The Word Trove

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Pub Date 1 Jan 2021 | Archive Date 30 Apr 2021

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Description

“A literary masterpiece about language – imaginative, moving and wonderfully original!”, recommended by the editorial team at Tolino Select

In this book you meet ‘a word’ that has lost its meaning. On its fantastic journey through the world of language, it attempts to rediscover its meaning all on its own.

“There are thousands of paths for you to take. Recognising the path that gives you meaning is the greatest challenge of all.”

A magical tale about language – wonderful, poetic and profound!

"Saying the right words at the right time is like magic."

“Elias Vorpahl tells a story of seeking and finding, of courage, curiosity and self-confidence. He writes of growing beyond oneself and of seeing one’s own world through different eyes. He doesn’t just tell this tale with wonderful words but with much humour and imagination. If you’re looking for a book that makes you happy and puts a smile on your face, "The Word Trove" is just the thing!”, writes Jazzie on LovelyBooks.de

“A literary masterpiece about language – imaginative, moving and wonderfully original!”, recommended by the editorial team at Tolino Select

In this book you meet ‘a word’ that has lost its meaning. On...


Advance Praise

"An imaginative and powerfully eloquent world of wonder that left me speechless!" – Vorablesen.de


"This book is a little miracle." – Süddeutsche Zeitung


"A clever, tender book with beautiful illustrations and a whiff of Alice in Wonderland." – LovelyBooks.de

"An imaginative and powerfully eloquent world of wonder that left me speechless!" – Vorablesen.de


"This book is a little miracle." – Süddeutsche Zeitung


"A clever, tender book with beautiful...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9783000665431
PRICE £16.99 (GBP)

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Average rating from 37 members


Featured Reviews

I loved the concept of this and the language used throughout.

It was very informative and an idea that I don’t think I’ve read before, meeting ‘a word’ that’s lost it’s ‘meaning’. How original! I had my reservations about this as it’s not normally a genre I go for but I really enjoyed it.

The various paths one word can take you down and the change in meaning if used in certain mannerisms etc.

I do think it could have been doing with being a little longer but other than that, I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more from Elias!

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Quirky and wonderful!

This book is so unique. I loved the story if the word. I loved the word play and seeing meaning and connections throughout the book.

I smiled throughout the book. And to find that it is translated from German adds another level of wonder....to be able to write such a clever book based on linguistics that can be translated from one language to another without losing the humour is certainly an achievement.

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Every so often an author has an idea and it is one so novel that you read the first few chapters and instantly start making lists of people you want to buy copies for. Imagine my delight when I saw that the book is due to be published here in the uk before Christmas!
This is a short, whimsical tale for anyone who loves a beautifully crafted story and for anyone who simply loves words. The ultimate fairy story with an edge of danger and darkness like the traditional European tales of old (no Disney princesses here thank goodness!) and also a mystery story. I spent the whole book trying to guess Words name but ultimately failed despite the author offering clues. At times I felt like a child again, not entirely sure of the literary landscape and of not being on level footing something the adult reader tends to lose as they spot formulas, tropes, tricks and plot devices in the books they read. I was glad The Mad was a character because I felt the same as I did when I first read Alice to myself many moons ago.
I have always loved using older words (I refuse to say outdated) hitherto-fore being a favourite and from now on I shall make sure The Wise old Wherefore is remembered, and written down by this human. Though now I feel a pang of guilt every time I use brackets and I can’t even let my head go to what happens when words are spoken aloud.
I was very glad to see at the end of the book a note from the translator and how they’d tackled the very tricky problem of not just translating something verbatim but keeping the sense of word play and grammatical detail as fun and creative as in the original German. If only my GCSE level German was sufficient for me to read the original too!
Read this book and buy it for the wordie in your life.

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4 stars

I really enjoyed reading this book, loved the concept and the writing style. The book could have been longer as there were scenes that I felt were rushed. I also don’t know how to feel about the end of the story. I enjoyed this novel, it was an original story of a word that has lost its meaning, exploring our language the meaning and importance for us. I’m so glad I gave this book a go!

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I received an advance copy of this via NetGalley. Thank you.
Wow. As a lifetime lover of words and word play, it was an honour to go on this adventure with a word, from her origin, being spoken (not a pleasant experience) and on her travels, meeting words, idioms, forgotten words, nonsense and danger.
There are echoes of Wonderland, Oz, Narnia, Disc-world, the Galaxy and The Phantom Tolbooth in this tale, as well as strong feelings of familiar traditional fairy tales.
There are several messages within this book. My main take away is the importance of the right words at the right time.

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🌌 How wonderful it is to surf through some other world, may it be a wonderfully created fairy world or a parallel universe or maybe an animal kingdom. We have witnessed all of this type of world in books and films at several points of time. But we are yet to know the world of words. And here is a book I recently read which introduces to the most astonishing world of words - The world of language.

📖'The Word Trove' is Elias Vorpahl 's Debut novel. The book is originally in German which was translated to English by Romy Fursland.

🌬️The book starts with a story of a Word, which is loudly read by a human which in return makes the word forget it's meaning. And this incident accidentally sends the Word on an unknown yet an interesting journey through the world of language to find its meaning. Let's see where it leads too. How cool is this?

💌I loved how the writer has chosen the theme. He has beautifully written about how words are afraid of being loudly read by humans, and how they enjoy being a part of the song or how they feel of being out of use and he also tried to represent the unbreakable yet important relationship between a human and language.

🎎The author has established the characters, situations and the surroundings very nicely. It must have been difficult to select the names as it was important to carry the meaning of their name along with the story. I also loved the part of the book where the author has mentioned how deaf people do conversation.

🧧The language of the book is simple and easy to understand. You will find some Archaic words. As you can see the wonderful cover of the book, but that is not the only illustration. There are many more wonderful illustrations inside the book. I will really like to appreciate Julia Stolba and Lena Toschka for the wonderful cover and the illustrations.

📢There are a few very beautiful lines which I have quoted below.

1️⃣"There are thousands of paths for you to take. Recognising the path that gives you meaning is the greatest challenge of all."

2️⃣"Saying the right words at the right time is like magic."

🗣️This must be for the first time that I wished that this book should have been a bit longer, I wanted to read it more. Overall I loved the book very much and do recommend this to every reader. You can buy the book from Amazon.

🥳At Last, I will Thank Netgalley and Iron Bird Publishing for the eARC of the book. And Yes, I would love to have a physical copy of this. 😅😅

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This is a contemporary fiction that focuses on a central character called Word who goes on a self-discovery journey.

In an alternate world where different words live together in harmony like pages in a book. Word has a terrible argument with his father and while at his best friend's house, Deaf. He gets shouted out loud by a human and looses himself. Unknown and alone he goes on adventure to find himself.

Elias Vorpahl, the author has written it beautifully by using personification of the different words and metaphors to highlight the importance of using the right word correctly.

I thought this book was absolutely amazing. I loved how it was written and the character developments. It had an Alice in Wonderland vibe, whereby Alice went to Wonderland and had an adventure. I also liked how each chapter had a title with a black and white picture sketched.

I think it's an amazing debut and I would be looking forward to reading more books by the same author.

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Thank you, NetGalley and Iron Bird Publishing for the opportunity of reading this unique story.

I absolutely loved this from the idea in the synopsis to the execution. I was expecting to enjoy this as much as I did.

This was a quick and beautiful read about a word who has lost her meaning. I thought it sounded a little odd but my the idea behind it intrigued me. This book was magic from start to finish, even if I did struggle reading a certain chapter.

A stunning book and a must-read.

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The Word Trove follows a word who has forgotten her name and is on a quest to find its meaning. That premise alone hooked me!

“Some stopped at the little stalls where jewellers sold silver tongues and golden silences, and confectioners peddled vox popcorn and sugar-coated truths.”

The best thing about The Word Trove would definitely be the writing… and The Word Trove is a translated work (German to English) so I am even more impressed. There are so many metaphors used as well as puns and wordplay which made me crack up. We have a city called “Langwich” where the “Linguistic Games” are held, with “buttered toast, syllable salve and verbal tea”. If you appreciate witty humour, then The Word Trove is definitely for you.

The Word Trove also explores many different aspects of language cleverly. I particularly enjoyed the metaphor for archaic words and will be adopting the word “wherefore” now… and the role of brackets was so ingenious!

"Personally, I like changing my suits eleven times a day, doing somersaults and making sure the hares don’t get too bored."

This book had a huge “The Journey” trope, in fact, it was the essence of the plot. At first, it felt like the word was simply wandering around aimlessly, however, after a while, I quickly began to appreciate the path she took, especially the other words she met along the way.

The personalities of the different words were intriguing to read about, and I love the references to classic folktales like Watership Down and Alice in the Wonderland. Mad was one of the most hilarious characters ever!

Another aspect of the Word Trove I enjoyed immensely would be that of stories. The Word Trove touches on the meaning of stories to words, how they help words be remembered and I absolutely treasured the moment where our little word got to experience a story for the first time. It was magical and reminded me how much I loved reading.

My only criticism is that this book felt way too short because there were so many other areas that could have been explored, plus the ending was a bit too abrupt.

Overall, The Word Trove was a short but beautiful read, a great reminder of how much words matter to us and a clever take on their life. I would definitely recommend this love letter to language!

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Iron Bird Publishing for an ARC of The Word Trove!

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This was such a beautiful read! It was so unexpected and strange but in the best way. I love words and this was such a fun ride through words and their myriad meanings.

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I didn't really know what to expect from this very short book with a rather concise but intriguing blurb and a fascinatingly bookish cover. I'm pleased to say, I quite enjoyed it. There were times when I was left a bit muddled but for the majority of the novel it was an interesting adventure of a 'word'. This is a translated novel orginally published in German, but I think the translator has done a very good job of finding a way to keep the true essence and meaning of this story while changing up parts of the journey to match the flare of literature in the original.
The Word Trove is quite similar in a way to a story told by Lewis Carroll and contains an ode of sorts to the Mad Hatters Tea Party.
It's an imaginative fairy tale of a story full of excitement and light peril. I would definitely recommend this novella to fans of joyful and whimsical tales.

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As many others have spoken about, this book is a really original concept and is jam-packed with word play and witty puns. I am reviewing this from a translation perspective and it really is a masterclass in the art form. The humour is retained and changes have been made from the original German to make this work beautifully in English.

I spoke to the translator Romy Fursland for the World Kid Lit blog. Here are a couple of quotes from Romy's interview:

"The book is full of puns, wordplay, intertextual references and imaginative surprises. It’s a great read for anyone who loves thinking about words and the amazing lives they lead!"

"At the heart of The Word Trove there’s a kind of joyous fascination with the way words work and the games you can play with language"

You can read the full interview on the World Kid L:it website: https://worldkidlit.wordpress.com/2021/01/13/the-word-trove-by-elias-vorpahl/.

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This book is wonderful, it is so different which makes it hard to review. All I can say is that everyone should read this book - it has echoes of the Phantom Tollbooth and I can see me now buying it and giving it to everyone I know to relish and enjoy themselves.

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Adored this book. A chance encounter with vocal cords leaves us with a word who has forgotten her meaning. We journey with her thorough the realms of langwich and meat a whole host of well drawn word characters who help or hinder her on her way. Gorgeous tributes to Alice in Wonderland and Watership Down (among others). Beautiful metaphors and a real focus on storytelling, accompanied by excellent wordplay and witty puns. Perfect for people who love language and clearly a real labour of love from the author.

My only criticism is that the end felt a bit abrupt and I would have like it to be a bit more substantial not to mention slightly more clearly explained. Would have loved this to be longer as well.

Hard to tell on a review kindle copy, but the illustrations look gorgeous and I’ll be buying in print to get a better look.

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I cannot put into words how much I adored this book. I only wished I had the same incredible grasp on language that the author has! The Word Trove is so magical and yet so hard to explain. There is a reason that the book blurb is so concise. I know the premise sounds weird, but the uniqueness of this book is what makes it truly special.

I loved the meta element of this story – a book filled with words, telling a story about a word, and giving the message about the importance of words and how words are wasted by the humans that speak them. It sounds confusing, but this whimsical story is so smart in what it does.

I really enjoyed the Linguistic Games and how it incorporated stories inside of the story, and it was really special to see references to other beloved books.

And, when I didn’t think I could be any more impressed, I learn that this book has been translated from German which makes the use of language even more incredible.

All I can really say is that this book was so strange but in the most perfect way.

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I could not decide what I thought of this book - it was quirky and almost eccentric. I found it hard to get into initially but from the middle was drawn in and enjoyed it. I was not sure about the ending though!

This is the story of a word who has lost her meaning. You follow her on her journey through the world of language as she seeks to find it. I liked the quiet humour and particularly enjoyed exploring Langwich and the Linguistic Games. It was lovely when the word got to use her imagination to tell her own story. I also liked the concept of the pleasure the words experienced from singing.

Lots to enjoy in this book but I would have liked a different ending.

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This was a unique novel and story, like nothing I have every read! I am planning on reading to my children, I think they will absolutely love its whimsy and storytelling!

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This is a really good read, geared more to the young it is a very interesting take on the use of language. I would certainly recommend to my younger learners. Thanks to the author, publishers and Netgalley for this ARC. Much appreciated

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A fantastic concept for a book. I really enjoyed Elias Vorpahl’s style of writing. Highly recommended.

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This was such a unique story, I don’t think i’ve ever read something quite like this before. The author has done a great job not only with weaving this heartfelt tale but also writing it in a way that makes it so visual.

The world building obviously takes the win in this book, it’s so unique and intriguing. How do *words* view the world? This book shows you how and is such a clear way. From linguistics to “culture” within this world was so superbly presented to us. We follow the “word” as it tries to learn its meaning and encounters challenges within this world. I’d say the writing style itself also fit the themes and atmosphere of the content really well, so it was easier for me to imagine the character as a unique and distinct one, so points on that aspect as well. Last but not least, THE ART!!!!! i love when books provide art, its immaculate.

All that said, there are certain things I didn’t love about the book, first of all was the side plot with “lust”, it felt irrelevant in regards to this setting of the story and the book would have been so much better without that aspect. Yes it created conflict but that did not move the story forward, the conflict itself felt as if it was done for the sake of it instead of it impacting the story and character. That’s almost it that i can say i disliked specifically, but i simply did not enjoy this genre, and nor the book. It didn’t impact me, make me invested in the sense emotionally obsessed or well, it didn’t make me *feel*. My reading experience with this was, “okay cool book, cool premise, that happened, this happened, lets move on”.

So while i did not particularly enjoy this book, it will also be an injustice to this book and author to say this book was bad, this time it just boiled down to my taste, so I’ll definitely recommend this to people, bc well you might like it!!!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

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I fell in love with this book. It was different to anything else I’ve read in a while and it was wonderful.

The book is so whimsical and I love all the literalness, connections to humans, and the intricacies of word-life.

The art is incredible. The book reminded me in a lovely way of The Phantom Tollbooth crossed with the Sylvia Cycle.

The way Deaf communicates fascinated me with <spoiler> literally choosing his words and them saying their names to form sentences. </spoiler>

The Alice in Wonderland esque adventures were so fun and it was complete with a mad word tea party!

Chapter 10 has a really interesting textual play on Babel, but a quick warning for dyslexics, it might be a difficult chapter to read.

Also, I was amazed at the translation work! I never would have guessed this was a translation from German. The translator, Romy Fursland, is incredible and seamless.

All in all, a five star, whimsical and delightful read for anyone who loves words.

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A whimsical tale of a word, on her journey of discovery to establish just who she is. I loved the cast characters she met on her way, and the clever literary links to classical texts. Plenty of puns and clever wordplay too, lightening the ominous warning that words are easily forgotten and overlooked, losing their place in the world. One for a day-dreamy kind of day rather than a logical mood, but beautiful nonetheless.

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This book was so great! I love books about words and books and this one started with a quotation of one of my most favourite authors - and it eventually turned out to be a story within a story?! Perfection!
Since the english language uses only one article, I can imagine this being confusing for native english speakers - matter of fact, how do you find out whether or not a word is male or female in English?
Besides that, the book was so well written and amazingly well told. I sucked in every word on that page and I was excited to figure out the Word's journey to find herself. The ending was beautiful and magical and I had to smile when I reached the end.
It was a great, refreshing read and I love this book very much. It's among my comfort reads now because it has an adorable way of dealing with disabilities and "otherness".
Like books by Michael Ende, this one is timeless and can - and should - be read by children and adults alike.
Everyone can learn a lesson or two from reading this book, no matter their age.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this book.

It's the story of a word who loses her meaning and ends up on a quest to find it again before the Brackets hunt her down and she's lost forever. There are so many fascinating things in this story, one of my favourites being the Linguistic Games.

The reason I'm 50/50 about this story is because there were parts where I was really drawn in, but there were also large sections where I found myself annoyed because it felt like the author was showing off how smart and meta they were and it was impacting the story. I can tell you for sure that this author was (not at all subtly) influenced by Alice in Wonderland, Watership Down, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Little Prince, and The Neverending Story. The problem is that The Word Trove at times feels more like all of these things cobbled together than a story in its own right. I think the idea and parts of the world were really interesting and unique, and for that I give it the two and a half stars, but to be honest, it was trying so hard to be these other books that it felt like the unique story of this lost word got a little lost itself in the attempted cleverness of the writer.

*However*, because this book is a translation, I'm giving it an extra half star as the benefit of the doubt as I know stories are almost always richer in the language they were written in. The half star extra is also a nod to the beautiful illustrations (though, once again, they reminded me strongly of Neverending Story)

If you've never read the books I mentioned above, you might find the Word Trove interesting and unusual (hopefully in a good way!), but if you've read the above titles, much of this story feels borrowed from them anyway. The author's writing voice is engaging and readable, but what really lets this book down is that it feels like the author can't help showing off their own cleverness at the expense of the story. If the author wrote another book in which they focused on the storytelling and the characters more, I would have no problems giving it a chance.

(I received a free copy of this title from Net Galley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions here are my own.)

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