The Newbery-winning fantasy series now available in gorgeous new paperback editions! Since The Book of Three was first published in 1964, young readers have been enthralled by the adventures of Taran the Assistant Pig-Keeper and his quest to become a hero. Binding: Trade Paperback ISBN: 0805080481 Luckily there are always tissues in my parents' kitchen.Alexander, Lloyd The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain Book 1)īook Condition: New Publisher: Square Fish, May 2006. The intensity of Taran's desire to belong somewhere, his endless wandering, was an echo of my deepest longings and fears. The structure of college gone, life suddenly loomed ahead shapeless and frequently grim I came home to a basement apartment in evenings and tried to write before falling into bed, to do the same thing again the next day.
I was in my early twenties, recently graduated from college, working as an administrative assistant in New York City and trying to write a novel at nights and on weekends without success. I have a vivid memory of rereading this book in my parents' kitchen in Jerusalem, on Friday night long after everyone had gone to bed, though the Shabbat candles were still burning. This journey soon becomes a quest for self-knowledge, as he asks himself, "Where do I belong?" The book carries Taran on a series of adventures but also to lands where craftspeople ply their trades, and he attempts to find the craft that will help him to feel that he, at last, belongs and knows who he is. Yet like all the Prydain books it is also plangent with humor, even at the darkest moments so that this year, when I reread the series for what may have been the tenth or twentieth time, I found myself laughing aloud constantly on the subway despite knowing the lines almost by heart.īy far the hardest of the books to relate to as a child was Taran Wanderer, in which Taran ventures out into the world to learn who his parents are. But then I reached The Black Cauldron, the second of the series and a book which is almost unbearable in its beauty and profound loss. The Book of Three is a romp-it was cute, was the verdict of my determined-to-be-sophisticated teenage self, but I carried on because we lived in Jerusalem and I had no new books to read. And it's true sometimes he can be, with characters occasionally saying things like, "For each of us comes a time when we must be more than what we are." Whatever, said my teenage self with an eyeroll. Lloyd Alexander was preachy, I decided as I reread the first book, The Book of Three.
I felt very superior when I began rereading them as a teenager. Perhaps that is a reason the books keep their relevance over decades, or have for me.
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