One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.
July 2011 Book of the Month.
This is an utterly beguiling, magical, fable-like story that uses the relationships between humans and animals to address much bigger themes including those about life and art, truth and deception, responsibility and complicity. Like his multi-million copy selling and Booker Prize winning Life of Pi, the reader is taken on an odyssey but this time to address the emotional legacy of the holocaust through Henry, an ordinary man with whom the reader will care greatly for and through Beatrice and Virgil, a donkey and a howler monkey. It’s written on many different levels so it’s a book that is bound to create a big buzz both for and against it. Views are divided here but lovers of Life of Pi will I think find this an absorbing but possibly heart-breaking tale.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Recommendations: |
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Fate takes many forms . . . When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulling into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey - named Beatrice and Virgil - and the epic journey they undertake together. With all the spirit and orginality that made Life of Pi so treasured, this brilliant new novel takes the reader on a haunting odyssey. On the way, Martel asks profound questions about life and art, truth and deception, responsibility and complicity.
Beatrice and Virgil features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Books of the Month, Book Club Recommendations, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
Beatrice and Virgil is available in Paperback, Ebook, Hardback
Beatrice and Virgil was written by Yann Martel and published by Canongate Books
£7.99
