So, I have been trying a couple of times to find the name of a book from my childhood by googling to the best of my ability, so far without success. I remember being fascinated by the pictures of the book; unfortunately I cannot recall much of the plot at all. I was hoping that someone might have some ideas from the following list of "hints"/recollections:
- I read the book in question in the school library when I was in elementary school in the late 1990's-early 2000's in Sweden (the book was not brand new, probably one or two decades old at that point)
- The author was not Swedish. Perhaps Polish, perhaps from Eastern Europe. But definitely European
- It was a book for children; not very young children though, as I remember the story as quite weird but with a serious tone (i.e. little or no humour)
- Lots of pictures, filling up whole pages, with just some text on each page
- The style of the pictures in the book was like fine art, like oil paintings in a renaissance/medieval style. Very detailed and realistic, which gives the feeling it was not intended for the youngest children
- It was some sort of fairy tale with fantasy elements, in a medieval setting. I recall a green human-sized lizard, with a long neck, like a camel, and with wrinkly pouches of skin hanging under its throat, somewhat like a turkey. This creature was dressed in human clothes, perhaps a purple robe. I also recall a woman (princess?) with a really long (~1-2 meters) hat, looking like those ancient shelled octopuses (Endoceras)
- There were both "indoor scenes", I seem to recall some kind of a laboratory with checkerboard-tiled floor and old architecture with arcs and pillars, as well as landscape imagery, I especially remember that the trees and their branches were very rich in detail
- The book was hard-cover, A4-size; not that thick, perhaps 50 pages
- I seem to remember that another book by the same author/artist in the library had a cocker-spaniel on its front cover (the name "Katinka" comes to mind, but it might be a false memory...)
- The book was not a fable, in the sense that not all characters were animals behaving like humans. The lizard-humanoid described above was an exception. I recall most characters were human.
That is all I can remember, I hope someone can help me solve this mystery, as I would like to be able to see the pictures once more :D
