Bambert's Book of Missing Stories

by ReinhardtJung (Author)

• Used

  Illustrated
  2002

  $3.25

  Bambert is a recluse. He feels out of place in the world and lives in the top of his house, while the grocer downstairs, Mr Bloom, supplies all the provisions he needs. Bambert has completed ten stories for his Book of Wishes, and one day decides the stories should go and seek their own settings. Parcelling up each one, and sending it out into the world attached to Japanese hot-air balloon powered by nightlights, Bambert also includes an eleventh story, consisting only of four sheets of blank paper, which he hopes will write themselves. As the stories begin to return, with foreign stamps and the names of people who have found them, Bambert begins to reassemble his Book of Wishes, now filled with tales from around the world. There is, for example, a rather sinister tale about waxworks from England, the tale of a boy whose drawings come true, and a miraculous escape from a dungeon in Tsarist Russia. One night, Bambert finds the eleventh story. It did not fly anywhere, but stuck to his roof. Bambert falls to his death while trying to reach it, and never knows that Mr Bloom faked all the envelopes from his stamp collection. Saddened when his friend dies, Mr Bloom rescues the eleventh envelope and writes the last story, about Bambert's arrival on 'the other side of the dream', where he's reunited with all the characters he brought to life.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2008

  $3.25

  Bambert lives alone in his attic home. He feels out of place in the world and finds solace in the characters he creates in his stories. One day, he decides to send his eleven stories out into the world, to find their own (true) setting. He attaches them to paper balloons and sends them out on a windy night. The eleventh story is blank. Bambert hopes it will write itself. Gradually the stories return, with postmarks from all round the world. But Bambert's life-work is not complete until the return of the eleventh story, the fate of which is still unknown...