this is a bittersweet, whimsical and gothic novella about a boy named jack born in late 19th century in edinburgh on the coldest day on earth. jack is born with a frozen heart. dr. madeleine the mid-wife, also believed to be a witch-wife saves jack's life by adding a clockwork heart to keep his own heart alive. dr. madeleine adopts jack and tells him that he must never never fall in love, for his clockwork heart would not survive it and he would die.
at ten years old, jack falls in love with myop More...

Ehm, che dire..
La meccanica del cuore é stato paragonato ai film di tim burton.. Vediamo.. i film mi piacciono tutti, o x lo meno mi piacciono quelli che ho visto, ma questo libro.. mi ha lasciato con l'amaro in bocca..

Alle prime pagine l'avrei definito come una dolce favola, carina anche se x alcune immagini decisamente non adatta ai bambini.. una favola x adulti? forse, ma solo, come anche precedentemente detto, nelle prime pagine x come descrive il miracoloso salvataggio del bambino nato co More...

"A Mecânica do Coração" é sem dúvida uma das histórias fofinhas que por aí andam a assolar os corações apaixonados.

Ensina uma grande lição de vida. . .

As suas personagens são caricatas, sendo que vale muito a pena conhecê-las para nos enternecermos e fazermos força para que o "litlle Jack" fique com a sua Miss Acácia nos meandros de um coração que se diz mecânico mas que é o mais humano dos humanos. . .

A maneira como o autor escreve, as frases ficam com um sentido maravilhoso, arranja maneira d More...

A hurricane in a skirt named Miss Acacia, a pet hamster with a very naughty name, and a cameo appearance by Jack the Ripper make this a memorable book. In Mathias Malzieu's "The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart," Jack's damaged heart functions with the aid of a cuckoo-clock installed in his chest. But Jack must be careful, because anger or love will break the fragile mechanism. In spite of the risk to his life, he journeys from Edinburgh to Andalusia in search of his beloved Miss Acacia.

Malzieu p More...

Veamos...

Dicen que no hay que juzgar un libro por su portada y…
1.- Es cierto.
2.- Nadie lo hace xD

Cuando vi la portada y leí la sinopsis, no pude evitar imaginarme la historia como una película de Tim Burton… aluciné algo como Edward manos de tijeras, solo que en lugar de manos, corazón… y en lugar de tijeras, un reloj; y desde que todas las historias de Burton me gustan, este libro fue directo a mi lista de lecturas. Y ya que estamos, sip. Este libro tendrá adaptación.

La historia empieza herm More...

Als ich das Cover zum ersten Mal sah, waren meine ersten Gedanken: WoW, das MUSS ich allein schon wegen diesem wunderschönen Buchdeckel lesen und sollte in meinem Bücherregal nicht fehlen! ;)
Dank der Leserunde mit Brina habe ich es auch ziemlich schnell gelesen, doch das was mich dort erwartete hat mich doch eher enttäuscht als mit Freude erfüllt! :(

Ich muss auch zugeben, dass mir die Worte bei diesem Buch fehlen… Jack ist eine skurrile Hauptfigur, die mir leider in keiner Sekunde ans Herz gewac More...

A hurricane in a skirt named Miss Acacia, a pet hamster named Cunnilingus, tiny bottles filled with one's own tears, and a cameo appearance from Jack the Ripper... What's not to like?!



In "The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart," Jack's life depends on a clock installed in his chest. But Jack must be careful, because anger or love will break his fragile heart. Still, he journeys from Edinburgh to Andalusia in search of his beloved Miss Acacia.



Mathias Malzieu paints delightfully gorgeous and grotesq More...

Jack ist ein richtiges Unglückskind! Wenn Madeleine ihm keine Kuckucksuhr eingesetzt hätte, wäre er noch am Tag seiner Geburt verstorben, doch mit diesem Herz darf er niemals lieben. Was allerdings eine echte Herausforderung für ihn ist, denn er hat sein Herz an Miss Acacia verloren. Und wer kann sich schon gegen die Liebe wiedersetzen?

Jack scheint mir ein kleiner, gebrechlicher Junge zu sein, was sich auch für mich bestätigt, als er auf Joe trifft, einen Klassenkameraden, der auch in Miss Acac More...

"Tornare al tempo in cui amavo senza stratagemmi, quando mi lanciavo a testa bassa senza paura di sbattere contro i sogni, tornare indietro! Il periodo in cui non avevo paura di niente, in cui potevo salire sul missile rosa dell'amore senza allacciare la cintura. Oggi sono più grande e anche più ragionevole, ma di colpo non oso più tentare il grande salto verso colei che per me avrà sempre dieci anni."

Questa è la storia di Little Jack, un bambino un po' diverso dagli altri, perchè il suo, non è More...

If you're a fan of this book then stop reading now! You won't like what I'm about to say...

Maybe it's the writing or maybe it's the translation but I really did not like the way this book was written. The entire way through it was as though Malzieu was telling me a story instead of showing me one, and that is a writing style which I personally can only ever tolerate in short stories.

The plot felt far too predictable to me; the outcast and the school bully fight over the same beautiful girl. I've More...

« On dit qu’je suis né, le jour le plus froid du monde, on dit qu’je suis né, avec le cœur gelé. On dirait même qu’on m’a porté à bout de ventre, en haut de la colline, qui surplombe la ville, et ses clochers ! »

La mécanique du cœur. Waouh. Là, c’est un coup de cœur, et c’est le cas de le dire ! Il y a en ce livre la vérité sur l’Amour, la vérité sur le Cœur, la vérité sur les horloges et leur coucou. Ce livre, rencontré un peu par hasard au CDI, que je connaissais déjà par l’album éponyme de Di More...

Este libro lo leí hace mucho tiempo, y siendo sincera no recuerdo demasiados detalles de él. Lo que si recuerdo es que iba con cierto recelo porque me lo imaginaba mas infantil, pero ha resultado ser bastante más adulto.

A veces uno se deja engañar por las portadas de los libros, al ver una portada animada piensas que puede ser un libro infantil pero al leerlo te sorprende totalmente, esa es la magia de los libros.

En todo caso, recuerdo el viaje que hizo el protagonista para encontrar a su amada, More...

First things first: this is a review of the audio edition. This was also my first Jim Dale listen (Pushing Daisies voiceover aside) - I know! I know! The horror! The SIN! But there you have it.

And my god, I was completely blown away. His narration was simply phenomenal. It was like a gift to listen to this.

Now that said, the story itself was...I can't describe it except to say that it was beautifully written, if disconcertingly so at times, surreal, magical, and sad as hell. For a coherent, det More...

Malzieu, ha compiuto un piccolo miracolo letterario, un incanto raro e prezioso di questi tempi.
Per questo e altri motivi che cercherò di sintetizzare, valgono le 5 stelle piene e convinte.
Chiariamoci non è un capolavoro di letteratura, ma arriva così di rado nella vita di una persona, un libro capace di rendere le ore di lettura poesia delicata e ovattata dolcezza, che quando lo trovi, ringrazi la sorte per averlo incontrato nel tuo cammino di lettore.
Ho amato ogni singola pagina, intrisa di More...

Veamos…

Dicen que no hay que juzgar un libro por su portada… y 1.- Es cierto. 2.- Nadie lo hace xD

Cuando vi la portada y leí la sinopsis, no pude evitar imaginarme la historia como una película de Tim Burton… aluciné algo como Eduard manos de tijeras, solo que en lugar de las manos, corazón… y en lugar de las tijeras, un reloj; y desde que todas las historias de Burton me gustan, este libro fue directo a mi lista de lecturas. Y ya que estamos, sip. Este libro tendrá adaptación.

La historia empiez More...

The title says: The Boy with a Cuckoo-clock Heart.

While I don't speak french much less understand it, I was able to find an english version of this book.



Hurray for translations!

So there I was, on my sickbed, just finished reading a sad book but with a happier ending, thinking on what to do and where to go where my feet can't take me. I was scanning ibooks for a 3rd book to read for the day and stumbled upon "The Boy with a Cuckoo-clock Heart". Now who would not be interested to read it with a ti More...

Am 16. April 1874 hat eine unnatürliche Kälte Edinburgh fest im Griff. Es ist der Tag, an dem ich auf die Welt komme. Das Erste, was ich sehe, ist Doktor Madeleine – eine Hebamme mit einer besonderen Leidenschaft: Sie repariert Leute. Sie tastet meine winzige Brust ab und wirkt beunruhigt: »Sein Herz ist hart, ich fürchte, es ist gefroren.« Sie stöbert auf einem Regal herum und nimmt verschiedene Uhren zur Hand. Mit einem Ohr lauscht sie meinem defekten Herzen, mit dem anderen dem Ticken der Uhr More...

RATING: 3.5 estrelas.

"A Mecânica do Coração" é um daqueles livros que deixam uma marca. É um pequeno livro, pouco mais do que um conto, com personagens simples e uma história terna e encantadora. No entanto é difícil emitir uma opinião sobre a obra, porque apesar da sua premissa simples é tantas, tantas coisas ao mesmo tempo: romance, amizade, amor, tragédia, esperança.

Edimburgo, finais do século XIX. Jack nasce no dia mais frio do mundo e o seu coração congela, deixando de bater. Felizmente a p More...

I must say it's the first book that I read before reading any review. And I don't regret it.

I think it does well as a fairytale, as many say; it's creative, and different. Then, why is people so annoyed with anachronisms? Some of they may be mistakes, but others... Others can only be made deliberately, or the author doesn't really know where he lives. And I don't think this happens.

When I started reading, I assumed that if the story was about a boy with a clock on his heart, then anything woul More...

The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart goes through love. It is basically a love story. What makes this love story unique is the boy who was born with a normal heart but did not grow up with a normal heart,in a sense. Jack was brought to life by a prostitute who couldnt afford a doctor. She went up a hill(that everyone fears) and gave birth to a baby boy ,during the most cold night in winter. The streets were litelary ice and everything was freezing to death. Jack didnt stay with his biological mot More...

Ce petit livre de Mathias Malzieu s’ouvre, selon moi, comme un conte – sous des dehors enfantins et attendrissants sont traités des thèmes assez graves et adultes - pour se terminer en roman – à tendance réaliste et moins onirique.

Il était une fois Little Jack à qui il était interdit d’aimer, sous peine de perturber la mécanique de son cœur. Il désobéira néanmoins à Docteur Madeleine et ira jusqu’en Andalousie pour retrouver sa petite « flamme à lunettes », la chanteuse des rues dont il est tomb More...

This short novel, a translation from the French, follows a young man who was born with a frozen heart on the coldest night on earth. The midwife, a childless woman who tinkers with mechanics as well as with human flesh, installs a cuckoo-clock in the boy’s chest as a sort of gear driven pace maker. She warns him that his heart is too fragile for him to have much of a life; he must avoid strong emotion and certainly never fall in love. Which of course he does, with a young singer/dancer. But love More...

I fell in love with its cover, when I saw it, I knew that I wanted to read it. Some months later when I run into it in a bookshop, I grabbed it immediately... :)

It is a strange story, and very difficult to describe it. It can be called a fairytale, but not for children's, I think, since it is a love story. ....... It has fantasy elements, Jack with his cuckoo-clock heart needs every day a wind-up, with his tick-tock sound, he is an outsider amongst people, moreover there is a "door" where he mus More...

This book starts out as a magical fairy tale with a childless witch doctor saving the life of a new born baby by installing a cuckoo clock to keep his heart going. The charming and ecentric cast of characters protect Jack as he grows, with the doctor warning him of the dire consequences of falling in love. Naturally, Jack ignores her warnings and from there the tale gets much darker and more sinister.

I loved the writing style of Boy With a Cuckoo-Clock Heart. The flowery, imaginative description More...

Found this in the library (it was translated to English in 2009 as The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart) and instantly was attracted to it. It's short, novella length, and I blew through it in a couple of days. This is probably the first true magical realism book I've read, and I enjoyed it a great deal. The protagonist, Jack, is a bit of a desperate, lovelorn type, and as an orphan had a weak heart, so his caretaker grafted a cuckoo clock onto it to keep it beating. She warns him he must never f More...

The Boy With the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is an adult fairy tale on love and heartbreak. At first I wasn't sold, perhaps even a little annoyed, the story was filled with flowery art writing (yawn) and just a bit too dramatic. But, I have to say it slowly grew on me, and in the end I liked it. Reviews seem to be mixed.

Synopsis:

Edinburgh, 1874. Born with a frozen heart, Jack is near death when his mother abandons him to the care of Dr. Madeleine—witch doctor, midwife, protector of orphans—who saves Jac More...

Gostei bastante do livro. Esta pequenina história é a prova que os livros não precisam de ser grandes e complexos para serem belos e absolutamente singulares.

Foi através do Goodreads que tive conhecimento deste livro e não me arrependo nada de o ter lido. É uma história muito bonita que fala sobre o amor, as desilusões que o acompanham, o ato de amar e o crescimento muitas vezes associadas a grandes desilusões, ressentimentos, tristezas profundas que nos fazem quebrar a ligação entre os sonhos q

More...

**Cercando il titolo originale ho scoperto che l'autore è un autore per caso, visto che nasce come cantante.. ._. E ciò spiega molto!**

Ero psicologicamente preparata a trovarmi di fronte ad un caso editoriale costruito a tavolino, quindi ammetto di essere rimasta (per lo più!) gradevolmente sorpresa e stupita. Anzi, dirò di più! Per la prima metà, il libro si sarebbe addirittura meritato 4 stelline..

Ho letto tante di quelle stroncature da ritenerlo io stessa un libro di serie B, invece come let More...

Born on the coldest day ever recorded, Jack's heart is frozen and replaced with a cuckoo-clock.

Abandoned by his mother and raised by the witch doctor, Dr. Madeleine who installed the clock, Jack is warned that he must never fall in love because it could overwhelm his unusual pacemaker. Jack does well for about ten years, until he meets Miss Acacia, a street performer who wears glasses and has a pretty voice. Jack is in love and sets out to find Miss Acacia.

Thus begins the story of "The Boy With More...