BOOKS FROM ESTONIAThe Man Who Spoke Snakish
Tags:
Male author
Description:
Unfortunately people and tribes degenerate. They lose their teeth, forget their language, until finally they're bending meekly on the fields and cutting straw with a scythe. Leemut, a young boy growing up in the forest, is content living with his hunter-gatherer family. But when incomprehensible outsiders arrive aboard ships and settle nearby, with an intriguing new religion, the forest begins to empty - people are moving to the village and breaking their backs tilling fields to make bread. Meanwhile, Leemut and the last forest-dwelling humans refuse to adapt: with bare-bottomed primates and their love of ancient traditions, promiscuous bears, and a single giant louse, they live in shacks, keep wolves, and speak to snakes. Told with moving and satirical prose, The Man Who Spoke Snakish is a fiercely imaginative allegory about a boy, and a nation, standing on the brink of dramatic change.
Reviews:
(5 months ago) |
15 Apr, 2025
The Man Who Spoke Snakish by by Andrus Kivirähk has an intriguing premise, but this historical fantasy never quite worked for me as well as I wished I did. I don't know but I just felt like I was missing something with this one. I wish that the female characters could have had more to do. Maybe I need to know more about Estonian history to really appreciate this one?
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