Emily B. reviewed on + 7 more book reviews
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The quest for an elusive amphibian in the mountains of violence-torn Haiti brings together an unlikely pair of hunters - American herpetologist Victor Grigg and his Haitian guide Thierry Adrien - whose individual stories unfold and intertwine in a mesmerizing tale of love, sex, and fraternal rivalry; of the propagation and extinction of species in the natural world; and of the mysterious forces of nature that govern the fate of all living creatures. No one can explain the catastrophic disappearance of various species of amphibians all over the world, including the "blood frog" (grenouille du sang) pursued with heartbreaking single-mindedness by Victor and Thierry from the bloody Mont des Enfants Perdus - littered with corpses, the work of Haitian macoutes (thugs) - to the remote Casetouches. Significantly, Thierry's father was also a hunter, but his quarry was another species of fauna, wandering packs of the living dead (zombies). The rich and tragic tale of Thierry's family, his life and loves, and his curious destiny informs the obsessive search of the two men from different cultures. Thierry's story opens a window onto another way of understanding the world, an Afro-Caribbean perspective at odds with the reason and logic of Western science represented by Victor.
The quest for an elusive amphibian in the mountains of violence-torn Haiti brings together an unlikely pair of hunters - American herpetologist Victor Grigg and his Haitian guide Thierry Adrien - whose individual stories unfold and intertwine in a mesmerizing tale of love, sex, and fraternal rivalry; of the propagation and extinction of species in the natural world; and of the mysterious forces of nature that govern the fate of all living creatures. No one can explain the catastrophic disappearance of various species of amphibians all over the world, including the "blood frog" (grenouille du sang) pursued with heartbreaking single-mindedness by Victor and Thierry from the bloody Mont des Enfants Perdus - littered with corpses, the work of Haitian macoutes (thugs) - to the remote Casetouches. Significantly, Thierry's father was also a hunter, but his quarry was another species of fauna, wandering packs of the living dead (zombies). The rich and tragic tale of Thierry's family, his life and loves, and his curious destiny informs the obsessive search of the two men from different cultures. Thierry's story opens a window onto another way of understanding the world, an Afro-Caribbean perspective at odds with the reason and logic of Western science represented by Victor.
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