The Great & the Small

“Murderer! You’ve killed us all!”

When I began reading A. T. Balsara’s work, The Great & the Small, I believed the story was written for a younger audience. I was wrong and I was right. The Great & the Small falls into a category of work that will appeal to the old & the young, much like Richard Adams’s Watership Down—yeah, it’s that good.

The very beginning ripped my heart out. A mother rat, fighting to protect her last pup is killed by her pursuer. Oh boy, did this reader want some revenge? But I didn’t just want revenge; I wanted to know why this cruel act happened. And therefore, I was hooked.

Balsara does a wonderful job pitting man against nature when the rats take center stage as they plot to unleash a plague, once again, on the “two-legs.” As the story progresses, it becomes clear to the reader as well as to the rats that the balance of co-existence has been knocked off kilter. Without the “two-legs,” there is less food for the rats to scrounge. This realization causes a resistance to rise among the rat community. Two sets of conflict propel the story forward as rats battle humans and eventually wage war amongst their own—for the good of all tunnel rats.

Astute readers will recognize the hierarchy within the ranks of the rat world for what it really is—social classification. Within the tunnel rat tribe, there are lower tunnels, which are cold and wet while the higher tunnels are dry and warm. This parallel reflection between the human race and the rat race proves that rats and humans have more in common than we care to admit.
I won a free ebook through LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. I recommend The Great & the Small for both younger readers and older readers. ( )