Plus, as a parable about the labor-saving and time-saving devices that are somehow multiplying our labor and stealing our time away, it is also a dangerous kind of book: a book that might make you stop and think.īy the way, there was an earlier English translation of this book, published as The Grey Gentleman. And it sends Momo on a quest to get them back again, a quest that will make your heart beat with excitement. It takes them away with a swiftness that will break your heart. It depicts beauty, goodness, friendship, and fun that will warm your heart. Such a poor little girl against such great and numerous enemies, and who does she have on her side but a strange old man and a tortoise with an LCD shell? When Momo’s listening skills enable her to see through – I mean hear through – the gray men’s scheme, she becomes their enemy in a conflict that could save or destroy time itself, and all life with it. The gray men are time thieves, swindling the good folk of Momo’s city – man, woman, and child – out of all their time for rest, joy, imagination, and friendship, and leaving them with nothing but hustle and bustle, worry and crabbiness. Boys and girls come to Momo’s amphitheatre to play, knowing that each game they invent while Momo is there will be better than the last.īut then the gray men come, men with gray cars, gray suits, gray briefcases, and gray cigars. Grown-ups come to her, pouring out their problems and their conflicts, and – without Momo saying a word – go away knowing what they have to do.

Momo is so good at listening that it almost qualifies as a magical gift.

And all she gives them in return is a listening ear. Her only food and home furnishings are things other people have brought her. In fact, Momo lives in the space under the stage of an old, ruined amphitheatre outside an unnamed Italian city. She does not live in an orphanage or foster home. Momo is the name of a little girl who has no parents or guardian.

And third, its setting and characters have the warmth and vitality of Italy and Italians viewed through the eyes of love. Maxwell Brownjohn, whom I take to be the same as John Brownjohn, translator of Mimus (by Lilli Thal) and other German-to-English marvels. Second, it comes to us in English through the very gifted J. First, it is a beautiful, thrilling, and thought-provoking fantasy conceived by a great storyteller. This tells you three very special things about this story.

The author of The Neverending Story wrote this book in the German language, while living in Italy.

Momo by michael ende