The Endfixer by Noemi Vola
(2018) is a showcase for Noemi Vola’s imagination. At the debbie bibo agency
website, we learn that Vola “draws almost all of her illustrations with felt
tip pens”. This is apparent in the pictures but doesn’t detract from the laugh-out-loud
ideas she portrays. There are two-page spreads and single page pictures. Multiple blocks fill other pages so as much
silliness as possible can be crammed into one short story.
The first page says
that an end fixer “is someone who fixes the ends of stories”. Yet this initial
illustration shows tools of a carpenter: hammer, hard hat, saws, ruler, wrench,
etc. Notice two types of end fixers are referenced here, the literary and the
concrete. Across several pages, Vola lists her complaints with familiar literary
endings. What follows is a multitude of alternatives: become invisible, turn
back time, go to the moon, and other hilarious options. In the end, she
surrenders to the carpenters (with even more comedic drawings).
I received this
book from the Picture Book Club.
The copyright page has the story first published in Portuguese as Fim? The
book was published under license from a company in Portugal and then published
in North America in 2024 by an Australian company. Neomi Vola’s Artist page
says she was born in Northern Italy. Rosa Churcher Clarke translated the book, but
I don't know from what language it was translated.
