Fans of Charles Dickens, particularly Oliver Twist, will feel right at home as Tinti writes about con artists, thieves, monks, grave robbers, questionable doctors, a kindly boarding house matron, a ruthless factory owner, a dwarf who lives in a chimney, and a giant who rises from the dead. And like Dickens, Tinti keeps her descriptions and sentences short, getting straight to what matters and leaving out the rest.

Such characters might sound like figments of a drunken sailor's imagination as he tells a tall tale in a seaside saloon after returning from a round-the-world voyage. And in some cases, some of the stories are just that, especially when they're told by Benjamin Nabb, the con artist and natural storyteller who adopts Ren. But this book is not science fiction. Like a magically realistic Latin American novel, all of the characters and events are grounded in reality, no matter how far-fetched they may sound.

Such plausibility is thanks partly to William Dufris, who narrates the audiobook. Dufris captures the voices of each distinct character and brings them all to life, whether it's letter-dropping New England "faamers", the slow-talking, deep-voiced giant named Dolly, the "mouse trap" girl with a lisp, the shouts of the hard-of-hearing boarding house operator, or the harsh, menacing tone of the factory owner. Dufris especially does a great job of portraying Ren's innocence while not making him sound too childlike. But like the fictional character Benjamin Nabb, Dufris rises to the challenge and delivers a story that would keep any sailor nailed to his seat for hours.

Best of all, Tinti keeps you guessing until the very last minute about how this book will end. And while you will probably not predict the ending, you believe every word. No easy task. Then again, Tinti's no ordinary writer. —Ken Ross