The Hotel Balzaar

Kate DiCamillo

Okt. 2024 · The Norendy Tales Boek 2 · Penguin Random House Audio · Voorgelees deur Allan Corduner

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In a wise and magical follow-up to The Puppets of Spelhorst, Kate DiCamillo revisits the land of Norendy, where tales swirl within tales—and every moment is a story in the making.

At the Hotel Balzaar, Marta’s mother rises before the sun, puts on her uniform, and instructs Marta to roam as she will but quietly, invisibly—like a little mouse. While her mother cleans rooms, Marta slips down the back staircase to the grand lobby to chat with the bellman, study the painting of an angel’s wing over the fireplace, and watch a cat chase a mouse around the face of the grandfather clock, all the while dreaming of the return of her soldier father, who has gone missing. One day, a mysterious countess with a parrot checks in, promising a story—in fact, seven stories in all, each to be told in its proper order. As the stories unfold, Marta begins to wonder: could the secret to her father’s disappearance lie in the countess’s tales?

Book two in a trio of novellas bound by place and mood, The Hotel Balzaar masterfully juggles yearning and belief, shining light into every dark corner.

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Kate DiCamillo is the author of Because of Winn-Dixie (a Newbery Honor book), The Tiger Rising (a National Book Award finalist), and The Tale of Despereaux (a Newbery Medal Winner). She recently completed a series of early chapter books about a pig named Mercy Watson. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane was the winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. Kate lives and writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but she spent much of her childhood in Florida.

Allan Corduner is a character actor who has worked extensively in theater (in London's West End and on Broadway), and in television as well as in film. He has also appeared in several BBC Radio 4 plays, including The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Insignificance. His top-notch narration includes The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix.