The choice of Booker prize-winners inevitably seems to surprise and often annoy and this one was no exception. Its theme of ship-wrecked Indian boy on a lifeboat with a zebra, an orang-utan and a tiger sounds whimsically Disneyish. Don't be put off, the animals are red in tooth and claw and the tale is far from whimsy. Whether it will make you believe in God as one character suggests, I leave you to discover.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 17 February 2003 ) |
