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Beatrice & Virgil
17.00 JOD
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Description
Yann Martel’s astonishing novel begins with a successful writer attempting to publish his latest book, made up of a novel and an essay. Henry plans for it to be a “flip book” that the reader can start at either end, reading the novel or the essay first, because both pieces are equally concerned with representations of the Holocaust. Faced with severe and categorical rejection, Henry gives up hope. He abandons writing, moves with his wife to a foreign city, joins a community theatre, becomes a waiter in a chocolatería. But then he receives a package containing a scene from a play, photocopies from a short story by Flaubert—about a man who hunts animals down relentlessly—and a short note: “I need your help.” Intrigued, Henry tracks down his correspondent, and finds himself in a strange part of the city, walking past a stuffed okapi into a taxidermist’s workshop. The taxidermist—also named Henry—says he has been working on his play, A 20th-Century Shirt, for most of his life, but now he needs Henry’s help to describe his characters: the play’s protagonists are a stuffed donkey and a howler monkey named Beatrice and Virgil, respectively, and Henry’s successful book was in part about animals. And though his new acquaintance is austere, abrupt and almost unearthly, Henry the writer is drawn more and more deeply into Henry the taxidermist’s uncompromising world. Beatrice & Virgil gradually grows into something more, a shattering and ultimately transfixing work that asks searching questions about the nature of our understanding of history, the meaning of suffering and the value of art. As we are drawn deeper into their disturbing moral fable, the relationship between the two faltering writers named Henry becomes more and more complex until it can only be resolved in an explosive, unexpected catastrophe.
Additional information
| Weight | 0.25 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 1.45 × 13.47 × 20.07 cm |
| PubliCanadanadation City/Country | Canada |
| by | |
| Format | Paperback |
| Language | |
| Pages | 224 |
| Publisher | |
| Year Published | 2011-2-1 |
| Imprint | |
| Publication City/Country | Canada |
| ISBN 10 | 0307398781 |
| About The Author | YANN MARTEL is the author of Life of Pi, the #1 international bestseller published in more than 50 territories that has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, won the 2002 Booker (among many other prizes), spent more than a year on Canadian and international bestseller lists, and was adapted to the screen in an Oscar-winning film by Ang Lee. He is also the award-winning author of The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios (which won the Journey Prize), Self, Beatrice & Virgil, and a book of recommended reading: 101 Letters to a Prime Minister. Born in Spain in 1963, he studied philosophy at Trent University, worked at odd jobs and travelled widely before turning to writing. In 2021 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada. He lives in Saskatoon with the writer Alice Kuipers and their four children. |
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER A Financial Times Best BookFinalist – Saskatchewan Book Awards Fiction AwardFinalist – Saskatchewan Book Awards Saskatoon Book Award "Brilliant. . . . The subject of Beatrice & Virgil is not just one boy’s improbable adventure, but the very real horror of the Holocaust, and the difficulty of doing it justice in telling it. Martel works not at two levels, but several. . . . Be assured that with this short, crisply written, many-layered book, Martel has once again demonstrated that nothing tells the truth like fiction." — The Plain Dealer"Ruptures the division between worlds real and imagined, forcing us to reconsider how we think of documentary writing. Forget what this book is ‘about’: Yann Martel’s new novel not only opens us to the emotional and psychological truths of fiction, but also provides keys to open its fictions ourselves, and to become, in some way, active participants in their creation." — The Globe and Mail"A chilling addition to the literature about the horrors most of us cannot imagine, and will stir its readers to think about the depths of depravity to which humanity can sink and the amplitude of our capacity to survive." — The Huffington Post "Dark but divine. . . . Martel knows exactly what he’s doing in this lean little allegory about a talking donkey and monkey. This novel just might be a masterpiece about the Holocaust. . . . Somehow Martel brilliantly guides the reader from the too-sunny beginning into the terrifying darkness of the old man’s shop and Europe’s past. Everything comes into focus by the end, leaving the reader startled, astonished and moved." — USA Today"The very idea that we think that we have heard the story enough is perhaps a sign that we have not. . . . [R]ead Yann Martel’s Beatrice & Virgil. You will be glad that you did, and you may find yourself seeing your life and the world, both fictional and otherwise, in a different light." — About.com "Martel’s prose is artfully simple and clear. . . . Those who enjoyed the cerebral aspects of Life of Pi will find things to admire." — Winnipeg Free Press |
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| Excerpt From Book | (Virgil and Beatrice are sitting at the foot of the tree.They are looking out blankly.Silence.) VIRGIL: What I’d give for a pear. BEATRICE: A pear? VIRGIL: Yes. A ripe and juicy one. (Pause.) BEATRICE: I’ve never had a pear. VIRGIL: What? BEATRICE: In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever set eyes on one. VIRGIL: How is that possible? It’s a common fruit. BEATRICE: My parents were always eating apples and carrots. Iguess they didn’t like pears. VIRGIL: But pears are so good! I bet you there’s a pear treeright around here. (He looks about.) … BEATRICE: What does a pear taste like? VIRGIL: Wait. You must smell it first. A ripe pear breathes afragrance that is watery and subtle, its power lyingin the lightness of its impression upon the olfactorysense. Can you imagine the smell of nutmeg orcinnamon? BEATRICE: I can. VIRGIL: The smell of a ripe pear has the same effect on themind as these aromatic spices. The mind is arrested,spellbound, and a thousand and one memories andassociations are thrown up as the mind burrows deepto understand the allure of this beguiling smell—which it never comes to understand, by the way. BEATRICE: But how does it taste? I can’t wait any longer. VIRGIL: A ripe pear overflows with sweet juiciness. BEATRICE: Oh, that sounds good. VIRGIL: Slice a pear and you will find that its flesh isincandescent white. It glows with inner light. Thosewho carry a knife and a pear are never afraid of thedark. BEATRICE: I must have one. VIRGIL: The texture of a pear, its consistency, is yet anotherdifficult matter to put into words. Some pears are alittle crunchy. BEATRICE: Like an apple? VIRGIL: No, not at all like an apple! An apple resists beingeaten. An apple is not eaten, it is conquered. Thecrunchiness of a pear is far more appealing. It isgiving and fragile. To eat a pear is akin to . . .kissing. BEATRICE: Oh, my. It sounds so good. VIRGIL: The flesh of a pear can be slightly gritty. And yet itmelts in the mouth. BEATRICE: Is such a thing possible? VIRGIL: With every pear. And that is only the look, the feel,the smell, the texture. I have not even told you ofthe taste. BEATRICE: My God! VIRGIL: The taste of a good pear is such that when you eatone, when your teeth sink into the bliss of one, itbecomes a wholly engrossing activity. You want todo nothing else but eat your pear. You would rathersit than stand. You would rather be alone than incompany. You would rather have silence than music.All your senses but taste fall inactive. You seenothing, you hear nothing, you feel nothing—oronly as it helps you to appreciate the divine taste ofyour pear. BEATRICE: But what does it actually taste like? VIRGIL: A pear tastes like, it tastes like . . . (He struggles. Hegives up with a shrug.) I don’t know. I can’t put it intowords. A pear tastes like itself. BEATRICE: (sadly) I wish you had a pear. VIRGIL: And if I had one, I would give it to you. (Silence.) |
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