, he has to discern. Frank is still healing from being orphaned as a child, and the flash of a white cloak in his periphery reminds him all too well of his mother’s ghost. Two orphans become like siblings, protecting and helping each other navigate a world that is unfamiliar to them — Frank learns the natural and the magical world, while Elena is faced with the modern and the adult world.
The novel is a coming-of-age story at its heart, exploring the wonder of transformation and the knowledge that “sometimes the magical is as true as reality.” Whether caring for strangers, overcoming childhood traumas, preparing for an uncertain future or enjoying the rhythm of everyday cooking and cleaning, there is always something special sparkling in the mundanity.
Sapienza’s novel is a masterful blend of magical realism and folktale. Elena’s journey serves as an allegory for preparing for the unknown, crossing the threshold into adulthood, and carving out a life and family of one’s own, with a touch of magic on every step of the way.