Brontë sisters’ spirits

Book name- THE SONG OF STORK AND DROMEDARY: A NOVEL

Author- Anjet Daanje

Published by- Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Price- $23

In The Song of Stork and Dromedary, Susan is confronted with the repercussions of what happens when the love we have for somebody turns into grief after the person is gone from our lives. It is this grief that makes us see what is not there, believe in the unbelievable, and find warmth in even the coldest places. Something as cold as the dead body of a stranger becomes a sight and a site of nostalgic comfort — not the kind of comfort where one is at ease, but rather one where the pain is familiar.

Anjet Daanje’s work deals with a deep exploration of dread and death wherein the characters face mortality up close. But the ones who lose the most to death are often not chosen by him. This dread is woven directly into the scenery and the imagery — there are corpses with unclosable eyes as well as echoes of being buried alive — to capture how ghosts and curses linger after people die.

The Song of Stork and Dromedary primarily encompasses the life and the entangled relationships of the Drayden sisters — Eliza May and Millicent — who are inspired by the Brontës. However, it is also the story of Daniel, who mourns a love that he is not allowed to mourn, as well as that of Grace, who comes agonisingly close to what she wished for, only to lose it completely. This is also a tale about books: how a book written in Bridge Fowling, a remote Yorkshire village, ripples out to touch, connect and change the lives of numerous people across three centuries; why people write books; and the afterlife of an author.

More than anything else, The Song of Stork and Dromedary is a story about sisterhood. In Christina Rossetti’s “The Goblin Market”, Laura and Lizzie represent sisterhood through solidarity and sacrifice — with one literally giving herself up so the other can be saved. The selfless solidarity in this novel is far more subtle. Sacrifices are made quietly, mostly without an audience or immediate results.

The novel is composed of eleven interconnected stories, each serving as a unique lens through which it observes Eliza May. The narrative continuously circles her presence, exploring the fragments she has left behind through her ghost, her lost texts, and the constant rewriting of her memory.

Translated into English by David McKay, the storytelling remains engaging despite the narrative’s length and multiple complex plotlines. Daanje’s narrative style will be instantly recognisable to readers familiar with Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. The book seamlessly channels classical, 19th-century Gothic traditions, weaving together overlapping layers of myth, history, and obsession.