About this item
Highlights
- A bestseller in the author's native country of Estonia, where the book is so well known that a popular board game has been created based on it, The Man Who Spoke Snakish is the imaginative and moving story of a boy who is tasked with preserving ancient traditions in the face of modernity.
- About the Author: Andrus Kivirahk is one of Estonia's most highly regarded contemporary writers.
- 400 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Literary
Description
About the Book
Translation of: Mees, kes teadis ussisäonu.Book Synopsis
A bestseller in the author's native country of Estonia, where the book is so well known that a popular board game has been created based on it, The Man Who Spoke Snakish is the imaginative and moving story of a boy who is tasked with preserving ancient traditions in the face of modernity.
Set in a fantastical version of medieval Estonia, The Man Who Spoke Snakish follows a young boy, Leemet, who lives with his hunter-gatherer family in the forest and is the last speaker of the ancient tongue of snakish, a language that allows its speakers to command all animals. But the forest is gradually emptying as more and more people leave to settle in villages, where they break their backs tilling the land to grow wheat for their "bread" (which Leemet has been told tastes horrible) and where they pray to a god very different from the spirits worshipped in the forest's sacred grove. With lothario bears who wordlessly seduce women, a giant louse with a penchant for swimming, a legendary flying frog, and a young charismatic viper named Ints, The Man Who Spoke Snakish is a totally inventive novel for readers of David Mitchell, Sjóoacute;n, and Terry Pratchett.
Review Quotes
Praise for The Man Who Spoke Snakish:
One of Entertainment Weekly's Top Picks in New Paperbacks
"This fantastical Bildungsroman has the feel of a classic. It's a yarn in every sense of the word-a bit Tin Drum, a little Where the Wild Things Are, and with a cast of talking snakes, bears, lice, and primates, more than a little Watership Down . . . The novel shines . . . Readers who are charmed by the world Kiviräauml;hk creates here, by the imaginative breadth and offbeat characters, will be satisfied just inhabiting this world for 450 pages. Credit is due, too, to the translator and editor, who have made the English feel consistently natural, readable, authentic."--New York Journal of Books
"This translated Estonian treasure follows the adventures of a boy who is the last remaining speaker of Snakish, an ancient language by which he can command any animal."--Entertainment Weekly
"This delightful Estonian novel coils and springs with a mix of dark humour, satire and allegorical observation . . . [an] intriguing story . . . a thought-provoking tale . . . The author's skill for social criticism and his literary talents are evident in Snakish, and he clearly has a gift for creating suspenseful, provocative stories . . . The Man Who Spoke Snakish is wonderful--don't let it slither away."--Winnipeg Free Press
"Epic, fantastical . . . Most astonishing is the inventive imagery, from lice crossbred large enough to be ridden by people to a legless flying savior who swoops across the cold sea to bludgeon knights and monks . . . Kivirähk's well-plotted story of language, loss, and fanaticism speaks powerfully to our world's ever present conflicts."--Kirkus Reviews
"Lots of fun here, with seductive bears, flying frogs, and a viper named Ints, but Kivirähk is also concerned with the dangers of war, colonization (particularly Christianity's breakdown of traditional belief), and idealizing the past. A big bestseller in Europe, with that ever-popular medieval/fantastical setting."--Library Journal
"This allegorical story spins an element of wistful longing for anyone who has struggled between the old and the new, its lessons as relevant today as ever."--Booklist
"The Man Who Spoke Snakish interrogates not only the literary logic of the allegorical mode but also the relationship we have--as individuals and as readers--to the dueling lures of tradition and change . . . a kind of bucolic Bildungsroman . . . Kivirähk provides a compelling and creaturely backdrop for the warring facets of Leemet's coming-of-age, characters who embody aspects of the distant past, the painful present, and the dangerous future . . . I felt compelled to continue reading in the certain knowledge that I'd soon stumble upon a scene of great power and beauty or an elegantly aphoristic turn of phrase. Though presumably set hundreds of years before our own time, Leemet's struggle remains something of a microcosm of our own."--Words Without Borders
"The Man Who Spoke Snakish has the feeling of a folktale . . . This isn't to say that it's a work of light fantasy, however--like Margo Lanagan's 2008 Tender Morsels, there's an undercurrent of violence that keeps the more mirthful aspects at a distance."--Literary Hub
"This novel slithers along like the snakes it so admires, agile and often unexpectedly compelling . . . its irreverence for convention flows charmingly from its conversational prose .
About the Author
Andrus Kivirahk is one of Estonia's most highly regarded contemporary writers. A journalist by profession, he is known for his satirical newspaper columns and his bestselling novels. A popular board game has been created on the basis of his novel "The Man Who Spoke Snakish," which is his first book ever to appear in English. He lives in Tallinn, Estonia.Christopher Moseley is a translator of Estonian and Latvian. He teaches at University College London and is Treasurer of the Foundation for Endangered Languages.