When Henry, a prize-winning writer who wants to write a book about the Holocaust, finds a letter from an elderly taxidermist on his doormat, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulled closer to the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey—named Beatrice and Virgil—and the epic journey they undertake together.
With all the charm and spirit that drew seven million readers to Life of Pi, Beatrice and Virgil takes the reader on a tremendous and powerful imaginative journey. On the way Martel asks profound questions and leaves you reflecting on the nature of human cruelty, kindness, moral engagement and moral compromise, life and art, and the liberating power of stories.