THE CRANE HUSBAND by Kelly Barnhill – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
Published by Tordotcom on February 28 2023
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 128
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Surreal and heart-wrenching, The Crane Husband is a short but emotional tale of trauma and survival.

“My mom was sleeping with a crane who was sometimes a man. Or a man who was sometimes a crane. My mom was sleeping with a person who hit her. Both of these things felt too awful—too wrong—to talk about. So who would I tell? There was no one to tell. So I told no one.”

With The Crane Husband, Kelly Barnhill has imagined a magical, heartbreaking retelling of the Japanese folktale, The Crane Wife. I was mesmerized by this story and read it in one sitting, I simply could not stop reading. Barnhill’s beautiful prose and sobering themes combine into a very special story about family ties, art, cruelty and transformation.

The story is narrated by an unnamed fifteen year old girl and takes place over several harrowing months. One day, the girl’s mother brings home a crane dressed in their father’s old shoes and asks her children to call him “Father.” The crane looms over their mother, threatening her with its sharp beak and claws, but the mother is besotted with the crane and doesn’t seem to notice.

As the days stretch out and the crane refuses to leave, the mother and the crane hide inside the mother’s art studio, where she weaves beautiful tapestries out of sheep’s wool and found objects. But something is wrong. The mother isn’t eating, and there are bruises and cuts all over her body. No matter what the girl says to her mother, she refuses to face the truth of her situation. And so the girl must do what she can to save the family herself. 

First off, The Crane Husband deals with spousal abuse, in case you haven’t figured that out, so do be aware if that’s a trigger for you. The crane in the story is one of the most unsettling creatures I’ve read about in some time. From the moment it makes an appearance, there is a sense of unease that continues throughout the entire story. The crane can’t speak (although he does wear clothes), and yet he’s menacing in the way he nips the mother’s neck, drawing blood, or the way his long claws grab her arm. Sadly, the mother doesn’t act like this behavior is unusual or wrong, and she ignores the blood and scratches. When her daughter confronts her and tries to get her to kick the crane out of the house, she denies he’s hurting her. We later find out she isn’t the first woman in her family to suffer this kind of abuse, and so the cycle continues. 

Barnhill’s world is an unusual mix of a near-future landscape with a fairytale sensibility. The setting is an old farmhouse on the edge of a vast field of cloned corn that is strictly monitored by a “conglomerate” that keeps people and animals out with attack drones. On the other hand, you have more down-to-earth details like the mother’s beloved sheep, who live in the barn and supply the wool for her tapestries, and the day-to-day banality of the girl and her brother having to attend school. It might sound like an odd mix of elements, but it worked. 

In flashbacks, we meet the girl’s father, who has died, but who taught his daughter everything she needed to know to survive: how to run the household, balance the books, pick locks, even shoot a gun. I loved his relationship with his daughter, who unfortunately has the weight of the world on her shoulders since the crane came along, as the mother has basically checked out and is neglecting her children. I admired the daughter so much for her determination to keep her family from falling apart.

The author adds in surprising moments of cruelty and horror, but there’s also beauty in The Crane Husband. The mother’s otherworldly tapestries seem to have the power to transform the viewer, and she is known far and wide for her meticulous work. There is a moment near the end of the story where the mother finally rises above the abuse she’s been suffering, and it was simply lovely.

The story ends on a melancholy note, as the crane’s awful presence sends ripples throughout the lives of the family, years into the future. And yet, there’s also a feeling of peace and hope. This is a powerful and memorable story that should not be missed.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.