THOROUGHLY delightful. It's fast paced without ever sacrificing depth and you feel the horror of the Boy's father coming after him all the more keenly because it's so true to life. He doesn't care about Tito at all, but Tito was his possession, and so he offers a massive reward for his son's capture. The mayor is a comic character without ever tipping over into too much, and Alberto is burdened by grief but still so clearly full of love. The scene where he is going door to door looking for sweets and we see how much his neighbors and the village in general love him is such a beautifully understated one and I am holding it very close to my heart forever.
As soon as I finished the book I thought to myself "this was either written by a Nordic author or an Australian one" and yep, Matilda Woods is Australian. Something about Australian books are just a notch above most North American ones.