Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi, Hamish Hamilton Publishers, 308 pages, $22.
Family secrets twist below the surface like a hidden undertow that is waiting to drag its victims to a dark, hidden place.
The past is never far behind the characters in Helen Oyeyemi's latest book and they push against it while at the same time being drawn back into its control.
Looking for a new beginning and an escape from her father's tyranny, Boy Novak gets on a bus in New York and ends up in the small town of Flax Hill, Massachusetts. The New England location seems a perfect reprieve for her as she starts her life anew.
Oyeyemi provides a multi-layered picture of Boy's transformation from runaway to woman to mother while never truly breaking free of her upbringing.
Against Boy's story Oyememi first hints at then reveals the details of Snow, the beautiful stepdaughter and Bird, the child whose dark skin exposes a long held lie. Their hardships, created through the conflicts between appearances, deceit and dark truths, will drive them apart but ultimately strengthen a search for enlightenment.
Oyememi pulls in elements of the Snow White fairy tale, with its fascination of mirrors, the cruelty of the stepmother and the power of appearances in shaping perceptions. She alludes to the tale but never lets it dominant her own story line, which keeps us uncertain of the outcome right to the final pages.
