“No matter your age, may you never, ever grow too old for fairy tales.”
—Patti Callahan, Once Upon a Wardrobe.
I couldn’t have loved this book more. It started and ended with a flourish in moving, heartwarming, and magical prose. I loved learning about Jack Lewis’s life (you probably know him as C. S. Lewis) and the imagined inspiration for his classic book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. This novel about faith and hope is utterly enchanting. 5 enthusiastic stars.
Megs Devonshire is brilliant with numbers and equations, on a scholarship at Oxford, and dreams of unraveling the mysteries of physics. She prefers the dependability of facts—except for one: the brother she loves with all her heart doesn’t have long to live. When eight-year-old George becomes entranced by a brand-new book called The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and begs her to find out where Narnia came from.
Despite her reservations about approaching the renowned author behind the book, Megs soon finds herself taking tea with the Oxford tutor and his brother, Warnie, imploring them for answers. Why won’t Mr. Lewis just tell her plainly what George wants to know? What Megs learns in these sessions is far more precious than any facts or figures. They regale her with tales of the author’s life, of the joys and sorrows that shaped him into the person he became. As she listens to these stories, Megs learns that the truth lies both in physics and in fairy tales.
** Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book. The opinions expressed are my own.