Madeline is Sleeping

This book is like nothing I have ever read before. Literally - each page is its own beautiful self-contained work. An entire novel's worth.

hush

Hush mother says. Madeline is sleeping. She is so beautiful when she sleeps, I do not want to wake her.

The small sisters and brothers creep about the bed, their gestures of silence becoming magnified and languorous, fingers floating to pursed lips, tip toes rising and descending as if weightless. Circling about her bed, their frantic activity slows; they are like tiny insects suspended in sap, kicking dreamily before they crystallize into amber. Together they inhale softly and the room fills with one endless exhalation of breath: Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

-page 1 of Madeline is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum