LIFE HACKS FOR A LITTLE ALIEN

In this debut novel, a British girl grows up half believing she’s an actual alien because she views the world so differently than other children.

An unnamed, omniscient narrator tells the 3-year-old girl the story of her life to come. Franklin hits all the notes common in novels about children on the spectrum or having “issues.” Little Alien, as the narrator calls her, is bullied by other children and by teachers, reads situations with an eccentric yet oddly insightful literalness, and acts out her frustration with guttural noises. Yet the book’s tone and structure offer unexpected surprises. The narrator addresses the novel directly to Little Alien and also includes numerous footnotes that define terms, suggest further readings, and explain complex concepts to both Little Alien and the reader as the novel evolves into a deep dive into an actual, somewhat academic, ongoing mystery surrounding the Voynich Manuscript, an illustrated codex discovered in 1912 and now residing at Yale’s Beinecke Library. Dating from the 1400s, the manuscript includes odd pictures and writing in a language no one has yet decoded. At 12, Little Alien happens upon a television interview in which the widow of a Voynich researcher mentions that her husband believed the manuscript was the work of aliens. Little Alien’s interest is piqued. Until now she has suffered through childhood discounted as an oddball at school while coping with her mother’s bouts of mental illness at home (fortunately aided by her sane, loving, understandably anxious father). Discovering the Voynich Manuscript changes her life, giving her not only a sense of direction but a pathway toward friendship and self-acceptance. Along the way she meets a series of unlikely protectors, not least a linguist who sees nothing alien about her new protégé. The writing can be a bit arch, and sometimes repetitive, but these are minor quibbles.

Originality and cerebral playfulness combine with affecting family drama to make a satisfying, lively novel.