Mancala Moon
Poignant and ethereal, the fantasy novel Mancala Moon follows a man’s quest for intergenerational understanding in the mysterious woods.
With hints of magical realism, Asa Bowers’s fantasy novel Mancala Moon follows a young man finding who he is while unraveling past generations’ lineage of grief, failure, and fear.
Two years after his parents died, Micah is living with constant grief and melancholy. After missing a job interview and struggling to find reprieve, he comes across documents from his mother proving that all the men on Micah’s paternal side died before the age of forty under various circumstances. She theorized a generations-long, untraceable curse.
Meanwhile, Micah is besieged by dreams of meeting with his father and grandfather in the forest, “where the veil grows thin.” In spite of the dangers and strange occurrences noted on hiking and forestry message boards, Micah decides to answer this calling, hiking into ancient, unknowable nature, uncertain of what he will find or if he will ever come back.
The pain that Micah experiences and his subsequent numbness to cope with his loss are on unflinching, poignant display at the beginning of the novel. It details minutiae as of untended dishes, unanswered calls, and unpaid bills. He also cycles back to his past mistakes and missed opportunities. In sharp contrast to this dreariness, the forest is fleshed out as a verdant place, full of life older than history and brimming with mystery and unyielding fog. The only living creature that Micah comes across is a fox, which acts as his guide; it exhibits preternatural intelligence.
The forest itself receives a starring role in the book, seeping into each element of the storyline with deliberate, inexplicable beauty. The forest seems not to exist in a human realm, as the light, stars, and even the trees eschew the laws of nature. Its uncanny tranquility backdrops Micah’s travels to his undetermined destination.
Micah’s experiences are resonant. In the forest, he receives a multitude of visions from his ancestors who express desperation, or who chose the easy way out instead of more difficult paths. Although some threats repeat, as do some bits of information and elements of people’s previous experiences, the emotions and messages of these visions are poignant. Indeed, the frustrations and revelations that Micah is party to result in newfound understanding and compassion. As he learns what it means to overcome his family’s past and honor the men who came before him for who they were, the novel proves satisfying.
An enthralling fantasy novel, Mancala Moon is about a man undoing the metaphorical and spiritual barriers that held a family back.
Reviewed by
Natalie Wollenzien
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