Dying to Know You by Aidan Chambers: book review

Dying to Know You (2011) is set in contemporary Great Britain, in the West Midlands. The narrator is a 75-year-old man, who is a writer. Throughout the novel, he is only known as ‘the author.’

The author receives a visit from 18-year-old Karl Williamson. Karl has a request. He would like the author to help him write emails to 17-year-old Fiorella Seabourne because he is in love with her, and the author is her favourite writer.

Fiorella has given Karl an ultimatum – to answer her 50+ questions in writing. That’s why he needs the author’s help. Karl is a plumber-in-training who likes rugby, fishing, chess, and cooking, but he is dyslexic and has a great deal of trouble writing. The author agrees to help Karl. Karl’s mother has suspicions about the author – why would he want to help her son?

After a few emails, Karl gains the confidence to ask Fiorella on a week-long camping trip to Ross-on-Wye. She agrees, and the first three days are blissfully happy for both of them. Until they have an argument. Karl is devastated, feels like a failure, and becomes so sick he goes home and is bedridden for weeks.

His mother confronts the author. Fiorella confronts the author. Karl is silent. From deep depression he suddenly gains energy, but locks himself in the garden shed – that he calls his workshop – but no-one knows what he is doing in there. Everyone seeks the help of the author. The author goes to the shed.

The author has a deep connection to Karl. They are both only sons. They have both lost a loved one: Karl’s father died when Karl was 12 years old, and the author’s wife, Jane, had died recently. The author says ‘What was true for Karl was true for me.’

But a shocking incident occurs and both Karl and the author end up in hospital.

Chambers writes in an easy-to-read style with short, abrupt sentences. It is a dialogue-based style with barely a description in the entire narrative. Yet the writing is quite impactful, revealing the frailty of both the young Karl and the older author and the emotions that bind them.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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