Parasol against the Axe

To those reading this review, I first ask you to imagine a city in your mind. It can be any city in the world, maybe your favourite one, or the one you’ve most recently travelled to. Now I want you to think, if your city had a voice and could speak, what would it say? Let Helen Oyeyemi’s newest novel take hold of your senses as she whisks you away to the gorgeous city of Prague.

The novel’s narrator, the mysterious and effervescent voice of the conscious, anthropomorphic Prague itself, uncovers the power of storytelling, the murky lines of truth and interpretation, and the memories of a city taking on a life of its own.

We look at the protagonist, Hero Tojosoa, who comes to Prague on an invitation to a bachelorette party hosted by her estranged best friend, and discovers a world of pure imagination. Alongside meeting strange characters and bizarre occurrences, during her travel Hero reads from a book in which every time she opens its pages, the text changes, revealing the lives and stories of Praguers both past and present. With stories within stories, you easily become lost in this book, exploring the joys and tragedies of each person’s life, the impact of war and totalitarianism in Europe, and the metamorphosis of a city created by those both local and foreign.

In under 300 pages, Oyeyemi has managed to transition from writer to artist, sketching out the setting and characters, painting my imagination with her colourful, inventive and delicious prose, and creating this masterpiece that reflects the beauty, history and richness of Prague today. Absurd, fabulous, and mind-bendingly wonderful, Parasol Against the Axe is a love letter to a city, a romance that is as beautiful and haunting as the city itself.