I bought "The Gift Maker" by the very talented and poetically articulate Mark Mayes through the Urbane Book Club and I would like to start by saying this is a beautifully printed book decorated with butterflies that give every page a wonderfully magical appeal. You can't help being drawn to this book, there's something almost ethereal and wondrous about it that you just know you're going to be transported into another world! Strange boxes wrapped as gifts have been delivered by a very mysterious man to Thomas and his friend Liselotte. What do these gifts represent and how will it effect their lives? You will need to read this beautiful story for yourself to find out more about these special boxes and the journeys Thomas and Liselotte embark on because of them. This magical book was like a literary learning curve for me, such were the descriptions, places, and unique story telling of this amazing novel. At times I felt like I was floating in a sea of warm fuzziness then other times there was a feeling of dreaded foreboding and with some really scary scenes this book certainly has it all. The characters are just fascinating and you feel like you know everything there is to know about them so descriptive is the authors poetic writing. It was almost like Liselotte had travelled into her own little world of Alice in Wonderland! "The Gift Maker" in my opinion is a timeless piece of exemplary writing that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. I'm not sure what genre I would put this in as I've never read anything like this before (I believe it's categorised as Metaphysical though I'm unfortunately very naive about this subject) but Mark Mayes certainly deserves to do well with this his debut book and I am very pleased that I have had the pleasure to read such a charming and wonderful book.