PHALAINA

A British naturalist’s young daughter draws seekers benign and decidedly otherwise in this French import.

In a tale with a powerful premise despite notably ragged execution, Manon, who is mute and described as resembling people with albinism, spends seven years in a convent orphanage in London while both her father’s killer and her mother’s secretive folk search for her. Her name is based on a French pun that is pointed out twice but doesn’t work in English. As Manon’s true nature is gradually revealed through her father’s letters to his great friend Charles Darwin, the pursuit finally comes close enough to send her fleeing into the streets to take refuge with Molly, a bighearted street poet with a loyal and unusually intelligent dog. Readers are likely to feel whipsawed, as the barrage of very short chapters brings frequent changes in scene, point of view, and tone. Several victims are killed and mutilated in gruesomely explicit detail; Molly and even the dog also narrate, sometimes to comical effect. The thoroughly demonized bad guys—who want Manon as a scientific specimen and key to her father’s vast fortune—are pitted against pursuers who, due to parallel evolution, look human(ish) but have very different ancestors and intimate connections with the natural world. Brière-Haquet folds in some topical themes as she steers events to a soaring climax and forced but tidily happy ending. Both the omniscient narration and other characters use demeaning language in reference to Manon’s eyes and skin, and her characterization evokes common disability tropes. Everyone presents as White.

Passionate but patchy in execution.