Ben Rubin’s dark fairytale, When Comes What Darkly Thieves, weaves a story of poetic strangeness.
The tale, told in the second person, begins with an explanation of how gypsies carry away children in sacks and take them from their homes and family. Later we are introduced to Zinganas, the blind king of gypsies who shows up at your door and finds you, despite your pitiful attempts to hide. He tricks you with the false promise of “what you wanted most”, then disappears in the night with the moonbeams from your eyes, leaving you alone to find your way back to them.
Colorful images—collages reminiscent of Cubist paintings and papier-mâché–accompany the tale, which will appeal to children, as well as adults. Each image is totally different from the one that precedes it, and perfectly mirror the spirit, narrative and emotional depth of the story.
Rubin’s story demonstrates how fear—any fear—can be paralyzing. It can be inferred that Zinganas represents doubt and lack of confidence: he is behind all of our doors and is the illusion of “what you wanted most.”
With the combination of poetic language and surreal art, Rubin leads the reader into a lovely, albeit eerie, cascade of content and context. When Comes What Darkly Thieves is an unusual type of fairytale, but its weirdness is its greatest strength.
Reviewed by Loren Kleinman for IndieReader