Howl's Moving Castle

Author Name: Diana Wynne Jones

Neil Gaiman has described Diana Wynne Jones as the best children's author of the last forty years. Her novel, Howl's Moving Castle, was written in 1986 and has since become a cult classic, suitable for reading anywhere, anytime. Twenty years after its publication, it won the Phoenix Award in 2006. It was also adapted into a famous film by the creative director Hayao Miyazaki, which won the Mainichi Film Festival Award in Japan in 2004 and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006. The novel was beautifully translated by Buthaina Al-Ibrahim and published by Takween.

Howl's Moving Castle deals with several themes, most notably fate, aging, courage, and love. Sophie initially resigns herself to her fate as the eldest of her siblings, and sees no need to make any effort to change this fate. However, the witch has a different opinion, transforming Sophie into an old woman. She is then forced to go out in search of her luck, even though she is trying to find a cure that will restore her stolen youth.

Sophie had reordered Howl's world—and her own—ever since she first set foot in the castle, from cleaning the place to reawakening what time had extinguished in both Howl and herself. Sophie wasn't an epic figure, nor did she possess the supernatural powers that would fit into the wizarding world she'd stumbled into. But she did wonders with the little she had, and her little turned out to be a lot, a lot, as she brought the Scarecrow, the Firefly, and Howl himself back to life.