A folk tale about a boy who can speak "snakish" which lets him command animals, but at the same time it's about how times change, how beliefs shape the world and cause strife between people, and how everything eventually ends. ( )

This book is unlike anything else I've ever read. It is a vividly painted, grotesque, and tactile tale that skewers and parallels the nostalgic traps of blind tradition it portrays. I enjoyed most of it immensely, and I'm curious how much was the author's own creation, and how much is rooted in Estonian folklore. I would be interested in reading more translations of Kivarahk's work.

Every time the irresistibly seductive nature of bears came up, I giggled aloud. ( )

Inventive and delightful story that takes on a real contemplation of history and meaning. I wouldn't call it a fairy tale, there's too much associated with that phrase that doesn't fit, maybe a parable or allegory. It's wild and quirky and heart-breaking. I got my copy from the library, and if I'm not the first to check it out, then the previous reader left it in pristine condition. I'm sad to think how many people haven't found it yet.
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Protagonist Leemet is one of the last people that can command animals through the language of snakes. He lives in the forest in the time of monks, knights, and “iron men.” It is an adventure story of talking bears, adders, primates, and lice! Definitely not your run-of-the-mill tale. The plot revolves around the people of the forest fleeing to the village, where they become “civilized” and no longer cherish their past customs. Only a very few forest dwellers remain. The story is a combination of fable and allegory based on Estonian folklore.

This is one of the most unusual coming-of-age novels I have read. Somehow the author inspires sympathy in the reader for some pretty bloodthirsty people. It is unevenly paced, with violent action scenes intermingled with slow-moving episodes. It is a classic tale of the battle between progress and tradition. It gets fairly gruesome toward the end.

I am always interested in expanding my knowledge of world literature, and this book definitely checks the box for Estonia. It was translated from Estonian to English by Christopher Moseley. I liked it but it could have used more explanation of Leemet’s motivations for employing such brutal violence. ( )

This is a tale with shades of fairy tales and mythology, of a time when human society was transitioning from hunter-gatherer to agrarian. Kivirähk builds a world where the old ways are dying out as families are abandoning the forest to live in villages, choosing to live as peasants who must toil in the fields and subservient to other men.

The story is narrated by Leemut, the last man who speaks Snakish, the language of the snakes and used to talk to and control most other animals. Kivirähk weaves a story full of myths. There are bears who seduce human women, and domesticated wolves that humans keep for their milk and to ride. There are tales of the Frog of the North and men born with venom-filled fangs that can kill with a bite.

There is a progression in this story of the different stages of the world. There are two primates (the possible missing link) that Leemut befriends who paint on cave walls to record their history. Then there are the people of the forest who live in a loose society. And then there are the people of the village who eat bread and worship God and Jesus instead of forest spirits. Throughout the book, there was a struggle of progress versus the old ways. Even in the forest community, there were those who wished to hold fast to sacred groves and sacrifices to appease nature spirits, and who Leemut finds himself continually at odds with.

This is an odd book, much darker than I had expected, though thinking through it, it has to be a dark book. It's about the death of a culture, after all. And when there is radical change, there is always a struggle against that change and that struggle many times will become violent. There is a lot packed into the story and I'm still working to unpack it all. There is commentary on modernity, on classism, on religion and superstition. There's also, I'm sure, a lot more themes and hidden meanings that I have yet to decipher, and some that may have even gotten lost in translation.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley ( )