Firmin - Softcover

Savage, Sam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 075382339X ISBN 13: 9780753823392

Publisher: W&N, 2009

Synopsis

A darkly comic tale of exile, unrequited love and the redemptive power of books.

Firmin is born in the basement of a ramshackle old bookstore. He's a sensitive, creative soul but misunderstood. Because Firmin is a rat. Not only that, but as the runt of the litter, he is forced to compete for food and ends up chewing on the books that surround him. Firmin soon realizes his source of nourishment has given him the ability to read and this discovery fills him with an insatiable hunger for literature and a very unratlike sense of the world and his place in it.

As Firmin navigates the shadowy streets of his decaying area, looking for understanding, his excitement, loneliness, fear, and self-consciousness become remarkably human and undeniably touching. But the days of the bookshop and of the close community around it are numbered. The area has been marked out for 'urban regeneration' and soon the faded glory of the bookshop, the small local theatre, the unique shops and small cafes will face the bulldozers and urban planners...

Brilliantly original and richly allegorical, Firmin is brimming with charm and wistful longing for a world that understands the redemptive power of literature and treasures its seedy theaters, one-of-a-kind characters, and cluttered bookshops.

'A wonderful celebration of the way reading enriches your life. Firmin may be a rat - poisoned by people he thinks are his friends - but his imagination soars as high as that of any human.' GUARDIAN

'Surprising and moving meditation on the advantages (and disadvantages) of an entirely fictional life. Eloquent and witty, Firmin speaks for the book-loving rodent in all of us.' Karen Joy Fowler, bestselling author of WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES

About this title

Product Description:

A darkly comic rat's tale of exile, unrequited love and the redemptive power of books.

Review:

The charming and allegorical tale of a rat born in a bookshop who inadvertently eats Finnegans Wake, and so begins his lifelong taste for high literature. (TIMES)

A melancholy and quirky debut novel...a heartbreaking tale of frustrated intellect and urban regeneration (OBSERVER)

Cannot fail to move even the hardest of hearts (GOOD BOOK GUIDE)

About this edition

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 075382339X
• ISBN 13: 9780753823392
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240