Animalia

"A delightful visual feast . . . The meticulous artistry is far-reaching in its innovation, detail, and humor."-- Publishers Weekly Within the page of this book You may discover, if you look Beyond the spell of written words A hidden land of beasts and birds . . . Animalia is a book like no other. Abounding with fanciful, gorgeously detailed art, it is an alphabet book, a guessing game, and a virtual feast for the eyes. Each page features one letter and images related to that letter--as well as a hidden picture of Graeme Base as a child Animalia will entrance any child or adult who enters its fantastical world. "A tongue-twisting menagerie . . . in] a perfectly delightful alphabet book."--Charles Gibson, Good Morning America

"A delightful visual feast . . . The meticulous artistry is far-reaching in its innovation, detail, and humor."-- Publishers Weekly Within the page of this book You may discover, if you look Beyond the spell of written words A hidden land of beasts and birds . . . Animalia is a book like no other. Abounding with fanciful, gorgeously detailed art, it is an alphabet book, a guessing game, and a virtual feast for the eyes. Each page features one letter and images related to that letter--as well as a hidden picture of Graeme Base as a child Animalia will entrance any child or adult who enters its fantastical world. "A tongue-twisting menagerie . . . in] a perfectly delightful alphabet book."--Charles Gibson, Good Morning America

Animalia retraces the history of a modest peasant family through the twentieth century as they develop their small plot of land into an intensive pig farm. In an environment dominated by the omnipresence of animals, five generations endure the cataclysm of war, economic disasters, and the emergence of a brutal industrialism reflecting an ancestral tendency to violence. Only the enchanted realm of childhood – that of Éléonore, the matriarch, and that of Jérôme, the last in the lineage – and the innate freedom of the animals offer any respite from the visible barbarity of humanity. Written in shifting prose that reflects the passage of time, Animalia is a powerful novel about man’s desire to conquer nature and the transmission of violence from one generation to the next.