A long long time ago, when I was a little chick, not even a chick but a pink and naked thing, a scar a scrap a scrape fallen on roots and wriggling, when I was catching my death and all I knew of sky was the feel of feathers above me, the belly of black as warm as a cloud above me...
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The Blurb
In this darkly comic work of literary satire by New Zealand’s most acclaimed and best-selling novelist Tama, a talking magpie and social media influencer, is the sole witness to a marriage in freefall.
Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie. ‘If it keeps me awake,’ says Marnie’s husband Rob, a farmer in the middle of a years-long drought, ‘I’ll have to wring its neck.’ But with Tama come new possibilities for the couple’s future. Tama’s fame is growing, and with it, his earning potential. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worlds – and all the precarity, darkness and hope within them – bleed into one another. Like a stock truck filled with live cargo, the story moves inexorably towards its dramatic conclusion: the annual Axeman’s Carnival.
Part trickster, part surrogate child, part witness, Tama is the star of this story. And although what he says to humans is often nonsensical (and hilarious), the tale he tells makes disturbingly perfect sense. The Axeman’s Carnival is Catherine Chidgey at her finest – comic, profound, poetic and true.
My Review
This book is well worth the five stars I have given it. I have not read any books by this author before but I certainly intend to change that as it was a fabulous read.
What makes this book unusual is that it is narrated by a magpie named Tama. In fact, he is the main character of the book. He lives with Marnie and Rob on their sheep farm. They are struggling to make ends meet, and this, amongst other things means Rob has a very short temper. He hates Tama until he realises that the bird may have the ability to change their financial position.
It is a very powerful and sometimes dark novel. It is clear from the very beginning that the book is working towards the annual event, the titular Axeman's Carnival. As we observe Rob preparing to win the title for the tenth year running, we can feel his inner anger oozing from the pages. As readers we know that the book is creeping towards its climax of the carnival and the author has done a great job in building the tension as the story moves along.
Meantime, Tama has learned to mimic speech and as such has become a media sensation. The book has much to say about social media, for good and bad.
The bird is devoted to Marnie and there is a mutual love between them that is palpable. It demonstrates an innocence which contrasts so well with the darker aspects of the novel. Tama also injects a little humour into the story with his mischievous nature.
The book is extremely well written, and the author has bought her story alive on the page vividly. There were aspects of the book which took my breath away. Something happens at the end which had so much to say about human nature and social media and is was quite shocking.
This book is releasing tomorrow, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I feel privileged to have read it.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1787705517
Publisher: Europa Editions
Formats:
No. of Pages: 336 (paperback)
Preorder Links
About the Author
Catherine Chidgey’s novels have been published to international acclaim. Her first, In a Fishbone Church, won Best First Book at the NZ Book Awards and at the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (South East Asia and South Pacific). In the UK it won the Betty Trask Award and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Her second, Golden Deeds, was a Notable Book of the Year in the New York Times and a Best Book in the LA Times. Catherine has won the Prize in Modern Letters, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship and the Janet Frame Fiction Prize. She lives in Ngāruawāhia, NZ, and lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Waikato. Her novel Remote Sympathy was shortlisted for the DUBLIN Literary Award and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her novels The Wish Child and The Axeman’s Carnival both won the Acorn Prize for Fiction, NZ's most prestigious literary award.
(book courtesy of Random Things Tours)
(media courtesy of Europa Editions)
(all opinions are my own)
(bookshop.org afilliated)
