Book: THE CAPITAL OF DREAMS
Character Name: The Goose
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
My family hardly paid any attention at all. I could have been any goose to crack out of the egg. I knew I was different. But my family alas, did not know I was different. It was muddy. I do remember that. So much mud. So much squawking.
What was your greatest talent?
I consider myself to be a public intellectual. I think public speaking is something I am gifted at. I believe I could only truly feel myself when I am in front of a crowd of a thousand people.
Significant other?
I belong to a human child. That was my ambition. I did not want anything to do with other geese. I was laughed at on the farm. They said you are not a dog, you cannot acquire a child. But I knew I would. So I found a lost one on the side of the road. A very posh erudite child from the city. I wanted a well-to-do child, who would have a similar vocabulary to me.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Accepting that your partner is going to make idiotic choices. That moment when you look at them and think, with all the billions of people in the world, how did I end up with such a random lunatic? No matter how much you love a person, this thought is bound to cross your mind. And it’s how you answer it that determines the nature of the relationship.
Where do you live?
I am itinerant now. I am without a home. I am on a voyage. I have no permanent address. Perhaps the whole of Elysia is my home.
Do you have any enemies?
Everyone is my enemy, unless proven otherwise.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
Is it strange to dislike a place you have spent your entire life. Other geese would say, How do you know you hate the countryside, if you have only ever lived in the countryside.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I don’t like this question. How can anyone “have” a child. They are born free, I believe. Anyways in theory in some places. And the idea of “pet” is particularly offensive to me. I don’t think animal companions should be regarded as property, but as equals.
But to answer your question, No.
What do you do for a living?
I consider myself a writer. I have yet to publish. But my country is under occupation, and nothing from the original inhabitants of Elysia is allowed to be published. There will be a great literary revival once this war is over. I intend to be a part of it.
Greatest disappointment?
The day I tried to recite a manifesto I had been working on, the other animals at the farm laughed. They told me I was a fool and pretentious, and that I didn’t know my place in the world. It was after that that I decided to leave the farm. I headed towards the Capital and I met Sofia along the way.
Greatest source of joy?
When Sofia talks to me about the future. It’s quite remarkable how a child can believe a glorious future is on the horizon when things are falling apart all around you. I adore when she talks about the Black Market and all the delicious things we will acquire there. Along with her mother’s lost manuscript, of course. I am looking forward to having a little bottle of ink with which to indelibly transcribe my thoughts.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
Listening to music. Especially the clarinet. I feel so calm when I hear the clarinet. It reminds me of the sound of my mother’s voice.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I can be too hard on Sofia. It’s my nature as a goose to sometimes loose it on people I respect. And give them too astute an analysis of their character. So I will admit to that. My temper.
What keeps you awake at night?
The idea of being eaten. Of course. It’s fascinating to me that a human would even ask this question. I suppose it comes from the privilege of being at the top of the food chain.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
Making it through this war alive. I want to see different countries. See the world. I have come to believe leaving Elysia altogether might be the best course of action for me. As long as I stay here, I will only ever be regarded as a goose. I hope to find a proper city that will consider me a proper
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
Yes, yes. I am in search of a lost manuscript. Sofia, my child, is convinced we might find it at the Black Market. So we are headed to the Black Market. To find this book and then be able to escape from the country.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
What is in the way? Are you quite silly? The war is in the way. Enemy soldiers. But also our own people have gone feral and mad. I don’t trust any man or boy. And I hardly trust any woman over the age of twenty. The only people I can trust are young girls. They are preposterous and misguided, but they can be loyal, can’t they?
From the hugely acclaimed author beloved by literary lights, including Emily St. John Mandel, Kelly Link, and Mona Awad, a dark dystopian fairytale about an idyllic country ravaged by war—and a girl torn between safety and loyalty.
Sofia Bottom lives in Elysia, a small country forgotten by Europe. But inside its borders, the old myths of trees that come alive and faeries who live among their roots have given way to an explosion of the arts and the consolations of philosophy. From the clarinetists to the cabaret singers, no artist is as revered as Sofia’s brilliant mother, the writer Clara Bottom. How can fourteen-year-old Sofia, with her tin ear and enduring love of ancient myths, ever hope to win her mother’s love?
When the country’s greatest enemy invades, and the Capital is under threat, Clara turns to her daughter to smuggle her new manuscript to safety on the last train evacuating children from the city. But when the train draws to a suspicious halt in the middle of a forest, Sofia is forced to run for her life and loses her mother’s most prized possession. Frightened and alone in a country at war, Sofia must find a way to reclaim what she has lost. On an epic journey through woods and razed towns, colliding with soldiers, survivors, and other lost children, Sofia must make the choice between kindness and her own survival.
In this stunning novel set in an imaginative world yet reflective of our own times, Heather O’Neill delivers a vivid, breathtaking dark fairytale of life, death, and betrayal.
Coming of Age | Fantasy [Harper Perennial, On Sale: January 7, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9780063425996 / eISBN: 9780063425989]
Heather O'Neill is a contributor toThis American Life, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine. She lives in Montreal, Canada.
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