Strandloper: Alan Garner

[poliphilo]

You need to read it once for the story (which is partly true) and then pick it over- like it was a sacred or magical text-  for the intricacy of the patterning, for the secrets. There's not a phrase that doesn't resonate and set up echoes- backwards, forwards, all-which-a-ways. It's a novel, but it's not just a novel- it's a thundal, a swaddledidaff.

"A black stone; flecked with red; part bubbled as a brain, part rough as frost; and all stuck about with clear crystals that winked in the light."