Synopses & Reviews
A bestseller in the authors native country of Estonia, where the book is so well known that a popular board game has been created based on it,
The Man Who Spoke Snakish is the imaginative and moving story of a boy who is tasked with preserving ancient traditions in the face of modernity.
Set in a fantastical version of medieval Estonia, The Man Who Spoke Snakish follows a young boy, Leemet, who lives with his hunter-gatherer family in the forest and is the last speaker of the ancient tongue of snakish, a language that allows its speakers to command all animals. But the forest is gradually emptying as more and more people leave to settle in villages, where they break their backs tilling the land to grow wheat for their bread” (which Leemet has been told tastes horrible) and where they pray to a god very different from the spirits worshipped in the forests sacred grove. With lothario bears who wordlessly seduce women, a giant louse with a penchant for swimming, a legendary flying frog, and a young charismatic viper named Ints, The Man Who Spoke Snakish is a totally inventive novel for readers of David Mitchell, Sjón, and Terry Pratchett.
Review
Advance Praise for The Man Who Spoke Snakish:This translated Estonian treasure follows the adventures of a boy who is the last remaining speaker of Snakish, an ancient language by which he can command any animal.”Entertainment Weekly
Epic, fantastical . . . Most astonishing is the inventive imagery, from lice crossbred large enough to be ridden by people to a legless flying savior who swoops across the cold sea to bludgeon knights and monks . . . Kivirähks well-plotted story of language, loss, and fanaticism speaks powerfully to our worlds ever present conflicts.”Kirkus Reviews
Lots of fun here, with seductive bears, flying frogs, and a viper named Ints, but Kivirähk is also concerned with the dangers of war, colonization (particularly Christianitys breakdown of traditional belief), and idealizing the past. A big bestseller in Europe, with that ever-popular medieval/fantastical setting.”Library Journal
International Praise for The Man Who Spoke Snakish:
Kivirähks writing, delicate and forthright, childlike and sarcastic all at the same time, pokes fun at all forms of grandiosity, and is given depth by his staggering imagination, his great appetite, and his always reck less attitude. How to describe the book? Imagine it is the end of the world, and Tolkien, Beckett, Mark Twain, and Miyazaki (with Icelandic sagas and Asterix comic books stuffed under their arms) have got together in a cabin to drink and tell stories around the last bonfire the world will ever see.”Le Magazine Littéraire
The first great talent of this young Estonian author is to make us laugh about complex subjects . . . everything is of a remarkable clarity and immediacy, as if we had learned to speak snakish without realizing it. . . . The sense of humor and the imagery resembles a graphic novel or animated film. . . . Probably one of the best contemporary novels about what it means to be alone. . . . Marvelous in all senses of the word.”Le Monde
Somewhere near the realms of fantasy and science fiction there exists a much more thrilling and allegorical form of writing, bending the rules of the genre to suit itself: Atwoods admonitory novels, Vonneguts attempts to reach outside the bounds of reality and time, Bradburys philosophical allegory encased within a science-fiction story, and so on. The Man Who Spoke Snakish is an allegory about fading eras and vanishing worlds, and laced with a good dose of black humor to boot.”Jürgen Rooste, Estonian cultural critic
"The irreverent and funny Estonian writer Andrus Kivirähk has written an incredible novel, a mystifying treasure of a book. It will give you a raging desire to visit his home country. Is it a pseudo-fairytale in which animals and humans do not just talk to each other, but build great friendships and even romancesor a liturgical lampoon rewritten by a naturalist undergoing a crisis of faith? We cant say for sure. The only course of action is to follow in the steps of Leemet, the hero of this adventure story, a young man who has mastered the language of snakes.”Psychologies Magazine
"Kivirähk has taken care to remove from his text every specific chronological or geographical reference, which gives his book the character of a fable, something timeless. In a way that is totally fascinating, he throws a light on the Estonian world for the reader who is ignorant of that countrys particular historical context. The Man Who Spoke Snakish is a great novel, one of those important books that speaks to your soul in its own language and which marks a milestone on your personal reading history and in the development of your opinions.”Blog des Bouquins
"A novel in which there is no downtime and which is great fun to read . . . a tragic and deeply political work, but one in which shards of laughter await on every page . . . It is good, it is beautiful, you will read it in one sitting, it radiates intelligence, its a novel that since 2007 has been a smash hit in Estonia and has even been elevated to the ranks of the classics by a whole generation there. It is a true literary miracle thanks to which you may find yourself looking up at the sky in the hope of seeing the apocalyptic flight of the mythical Frog of the North.”LIvre de Lire
"This novel is totally unusual; it has the same strangeness as La Locura de Dios by Juan Miguel Aguilera or Cold Skin by Albert Sanchez Piñol. The author talks about Estonia (his country) in the 13th century, when iron men” invaded the country on a crusade. It jumps between philosophical fable, political pamphlet, and Nordic saga, by way of some epic outbursts of violence.”Decitre.fr
About the Author
Andrus Kivirähk is one of Estonia's most highly regarded contemporary writers. A journalist by profession, he is known for his satirical newspaper columns and his bestselling novels. A popular board game has been created on the basis of his novel
The Man Who Spoke Snakish, which is his first book ever to appear in English. He lives in Tallinn, Estonia.
Christopher Moseley is a translator of Estonian and Latvian. He teaches at University College London and is Treasurer of the Foundation for Endangered Languages.