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What a terrific read, charming and nostalgic on the adventures of childhood as with his delightful "The Cat's Table", and thrilling over the persisting dangers of past transgressions in the name of country, as in his “Anil’s Ghost.�� Here we have a narrator, Nathaniel, at far post-war perspective, recounting his shaken world after his parents disappeared on him and his sister in their adolescence in London right after World War 2, leaving them in the care of a shady character they call “The Moth��. When he was 14 and his sister Rachel 16 his father left their London home on some kind of business trip and later their mother packed a trunk and set out on an unspecified long trip, neither one returning or writing. Like a prestidigitator, this fictional memoirist gives us a menu of the messages his tale will convey:

In any case, I am now at an age where I can talk about it, of how we grew up protected by the arms of strangers. And it is like clarifying a fable, about our parents, about Rachel and myself, and The Moth, as well as others who joined us later. I suppose there are traditions and tropes in stories like this. Someone is given a test to carry out. No one knows who the truth bearer is. People are not who or where we think they are. And there is someone who watches from an unknown location.

SPOILERISH CONTENT HERE

I feel the need to share some sample windows on the author's writing talent and play with this kid's set-up. I reveal nothing about critical choices made by Nathaniel, and only hope to whether your appetite with some of the input his developing mind and morality is taking in.

The siblings�� imagination soon comes up with a guess that their parents are on some discreet mission related to their war efforts. The night-creature “friend�� of their parents moves into their home but assumes a loose guardianship. Until they go off to boarding school in the fall, they have incredible freedom. Rachel uses it to essentially run away from their limbo situation while Nathaniel applies himself to the solving of the mystery of his parent’s lives. He starts with trying to figure out what kind of person their caretaker is:

Let me admit there were times when I thought the Moth was dangerous. There was an unevenness to him. …The Moth breaking apart an order that should have existed safely in our house. You witness it when a child hears a joke that should be told only to an adult. This man we thought of as being quiet and shy now seemed dangerous with secrets.

The Moth invites Nathaniel to work with the company for which he manages banquets for, such as loading trucks and dishwashing in the kitchen. The man disappears for several hours each day, only sometimes in connection to a horseracing addiction. The vivid scenes of our hero amid the multicultural, polyglot community of workers capture his sense of wonder about the adult world and his ability to admire them for their common human core despite questionable morals or sanity. For example, a one point the crew at the massive dishwashing task breaks out into sexual bragging, and one man takes them aback over his tender tale of being initiated into lovemaking by his kindly middle-aged piano teacher:

Then the anecdotes about sex began, where words like “quim�� were used—and which involved sisters or brothers or mothers of best friends who seduced and educated youthful boys and youthful girls with a generosity and lack of ownership most of them would never witness in real life. The drawn-out, careful lessons of intercourse in all its varieties, described by Mr. Nkoma, a remarkable man who had a scar on his cheek, took the whole lunch break, and I would end up washing dishes and pots for the rest of the afternoon, barely recovering from what I’d heard.

Soon enough Nathaniel is in his own love story, and sweet it is in its time. Mum’s the word from me, so your enjoyment might be fresh.

Meanwhile, The Moth is hosting more and more gatherings of cronies, and the first hint of nefarious activities in his crowd comes to light:

At midnight I’d see the stairwell and living room brightly lit. Even at that hour the talk was never casual. There was always tension and inquiry over urgently needed advice. “What’s the most undetectable drug to give a racing dog?,�� was a question I heard once. For some reason my sister and I thought such conversations were not unusual. They felt familiar to how The Moth and our mother had once talked about their war activities.

At such gatherings we soon meet and come to spend time a man the siblings call “The Pimlico Darter��, a name based on his moniker from a boxing career in his youth. He gains their trust by quick, effective action during one of Rachel’s epileptic attacks. Nathaniel eventually takes work with him transporting “cargo�� around in small barges on the Thames and connected canals at night. I protect you from any knowledge of what that was about, but I do want to convey my total enchantment with these shady adventures and the sense of empowerment it provided and contributed to nurturing healthy self-development by Nathaniel.

The quest of Nathaniel’s to learn all about his mother’s life eventually makes some progress and takes a serious turn. Just when we are realizing there are no real enemies in this tale, a more adult reality suddenly takes form. The Moth tried to convey that to the pair at the beginning, warning them that they needed to be prepared for “schwer��, which in Mahler’s scores meant “difficult�� and “heavy��. Nathaniel felt at the time: “It was a strange warning to be given to accept that nothing was safe anymore.��

This blend of a warm-hearted atmospheric story about growing up with a darker morality play about the delayed consequences of family secrets felt masterful to me. This one if my favorite of five reads of Ondaatje’s his work so far (oddly missing his most acclaimed “The English Patient��).