Description
By: Yann Martel
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.
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.
You may also like
熱銷中 Top Trending
![Maisy's (正版) Holiday Picture Book Bag Collection (Lucy Cousins) - 買書書 BuyBookBook](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/products/Maisy_sHolidayPictureBookBagCollection_LucyCousins_{width}x.jpg?v=1664268685)
![Maisy Goes on Holiday (Paperback) (Lucy Cousins) Walker UK](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/products/MaisyGoesonHoliday1_a13ed30d-bac5-4f72-ad36-c06a517e2a9a_{width}x.jpg?v=1664268685)
Maisy's (正版) Holiday Picture Book Bag Collection (Lucy Cousins)
Sale priceHK$175.00
Regular priceHK$504.00
In stock![Ultimate Football Heroes - Ronaldo (Matt & Tom Oldfield)-Nonfiction: 人物傳記 Biography-買書書 BuyBookBook](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/files/UltimateFootballHeroes-Ronaldo_Matt_TomOldfield_{width}x.webp?v=1713021985)
![Ultimate Football Heroes - Ronaldo (Matt & Tom Oldfield)-Nonfiction: 人物傳記 Biography-買書書 BuyBookBook](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/files/UltimateFootballHeroes-Ronaldo_Matt_TomOldfield_2_{width}x.webp?v=1713021989)
Ultimate Football Heroes - Ronaldo (Matt & Tom Oldfield)
Sale priceHK$57.00
Regular priceHK$91.00
In stock![Pip and Posy (正版) Collection (Books with Audio QR Code* )(Axel Scheffler)-Fiction: 兒童繪本 Picture Books-買書書 BuyBookBook](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/files/PipandPosy_Collection_BookswithAudioQRCode_AxelScheffler_10-Book_{width}x.webp?v=1714856885)
![Pip and Posy (正版) Collection (Books with Audio QR Code* )(Axel Scheffler)-Fiction: 兒童繪本 Picture Books-買書書 BuyBookBook](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/products/PipandPosy_Collection_BookswithAudioQRCode_AxelScheffler_{width}x.jpg?v=1699212651)
Pip and Posy (正版) Collection (Books with Audio QR Code)(Axel Scheffler)
Sale priceFrom HK$249.00
Regular priceHK$671.00
In stock![Dork Diaries #02 Party Time (Rachel Renee Russell)-Fiction: 幽默搞笑 Humorous-買書書 BuyBookBook](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/files/DorkDiaries_02PartyTime_1_{width}x.jpg?v=1714880146)
![Dork Diaries #02 Party Time (Rachel Renee Russell)-Fiction: 幽默搞笑 Humorous-買書書 BuyBookBook](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/files/DorkDiaries_02PartyTime_2_{width}x.jpg?v=1699232256)
Dork Diaries #02 Party Time (Rachel Renee Russell)
Sale priceHK$67.00
Regular priceHK$104.00
In stock![Percy Jackson and the Olympians #6 The Chalice of the Gods (Rick Riordan)-Fiction: 神話傳說 Myth and Legend-買書書 BuyBookBook](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/files/PercyJacksonandtheOlympians_6TheChaliceoftheGods_RickRiordan_{width}x.jpg?v=1714881796)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods (International paperback edition)
Sale priceHK$89.00
Regular priceHK$140.00
In stock![Legends of Lotus Island #01 The Guardian Test (Christina Soontornvat)](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/files/9781339041032_{width}x.webp?v=1716376443)
Legends of Lotus Island #01 The Guardian Test (Christina Soontornvat)
Sale priceHK$67.00
Regular priceHK$112.00
In stock![Brown: My Alter Ego Is A Superhero Book 1 (Håkon Øvreås)](http://buybookbook.com/cdn/shop/files/9781592702510_{width}x.jpg?v=1716306931)
Brown: My Alter Ego Is A Superhero Book 1 (Håkon Øvreås)
Sale priceFrom HK$64.00
Regular priceHK$80.00
In stock