Cristina Neri, For Love, Lake Press Pty Ltd, April 2021, 32 pp., ISBN 9780655213611
For all the comforts they did not enjoy, their life was a happy one.
Carina and her father, Matteo tend their garden at the base of a ‘slumbering volcano’ each day. Matteo lovingly lifts Carina onto their donkey and leads them along a treacherous path to a terrace-walled garden that has all sorts of curiosities for a little girl.
As Carina investigates the garden that has been toiled by her family for generations, she wonders why the creatures exist. Matteo answers her the same way each time she asks, “For Love”. Carina is frustrated at the lack of elaboration.
When she falls into a prickly pear bush and grudgingly questions her father about its existence, she appeals to him to explain how everything, even the prickly pear can exist for love. Matteo explains that ‘without love, we are blind’ and all the creatures and calamities Carina experienced in the garden were an opportunity for her to enjoy pleasure, wonder or affection from her father.
This book is at first eye-catching for its unique artwork. With etching style illustrations in a limited palette of earthy colours, the book can be enjoyed for its visual appeal. Some pages are framed in neat oval or heart shapes and others spill out across the double page spread. Perspectives are also experimented with in the artworks, from bird’s eye views, or perhaps the bees that are buzzing around the garden, to Carina’s, her father’s and even us, the viewer, where in the final scene we see the retreating forms of Carina on her donkey and Matteo with the lead rope.
The language created by Crisitini Neri is beautifully evocative and rich in imagery. She has fashioned a delight for the senses in her description of Carina’s ‘humble’ home based on the island of Salina, Sicily. The ‘eternal sea’, ‘sleeping volcano’, the magical ‘retreating moon’, the ‘crisp fragrance of the wild fennel flowers’ and the ‘giant steps her mother had taken to get to heaven’ paint a picture of a much-loved ancestral home. An idea that is supported by the beating heart of the garden in tune with the thrusts of Matteo’s hoe, just like his forefathers before him.
This story is a celebration of the relationship between people and nature, both how the earth can connect us to our families long past and those we share its beauty within the present. It recognises the enduring love of father and daughter and the gratefulness and contentedness of just being together. I’d recommend this story for young readers and old, anyone who understands that it is love that helps us engage with the world and its beauties.
For Love has been shortlisted in the 2022 Book of the Year New Illustrator’s category.
Reviewed by Katie Mineeff
