A fable narrated by an ape trained into human performance.

This work has the brutality of allegory without becoming a neat little moral box. The book moves through captivity, education, entertainment, violence, social conditioning, and the grotesque comedy of being taught to become “civilised” by creatures who are not especially convincing advertisements for civilisation.

Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer, this Peirene Press novella sits somewhere between Animal Farm, Kafka, Huxley, and a particularly grim zoo enclosure with excellent literary lighting. A strong fit for readers of translated fiction, political fable, animal narratives, posthuman fiction, and slim books that get in, do the damage, and leave before anyone can pretend they were comfortable.

Peirene Press paperback, 2016. Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer. Very good second-hand condition with light shelfwear.