The Sea Wave (NetGalley)
Rolli
Guernica Editions/University of Toronto Press
Although a short 140 pages, Rolli’s The Sea Wave moves in and out, back and forth between two oversized stories: that of a young severely handicapped girl and her kidnapper, an elderly man. The twelve-year-0ld cannot speak and is confined to a wheelchair, yet her understanding of the world around her is keen, her mind, sharp. The elderly man who kidnaps her communicates (if it can be called that) by telling the girl stories 
of his time in a cell by the ocean. Whether it’s real or imagined is anybody’s guess–but since all Story includes some element of Truth, it soon becomes clear that the man’s time in that cell damaged him beyond repair.
So we get the girl’s description of their journey as he pushes her wheelchair through the countryside–a rough ride where she takes a few tumbles, faces the fear of being abandoned, and begins to feels the painful grip of hunger and thirst. But as she endures the ride, she recounts the isolation she felt at home, the shame she sees in her parent’s eyes when they look at her, the disgust on people’s faces when they encounter her. I’m guessing more than a few readers will cringe when the girl uncovers their own discomfort on meeting someone severely handicapped–and the irony is that we come to love this girl’s spunk, even as we understand we’d never get past her handicap to know her should we ever meet.
The Sea Wave is marketed as a flash fiction novel–and perhaps the man’s nightmarish recollections mirror the intense imagery for imagery’s sake of that short short-story form. But the girl’s narrative, while brief, is complete enough to stand as a novella. However you want to categorize it, Rolli’s The Sea Wave is a powerful read.
This is my symphony 