DiscoverHistorical Fiction

Close Your Eyes: A Fairy Tale

By

Must read 🏆

You are never to old to read a fairytale. Wisdom and hope accompanies the reader through this magical journey.

"L

ove it would seem, requires a crusade - a crusade fought with kindness and generosity, and acclaimed by the joyous bells of a thousand city squares: bells which ring out across blue horizons, telling a continent to close its eyes, to dream beautifully and to wake with hope."


Every now and then, you will come across a book that just makes you feel like sighing with joy and happiness and an eagerness to tell the whole world about it. Close your Eyes by Chris Tomasini is one of those. It reminds you of the pleasure of reading a fairytale, while being thankful that you are an adult and finally understand the deeper meanings behind our beloved fairytales.


This isn't your typical "Once Upon a Time" fairytale. Rather think Canterbury Tales or A Knights Tale with a court jester as our story teller. Samuel wanted to tell the story of his dearest friend, Tycho and being an illiterate, it took him four years to obtain the mysteries of the written word and to finally tell the story of a brilliant storyteller who left the blueprints of our story in scrolls of an infrequently kept journal.


What magical tales sprang from these scrolls! Kings and Queens, princess and princesses, knights in shining armor and loyal to death servants - all on a quest for love in its various forms. The story is narrated with wit and wisdom and reads like a collection of fairytales with fact and fiction, made-up-tales and reality, blending together in a perfect happily-ever-after tale. Once again, do not expect your typical "and they lived happily ever after" ending, as we as adults know - you can only live happily ever after on a day to day basis.


Deep sadness and unhappiness are part of every tale, but what makes this tale worthy of the title of a fairytale, is that hope springs from every ending and by the wonderful life lessons hidden between the pages. Isn't hope, love and wisdom the basis of every fairytale?


It's rather difficult to believe that this book is basically a debut novel for Chris Tomasini. The writing style is superb with the most beautiful prose and symbolism woven into the tale. I do hope that Chris will continue to write, the world can do with more tales like these.

Reviewed by

Hi there! I’m Mareli, the voice of reason behind the meows and purrs at Elza Reads. I am a teacher/librarian and an avid reader.

Prologue

About the author

Chris Tomasini is a graduate of the University of Toronto. He has lived in Europe and Asia, and has worked in bookstores, publishing, and libraries. He studied creative writing through Humber College's Correspondence Program in Creative Writing, and via the U of T School of Continuing Studies. view profile

Published on December 21, 2021

50000 words

Genre: Historical Fiction

Reviewed by