Mr. Allbones' Ferrets

by Fiona Farrell

Book Overview

A young man out poaching. A beautiful maiden in a mysterious house. A perilous voyage to distant islands. A literary sensation from New Zealand, Mr. Allbones' Ferrets introduces a stunning new writer to American readers. The winner of numerous literary awards in New Zealand, Fiona Farrell is poised to capture a whole new continent of fans with this latest book. A chance encounter one night introduces our hero, Walter Allbones, to the beautiful Eugenia and her grandfather, Pitford, a natural scientist and collector of rare birds. Allbones is a ferret whisperer, so to speak, and Pitford recruits him to collect a bunch of ferrets for export. Within months of their meeting, the three embark upon a perilous voyage that will produce most dramatic and unexpected results. Mr. Allbones' Ferrets is an enchanting novel with a tender, unusual, and completely unforgettable love story at its center.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031238307X
• ISBN13: 9780312383077
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 217 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

erudute, elegant, with a strong plot

A colleague sent me this book and I was enthralled from page one with the beauty and vigor of the sentences, the sensory vividness of the descriptions. After a few more pages I saw that Fiona Farrell had meticulously re-created her time and place, and knew her subject through and through, but not so as to overwhelm a reader with facts irrelevant to her story. Later still, I saw that she was mounting a truly thoughtful argument about humans' unhappy effects on the planet's web of life. And finally, when I got to the end, I realized that not only was her plot perfectly executed, it was also a delivery system for her thoughts on evolution and humans' place in it. The book has got really appealing protagonists and grimly entertaining villains. I hope a lot of people will read this book. It's very timely and deeply satisfying.

interesting amusing whimsical historical tale

In the late nineteenth century in England, ferret whisperer and breeder Walter Allbones meets naturalist and rare bird collector Mr. Pitford and his lovely granddaughter Eugenia when his pets poach rabbits to bring to him from the nearby estate owned by the scientist. They sort of catch him in the act. He agrees to provide Mr. Pitford with ferrets to be shipped to New Zealand to control the out of control rabbit infestation. Walter is attracted to Eugenia and as much to the money he can make selling his ferrets. The pair chaperoned by grandpa begins an international trek to sell his ferrets. As their journey continues Walter believes he loves Eugenia, but fears her reaction would end their friendship. He does not understanding she begins to reciprocate his feelings in spite of his emitting the stinky odor of ferret sweat to her olfactory sense. This is an interesting amusing historical tale with a wonderful romantic subplot that enhances Fiona Farrell's satirical homage to Darwin as mustelids and ferrets play matchmakers, but not the way readers would expect. The story line is whimsical with solid characters having differing personalities. Fans who relish something different and do not demonize evolution will enjoy this irreverent look at relationships, human and otherwise, that both highly respect in awe and cheekily mock also in awe Darwin. Harriet Klausner