Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

From the Publisher

Tender Morsels is a dark and vivid story, set in two worlds and worrying at the border between them. Liga lives modestly in her own personal heaven, a world given to her in exchange for her earthly life. Her two daughters grow up in this soft place, protected from the violence that once harmed their mother. But the real world cannot be denied forever—magicked men and wild bears break down the borders of Liga’s refuge. Now, having known Heaven, how will these three women survive in a world where beauty and brutality lie side by side?


From the Hardcover edition.

Publishers Weekly

In her extraordinary and often dark first novel, award-winning story writer Lanagan (Red Spikes) creates two worlds: the first a preindustrial village that might have sprung from a Brueghel canvas, a place of victims and victimizers; the second a personal heaven granted to Liga Longfield, who has survived her father's molestations and a gang rape but, with one baby and pregnant again, cannot risk any further pain. As she raises her two daughters, placid Branza and fiery Urdda, she discovers that her universe is permeable: a dwarf or "littlee man," in Lanagan's characteristically knotted parlance, slips in and out of her world in search of treasure; and a good-hearted youth also enters, magically transformed into a bear in the process. A less kind man-bear follows, and then a teenage Urdda, avid for a richer life with the "vivid people," figures out how to pass through the border, too. Writing in thick, clotted prose that holds the reader to a slow pace, Lanagan explores the savage and the gentlest sides of human nature, and how they coexist. With suggestions of bestiality and sodomy, the novel demands maturity-but the challenging text will attract only an ambitious audience anyway. Ages 14-up. (Oct.)

Children's Literature

In the first two chapters of this book, fourteen-year-old Liga endures two herbally-induced abortions, repeated rape by her father, and—after he has been killed and she has carried the last pregnancy to term—a gang rape by the local "village lads." Driven to near madness, and pregnant again from the gang rape, she seeks to end her life and the lives of her born and yet-unborn "babs" by jumping off a cliff. But magical forces suspend her from death and give her two jewels to "plant." Liga's world is thus transformed into her personal version of heaven, somewhat like the situation in Sebold's The Lovely Bones. Liga's heaven is gentle and predictable. All of the cruel people are gone from the nearby village of St. Olafred, and only grassy parks remain where their houses stood. Here, people still make their living as wool merchants and laundresses, and creating fine embroidery can provide a living. Liga's daughters, fair-haired, gentle Branza and wild, dark-haired Urdda, grow to be teenagers in this safe place. Then, the boundaries between the "true world" and Liga's are breached, first by a greedy "little man" seeking treasure, and then by various men-turned-bears. Adventurous Urdda escapes to the more vivid, exciting, and dangerous version of the world, leaving her mother and sister grieving until they too are thrust back into reality. When Urdda learns of her origins, she unwittingly takes revenge on the men who harmed her mother as her previously unknown magical powers take on a life of their own. Relations between bears, wolf and women are highly sexualized though never consummated. The language is a well-crafted variation on old English that sometimes feels tediousand sometimes seems positively poetic. The worlds and characters created are complex and complete. The emotional experience ranges across the spectrum: despair, anger, sorrow, fear, love, and joy. This is a challenging and unforgettable read. It seems an unlikely recommendation for male readers and would be appropriate only for the most mature and determined female fans of fantasy. Reviewer: Paula McMillen, Ph.D.

VOYA

At the heart of this brilliant novel is the fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red, but Lanagan builds out from it in all directions. When fifteen-year-old Liga's life in this world becomes unbearable-she has one daughter conceived in incest and is pregnant with another as a result of a gang rape-she intends to throw herself off a cliff. Instead she has an encounter with a strange being and wakes up in her own personal heaven-the world looks the same but without any of the people or things that could harm her. She happily raises her daughters Branza and Urdda there, unaware that the line between her world and the real world is occasionally porous. A greedy dwarf and two bears who are really transformed men are the catalysts for the three women's journey back to the real world, where they must learn how to live among other people-the good and the bad. Lanagan creates a rich and complex world, packed with fully realized characters. Her writing is so beautiful that even the most brutal and painful scenes are not graphic or sordid but heartbreaking. Older teens, especially fans of fairy-tale retellings, will want to immerse themselves in Liga's two worlds. This book is one that will stay with the reader for a long time. Reviewer: Sarah Flowers

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up

A traumatized teen mother magically escapes to her own personal heaven in this daring and deeply moving fantasy. The characters, setting, much of the action, and even the very words of the title are taken from the Grimm Brothers' "Snow-White and Rose-Red," a sweet story of contrasting sisters who live deep in the forest and whose innocent hearts are filled with compassion for a lonely bear and an endangered dwarf. In the novel, Liga's daughters-one born of incest, the other of gang rape-first flourish in Liga's safe world. But encounters with magical bears and the crusty dwarf challenge them to see a world beyond their mother's secure dreamscape. Eventually the younger one, Urdda, and subsequently her sister and Liga are drawn back into the real world in which cruelty, hurt, and prejudice abound. But it is also only there that they can experience the range of human emotion, develop deep relationships, and discover who they truly are. The opening chapters vividly portray the emotional experience of a boy's first sexual encounter, mind-numbing abuse by Liga's father, and a violent gang rape. It's heavy fare even for sophisticated readers, but the author hits all the right notes, giving voice to both the joys and terrors that sexual experience can bestow without saying more than readers need to know to be fully with the characters. While the story explores what it means to be human, it is at its heart an incisive exploration of the uses and limitations of dissociation as a coping mechanism. Beautifully written and surprising, this is a novel not to be missed.-Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA

Kirkus Reviews

Lanagan's debut U.S. novel after three spectacular short-story collections, including the Printz Honor-winning Black Juice (2005), scintillates, titillates and altogether wows. Her trademark linguistic gyrations bring life to this reimagined, utterly fresh take on "Snow White and Rose Red." When an unknown power grants Liga her own personal heaven after she is first abused by her father and then gang-raped, she unknowingly ruptures the reality of St. Olafred's. Weaving together multiple characters—Liga, her two daughters, several men transformed into bears by magic gone awry and more—this is ultimately a tale of how the finite worlds of experience bind the infinite worlds of possibility. The author creates worlds with a sure hand, incorporating magic as well as the mundane, ugly realities: jeering boys, poverty, gossip. Similarly, her characters are fully realized people who also fulfill their fairy-tale roles. By turns horrifying and ribald, witty and wise, this tour de force of a novel almost demands multiple readings to fully appreciate each of its layers. Not to be missed. (Fantasy. 15 & up)

Product Details

• Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt