THE PANTHER'S SPEECH

Le Discours de la panthère - Jérémie Moreau - 25.4 x 34.4 cm - 108 pages - October 2020 - €26.90

 

 

With all his might, a buffalo pushes at a rock wall, his horns digging into the mountainside in an attempt to move an island. For the island, you see, is doomed: a comet streaking through the sky will soon crash right into it, obliterating it completely. This much the buffalo knows. He has seen it in his dreams and says so to the monitor lizard who soon joins him in his efforts to save the island where they live.

So begins our tale, an animal allegory composed of brief vignettes. These episodes introduce us to a starling who’s lost his way mid-migration, a baby elephant learning about the history of the world, a bird who helps an ostrich change the way she looks at herself. Together, these highly evocative fables recall the delights of the La Fontaine and the tumultuous imagery of The Jungle Book. Jérémie Moreau deftly succeeds in shifting the reader’s perspective and transcending mere humanistic moral parable as the animals become fully-fledged characters in their own right, with their own lives and singular beauty.

 

​

​

​