The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin Maker

Matilda Woods's The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin Maker is a gentle, magical story for 11 year olds about a lonely old man who catches a starving boy stealing his porridge.

What happens

In Allora, fish leap from the waves and flop down on the cobbles. (A giant sea bass smacks into Alberto's kitchen window in the second chapter.) Alberto lives in the highest house on the hill, just below the graveyard. He's the town's coffin maker.

He wasn't always. He was a carpenter who built toys for his three children at night. Then a sickness came to Allora and took his wife and children, and Alberto made their coffins himself. That was thirty years ago. He's been alone ever since, chatting away to the dead in his workshop because nobody else visits.

Then food starts going missing from his kitchen. A sandwich. A stew. Half a wheel of his favourite cheese. The thief is a thin boy called Tito, with a crooked-winged bird called Fia whose feathers shine gold, turquoise and blue. And Tito has a face Alberto has seen before, on a woman he buried five weeks ago.

The loveliest part is how slowly Alberto wins him over. He leaves porridge in the garden and waits. He guesses silly names (Teresa!) until Tito laughs out loud. Soon Tito is learning the names of different woods and says he wants to be a coffin maker too. It's very warm and very sad at the same time.

There's plenty of fun as well. The mayor orders a square coffin in rare golden oak and is crushed to find the wood isn't actually gold. The gossiping Finestra sisters next door hang out of their window to see who's calling on Alberto.

Death is everywhere in this book, so that's good to know before you start. The first chapter is the plague taking Alberto's children one by one, told as backstory from thirty years before. Tito's mum has died just before the story begins, and there are bodies laid out in the workshop throughout. It's all gentle and never gory. Still, a child who's recently lost someone may find it lands close to home.

For a reader who doesn't mind a bit of sadness, it's a lovely story about two lonely people finding each other. Who could resist a boy and a bird turning up just when they're needed?

What to read next

For another Matilda Woods story, try The Girl, the Cat and the Navigator. It's set in Nordlor, an icy northern village built from sunken ships that still rock at night.