Some critics are now calling author Cornelia Funke the German J.K. Rowling, and Cornelia Funke's youth oriented novel The Thief Lord goes a long way toward justifying that praise.
The Thief Lord is a beautifully told and 'magical'
story in every sense of the word . . . two stories really that fold neatly into each other.
The primary story of The Thief Lord is about a small group of
children, initially just a girl and two younger boys, all
orphans and runaways, who have been living in an abandoned movie
theatre in Venice. The nominal leader of the group is the oldest, a girl who is only known as Hornet. Their theatre home and all the bare necessities of their lives are being provided for them by another child named Scipio who calls himself the Thief Lord. The Thief Lord comes and goes as he pleases, never staying the night in the theatre, and when he comes he brings
stolen merchandise and wonderful stories of the mansions and palaces he has robbed. To earn their keep, all the Thief Lord asks the children to do is to take the stolen goods to Barbarossa, a disreputable antique dealer who acts as their 'fence.'
Two new arrivals to the Thief Lord's gang of orphans are central characters in the story, they are 12-year old Prosper and 5-year old
bo; brothers who have run away from their grandfather's home in Germany. Prosper and Bo's mother died and their fate was in the hands of their Aunt Esther; they ran away to Venice when they found out that their Aunt Esther had plans to split up the brothers by adopting Bo and sending Prosper off to a boarding school.
The brother's Aunt is certain that the boys are in Venice, because their mother loved Venice and regaled them with stories of its beauty, so she hires an American private detective who lives in Venice, Victor Getz, to find them. The tenacious Victor does indeed find the boys and the movie theatre and the rest of the small gang but that's only part of what he finds . . . he finds the real identity of The Thief Lord and changes the relationship between the Thief Lord and the orphans.
As this initial story proceeds, a second story unfolds. During the children's next visit to Barbarossa, to sell some of the Thief Lord's plunder, he gives them a message for the Thief Lord: an anonymous Italian Count want's the Thief Lord to steal a particular item for him and is offering a very generous price for its delivery. This leads to a clandestine meeting between the Count and The Thief Lord and, eventually, to the home of a famous photographer who possesses the item that the Count wants stolen. The photographer's name is Ida Spavento and the item to be stolen for such a handsome price is something that, to the children, seems worthless: a broken, wooden wing.
All the children, as well as the Thief Lord become involved in the robbery and once again the adage that 'too many cooks spoil the broth' proves itself to be true. The very noisy, disorganized robbery is interrupted by Ida Spavento herself who is somewhat taken aback by the sight of all these small thieves. When she learns what they are after she begins to understand this mysterious Count's motive for wanting the broken wing and she tells the children a story she heard when she was herself only a child. The story involves a carousel that was stolen from an orphanage -- a carousel that is said to have magical properties. Together, Ida and the orphans hatch a plot to follow the Count and discover the location of the missing, perhaps magical carousel.
The story of The Thief Lord has many satisfactory endings: mysteries are solved, wishes are granted, the brothers are together and a unique brand of justice is dispensed to a deserving few.
More reviews about the The Thief Lord