title: The Tower
author: Baker, Debra
description: Set in a time unknown and a place indiscernible, The Tower follows the story of an unnamed female character as she goes about her mundane life in an extraordinary world. Living inside a great and towering stone wall, she is invited away from her daily routine of cleaning the dirty kitchens and bathrooms of different people by a mysterious character called Shadow, who employs her as a rower for his boat. Together they set out on trips over the sea of fire which is encompassed by a stone wall, and the woman becomes more intrigued by the multiple stone towers that stand within the fiery sea: not least one tower, from which a piece of paper falls and lands in Shadow's lap. Yet as the woman's curiosity grows, the web of mystery tightens, and she finds herself in a confusing world where nothing is what it seems and nothing is predictable... The Tower is a challenging novel exploring themes of one's relationship with reality and the purpose and nature of identity in love. As a fantasy novel, it treats the concept of fantasy as one of its key issues, and looks at the paradoxical relationship between fantasy and reality: how much fantasy does one need in order to tolerate reality? Written in a combination of different literary styles, most notably utilising the stream of consciousness technique, The Tower explores the relationship between form and content in its portrayal of the relationship between the unnamed woman and man, between the woman and the girl Clarity, and the woman and her engagement with reality. This is at the same time a mysterious and fast-moving book, which reaches towards a climax of excitement towards the end. It is a first novel by a young writer with great talent and promise for the future.