The Man Who Spoke Snakish

by Andrus Kivirähk

Book Overview

A bestseller in the author's 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 forest's 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, Sj n, and Terry Pratchett.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802124127
• ISBN13: 9780802124128
• Release Date: November 2015
• Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Think Tolkien ft. Barbara Kingsolver

Every page of this thrilling "folktale" is moving, and incredibly well-written. I felt like I knew the characters intimately by the end, at which point I had learned their lessons and really seen how they dealt with the themes of isolation, the unstoppable onslaught of time, friendship, and loss. Years later, I can still quote swaths of this book, still recall in detail the entire plot, and still buy it for everyone in my life over 16 who wants to read.