Beatrice and virgil

A dead donkey and a monkey Replay the Horrors of the Holocaust in Yann Martel's new book

Animals don't have cutesy, sentimental images in author Yann Martel's world as he mentions somewhere in the beginning of his book Beatrice and Virgil.

Instead they are wild animals who purely operate on their instincts and wouldn't think twice before ripping your throat apart.

We've witnessed that in his previous Man Booker Prize winning book The Life of Pi.u00a0

But what happens when two dead animals: one a donkey and another a howler monkey tell the story of the Holocaust in a complex symbolic way through the pen of a taxidermist?
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The narrative ends up getting pretty exciting. Such is the complex subject matter of Martel's new book.

Henry a famous author can't seem to make progress on his second novel after he is reprimanded by his publishers and editors about his unusual flip book style take on the Holocaust.
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Henry decides never to write another word, moves to another country with his wife and takes up voluntary work in a non profit chocolate shop.

Until one day he receives a mysterious letter including a short story of Gustave Flaubert and an unfinished play about a donkey and a howler monkey.
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He is intrigued enough to meet the owner of this play, a mysterious, old taxidermist. What ensues is a series of bizarre meetings where Henry finds himself getting embroiled in the taxidermist's protagonists and the play.
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Along the way the meaning of his own struggle to address the issue of Holocaust through his book emerges as he helps the taxidermist write his play.

Martel is a master of words and he constructs beautiful prose that makes you stop reading and ponder a moment or two about the beauty of the thought before you proceed.

His description of mounted and lifelike animals in the taxidermists shop as being alive, but time having stopped for them is startlingly true.
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Martel engages and intrigues the reader with references to famous works of other authors and art scattered throughout the book and thus shedding light on his own homework for Beatrice and Virgil.
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Just like his previous works, this book too addresses issues of cruelty, slaughter and the plight of both humans and animals and questions morality blended in with a beautiful narrative. A fitting follow up to the Life of Pi.

Author Yann Martel
Publisher Penguin
Price Rs 450
Available at all leading bookstores