The Fifty Year Sword

Those who read Danielewski before, will be aware that his expansive realistic writing is simply unique in its kind. For those who have not read House of Leaves, this could be the very opportunity to get to meet easily with his border-seeking literature, that has already appealed to so many fans.

One late October evening at an East Texas
ranch, Chintana, a seamstress recovering from
a painful divorce, comes across a Story Teller
caped in shadow recounting for five orphans a
tale of unspoken revenge, a harrowing quest,
and a terrible sword which everyone soon
enough realizes waits before them concealed
in a long black box.
The children quickly understand the tale is but
prologue to crime. Yet it is Chintana who must
challenge the consequences of that blade’s
peculiar edge, which from hilt to point never
fails to sever, even if its terrors depend entirely
on time and malice.
Read aloud THE FIFTY YEAR SWORD will
captivate any child. Read alone the complexities
of nameless voices, misplaced narratives of
hate, and the horrors of delayed violence,
which only our retellings can rescue and restore,
will thrill and touch the sharpest reader.
Once again Mark Z. Danielewski challenges
how we authorize ourselves, mischievously
playing with layout, color and the wide potentials
of perspective in order to create a hugely
entertaining story about a sword none will forget
though some may recall encountering and
a few will even acknowledge wielding.