Giraffe

by J. M. Ledgard

Overview

An astounding novel based on the true story of the life and mysterious death of the largest herd of giraffes ever held in captivity, in a Czechoslovakian town sleepwalking through communism in the early 1970s. In 1975, on the eve of May Day, secret police dressed in chemical warfare suits sealed off a zoo in a small Czechoslovakian town and ordered the destruction of the largest captive herd of giraffes in the world. This apparently senseless massacre lies at the heart of J. M. Ledgard's haunting first novel, which recounts the story of the giraffes from their capture in Africa to their deaths far away behind the Iron Curtain. At once vivid and unearthly, Giraffe is an unforgettable story about strangeness, about creatures that are alien and silent, about captivity, and finally about Czechoslovakia, a middling totalitarian state and its population of sleepwalkers. It is also a story that might never have been told. Ledgard, a foreign correspondent for the Economist since 1995, unearthed the long-buried truth behind the deaths of these giraffes while researching his book, spending years following leads throughout the Czech Republic. In prose reminiscent of Italo Calvino and W. G. Sebald, he imbues the story with both a gripping sense of specificity and a profound resonance, limning the ways the giraffes enter the lives of the people around them, the secrecy and fear that permeate 1970s Czechoslovakia, and the quiet ways in which ordinary people become complicit in the crimes committed in their midst.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429552547
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/31/2007
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	271 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

J. M. Ledgard was born on the Shetland Islands, Scotland, in 1968, and educated in England, Scotland, and America. He has been a foreign correspondent for the Economist since 1995. He divides his time between Europe and Africa.

Editorial Reviews

Nobody is going to accuse J. M. Ledgard of lack of ambition, and in an age of timid and modest novels this is a virtue. The book is often overwritten and sometimes pretentious, but Ledgard is an interesting and serious writer, and his book remains in the mind, even if you don't entirely want it to. I was continually reminded of Harold Bloom's remark about all great books being strange: Ledgard has certainly got half the equation right. I can safely say I've never read anything quite like Giraffe, and on balance, and it's a fine balance, I think I mean that as a compliment.
—The New York Times

Geoff Nicholson

Conjures a world of fantasy and menace, balanced between dream and nightmare.

The New Yorker

Mournful yet lovely ... A bravura debut.

San Francisco Chronicle

By any standard an ambitious and remarkable first novel.... engrossing.

The New York Times Book Review

Inspired ... a literary descendant of T. S. Eliot's Wasteland.

Chicago Tribune

Based on actual events, Ledgard's somber first novel tells the story of a few dozen ill-fated giraffes brought from Africa into communist Czechoslovakia in 1973. Thirty-two giraffes, to be exact, which here become 32 towering symbols for a grim, misguided Soviet regime. The story is told by Emil, a "haemodynamicst" who's charged with safely shepherding the animals, captured in Africa, from West Germany via barge across the Iron Curtain. The narrative becomes duller, with the imagery more gray, as Emil drifts deeper into Czechoslovakia. But other voices emerge, including that of a giraffe named Snehurka (Czech for "snow white") and Amina, a sleepwalking factory worker who takes a liking to the animals when they arrive in her hometown. Amina's sections bring some grace and a touch of magical-realism to the prose that's absent elsewhere-her discussions of her dreams and factory work (she colors Christmas ornaments) brighten the story even while they expose how glum and oppressive her world has become. The herd grew to nearly 50 by April 30, 1975, when a virus forced the authorities to approve a secret purge of the animals, and more characters arrive in the chapters that relate the nightmarish task. Their perspectives-of a virologist, a sharpshooter, a slaughterhouse worker-give the book a propulsiveness that's lacking in the earlier portions. Ledgard, a Scottish-born foreign correspondent for the Economist, has clearly gone to pains to get the details of this hidden communist-era scandal, and the book might have worked better as an extended piece of reporting. Ledgard creates potent, beautifully observed passages, but his metaphorical connections are obvious-Amina's no more a sleepwalkerthan her doctrinaire comrades, and the noble giraffes can see above the walls erected by the myopic communist regime. Elegant and carefully assembled, but hobbled by a persistent solemnity.

Kirkus Reviews