Cornelia Funke's second stunning novel joins a body of literature that challenges the conventions of realistic fiction. Consider the premise that characters can jump from stories into real life and vice versa. Add to this fluidity the notion that the author can create an alternative ending to be read into the story. Inkheart is an intriguing, fast-paced, and provocative fantasy. Lynn Redgrave is a superb narrator. Her vocal repertoire richly supports Funke's myriad characters.

In today's global market, ideas about family, femininity, and reproduction are traded on as actively as any currency or stock. The connection has a history, one rooted in a conception of feminine identities invented through a science interwoven with the pursuit of empire, the accumulation of goods, and the furtherance of power. It is this history that Robin Truth Goodman exposes in her provocative analysis of literary and political representations of female infertility from the mid-nineteenth century to our day.