House of Tribes

by Garry Kilworth

In every mouse's long life, there comes a time when ancestral voices tell him to move on. Pedlar, a yellow-necked mouse, has reached that point. Told to leave the Hedgerow and go on a long journey, the adventurous mouse says his farewells and sets out for a far-distant country knows as The House. Reaching his destination, Pedlar enters a strange new world inhabited by many warring tribes: the Stinkhorns of the cellar, the great Savage Tribe in the kitchen, the library Bookeaters, the Invisibles, the Deathshead and the rebellious 13-K Gang.

Genres: Fantasy, Animals, Fiction, Animal Fiction, Childrens, Adventure

292 pages

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Garry Douglas Kilworth is a historical novelist who also published sci-fi, fantasy, and juvenile fiction.

Kilworth is a graduate of King's College London. He was previously a science fiction author, having published one hundred twenty short stories and seventy novels.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Kilworth animal tale, one of what I refer to as his animal Quartet. House of Tribes is about mice, once mouse in particular, Pedlar. Pedlar was a Hedgerow mouse who felt called to enter the House, where he meets the house mice who are divided into various tribes. Eventually the tribes until to fulfill a quest or two.

This book is charming. I love the fact that the various species of animals (mice, cats, and dog) speak different, if recognizable languages. The mice are different enough, and there is a sense of community.

There are some wonderful uses of humor in this novel as well.

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's so much I love about this book that its hard to sum it up in a few words. It is so unique and entertaininig that I wish it was more well-known; it certainly deserves it. The plot is brilliant and even though its not perfect, it is a very good read and will give you a whole new respect for mice. Pedlar's voice isn't entirely convincing but there are lots of mouse-idioms to remind you who is speaking which is nice.

I'm not a big reader of these books with animal antagonists but whenever I read one I wish I did it more often and House of Tribes is no exception. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes these kinds of books because it is equally funny and grippping, with characters that will stay with you long after you put it down.

[Asha Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't a children's book!

Honestly, I picked it up in a used books store because it had obviously been donated as part of a Gary Kilworth collection and every single one of the covers enchanted me. I bought them all. I did indeed judge them all by their covers.

I was a seriously advanced reader when I was young, at about 8 I had a reading age of 15 or so and I think this would have been one of my absolute favourites. I did love it now as a 34yr old, don't get me wrong, but everything about this would ahve been what young me would have devoured.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a child I loved animal stories; Dick King-Smith, The Animals of Farthing Wood series by Colin Dann, The Deptford Mice series by Robin Jarvis and the Redwall series by Brian Jacques were among my favourites. I was after a light read, so I decided to try this book. It was nice to delve into this genre again as an adult! The book is about a mouse called Pedlar who leaves his home in The Hedgerow to seek his fortune in a strange and far-off land known as The House. Once there, he encounters warring tribes of mice, who end up calling a truce and joining forces to purge The House of the nudniks (humans), whom the mice consider pests. This book was very imaginative and humorous. A charming Sunday afternoon read.

[Nacho A. A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This House of Tribes is a safe haven for me. I've read it quite a few times and no matter how many rereadings I still enjoy the fun in the little puns, the witty language registers, the charming tonto-ness of Flegm and Phart, the clans, the adventure, the quest, the extraordinary hidden nature of an ordinary thing such as a house... the nice experience of revisiting a juvenile, comfortable, long known cozy place of days aback. 12 year old, saturday evening, cold outside, lying on a sofa, sipping hot cocoa, "just a few pages more...", 3 AM...

I always thought that House of Tribes would make a superb animated TV show or, even, a striking musical. ¿Any producers out there?

Garry Kilworth is a charming soul and it shows in this and all of his many other books. ¿Is House of Tribes the perfect book? Well, maybe not, but who cares. I enjoy Kilworths's stories with a spirit of adventure, fantasy and suspension of belief right from page 1.

Warning: Kilworth's are not children book but adult narrative.

[Patsy Goodsir · Rating 5 out of 5]

House of Tribes is one of the most enchanting books I have ever read. I came across a copy of it while holidaying abroad and pleaded with the apartment owner to let me bring it home. Our hero Pedlar is a character that I will always remember. I loved the whole aspect of the different mouse tribes and all their dastardly deeds. The library mice being so full of knowledge because they ate so many words made me smile for weeks. The book is full of humour and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to escape this mad, mad world. Hooray for Pedlar !! Loved the detailed map showing the layout of the house. What an amazing piece of work.

[Set Sytes · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 - although it's possible that the .5+ might be coming from nostalgia...

Really recommended for anyone who likes animal stories, such as Watership Down, Farthing Wood, Redwall and the Deptford Mice books.

[Tomek Fijałkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ze wszystkich nieprzeczytanych w tym roku książek najmniej nie przeczytałem powieści "Dom obiecany" pióra Garry'ego Kilwortha. Sam nie wiem, dlaczego tak łatwo przyszło mi odłożyć ten tekst, który początkowo mnie naprawdę uwiódł. Być może trzeba wielkiej sztuki, by utrzymać moją uwagę na przestrzeni dłuższej niż 250-300 stron.



I nie, nie żałuję porzucenia jakiejkolwiek książki nawet na 25 stron przed finałem. I nie, nie uważam, że nie mam prawa wypowiadać się o danym tekście, gdy nie przeczytałem całości.



Nawet nie pytajcie, ile razy napisałem sensownie o książce, którą ledwie napocząłem...



"Dom obiecany" to typowe animal fantasy z całym dobrodziejstwem żywego inwentarza. Bohaterem jest mysz o imieniu Handlarz, którzy wiedzie spokojną i przewidywalną egzystencję w swojskim Żywopłocie. Pewnego dnia śnią mu się głosy przodków, które mobilizują go, by rzucił wszystko i ruszył w kierunku Domu, gdzie rozliczne rozproszone mysie plemiona najwidoczniej czekają na swojego pomniejszego Zbawiciela...



Znakomicie się to wszystko czytało. Żabia (czyli mysia) perspektywa w odświeżający sposób nakazuje nam spojrzeć na wszechświat prowincjonalnej angielskiej posiadłości, którą wypełniają niedostrzegalne dla ludzi istoty - myszy, szczury, sowy, nornice. Cała ta menażeria tworzy odrębny kosmos, wszechświat rządzący się swoimi prawami, tworzący prawa, religię, pielęgnujący własne przestrzenie sacrum i profanum. Od piwnic po strych uparcie trwa utajone życie. "Gęstość" materii powieści w zdumiewający sposób pozwala ujrzeć w tej historii jakieś dziwne odbicie wielkich epickich narracji ludzkości, opowieści podbitych niemal biblijnym oddechem.



Początkowo chciałem tę książkę przeczytać dzieciakom własnym, ale brutalne sceny mysich pojedynków, ludzkie sadystyczne dziecko torturujące pochwycone gryzonie lub erotyczne ekscesy bohaterów skutecznie wybiły mi ten pomysł z głowy.



Dodatkową komplikacją wydawała mi się wielowątkowość powieści. Wszelkie historie o "mesjaszach" starają się nie spuszczać wzroku z protagonisty. To wokół niego koncentrują się wydarzenia, a wątki poboczne służą co najwyżej rozjaśnieniu nielicznych pobocznych korytarzy tekstu. W przypadku "Domu obiecanego" mamy w sumie kilka opowieści konkurujących z głównym, brzmiącym najapetyczniej, wątkiem. I to mnie mocno drażniło, gdyż nie wszystkie pomysły autora wydawały mi się wystarczająco atrakcyjne.



Cóż... Można sięgnąć i sprawdzić. Ja już sobie tę powieść umieściłem w konkretnym miejscu mojego czytelniczego wszechświata i mogę z całą odpowiedzialnością o niej opowiadać. A Wy po przeczytaniu tego omówienia też już coś tam wiecie...



Czołem!

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garry Kilworth’s House of Tribes is in a genre I’ve got a low-key fondness for where the author takes the point of view of animals. Watership Down is probably the best, it manages to feel like what it might be to be a rabbit as well as being a compelling story. Laline Paull’s The Bees had difficulty merging the alienness of insect life and the human-ness of fiction. House of Tribes is certainly a novel about mice, but it doesn’t feel like a novel from a mouse’s perspective.

It’s a sort of town mouse and country mouse tale. Pedlar, a mouse from the hedgerow is told by the spirits of his ancestors to head for the nearby house because he is the one chosen to lead them. The house is occupied by various tribes. It was fun how they were differentiated, the Savage tribe had Viking-ish names and guarded the holy larder, the Bookeaters live in the library and are driven to mysticism by their literary diet, the mice in the attic name everything ironically. There’s also a sort of Jedi/Biblical Judge mice who have special martial arts and dispense wisdom.

It seems cruel to harken back to Watership Down but the stories of El-ahraira seemed to be both truly mythic and also truly rabbit, the half-arsed mysticism in House of Tribes simply doesn’t have that weight. Mouse culture in general doesn’t seem all that well-developed. A lot is made of mouse longevity, they time things in hours and a week is regarded as a long time. A really old mouse might live up to 500 nights - this means that things that might not seem old to a human reader come from time immemorial to the mice, that’s a nice touch.

Each chapter in the book is named after a cheese. Cheese is represented as the most valuable and brilliant comedy in mouse culture. I know mice are represented as loving cheese, but they prefer grains and nuts, this adds to the feeling the book is written about cartoon mice rather than real mice.

I’ve had mice in houses I’ve lived in, but the residents of this house (though depicted as old) have really let it go to have so many mice in and around their house, not to mention the rat. I did enjoy the mouse’s view of humans as huge, lumbering, guzzling imbeciles and the twist following the great human drive.

House of Tribes is an enjoyable book. The characters and perspective are fun, there’s lots going on but it’s not a great book. For that is needs to be far more grounded in the reality of being a mouse and needs to have more imaginative investment in a mouse’s experience of the world.

[Cownose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about mice doing stuff. :3

Seeing human things interpreted through non-human eyes is always interesting, the different cultures that live in different parts of the House are cool (the Bookeaters and Invisibles are my favorites), and the dramatic irony with the mice not understanding how the pantry gets refilled is funny—until they end up in a famine because of their (admittedly understandable) anti-human efforts.

And, of course, as is practically a rite of passage for any xenoficiton book, there is graphic mouse violence.

My only other notes are these:

1. The chapter names being cheese names is a good touch.

2. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the mysterious exploding object that Gorm and his lackeys got onto at the end was a blimp lol.

3. And it's a shame that Pedlar's daughter's name is... that...

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very strange book which I never would have picked up myself but was given by a then student because he thought it would appeal to me. It is written from the point of view of a wild mouse (Pedlar) who goes on an adventure to a house and meets all the house mice. The house mice have organised themselves into tribes and fight over food. Eventually they decide to work together so they can have the larder to themselves, so they organise the great Nudnik (human) drive to get the house to themselves. Obviously, this doesn't end up so great as the larder is no-longer replenished. They then have to find a new house as they realise they can't fend for themselves.
It's a fun little adventure and a novel way to look at the world.

[Kat Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Garry Kilworth's best animal xenofiction books with quality rivaling Hunter's Moon. It incorporates fantasy and black comedy so well that it was such a page turner. The magical systems, while not the main focus of the book, were so unique and so perfectly incorporated for a mouse society.
The book isn't perfect as the main character Pedlar was a bit of a generic hero, but he had agency so he drove the story forward. Plus, there are parts that drag a bit in the middle of the book but other than that, I would highly recommend.
A side note: this is not a children's book as it does cover some more mature themes and the horror descriptions are quite brutal.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good idea, but not fully developed

Fantastic premise for book, the complexities of social and political issues are reflected in this little mousey kingdom. In fact even though this book was written over two decades ago, the issues are still very contemporary and there is a bit of resemblance between Gorm-the-old and present political leaders that own hotel chains! But the writing is very uneven, while some thoughts and sections of story are seamless other parts feel jarring and unfinished. But worth a read.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had already read 3 other books by Kilworth before "House of Tribes". Kilworth is a great writer and is able to let the animals in his story become unique characters.
House of Tribes is a lovely story, I liked it very much, though I needed some time to warm up to it. Also I think it is a bit slow in some parts and I would have liked to know a bit mord of Pedlar's journey in the end.

A very nice story, though not as deep and thoughtful as Hunter's Moon or Frost Dancers.

[Kate Fromings · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this multiple times as it's a quick, easy novel to get into.

In the way of Animal Farm or The Carpet People, a foreign world is created out of the smaller creatures which relates politically to human life.

I enjoy reading this time and again because the map of the house and the names of the tribes really help set the scene. I would class it as YA fiction, some elements are a little dark, but overall it's a interesting adventure - from the point of view of a mouse!

[Lone Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of yellow-necked mouse Pedlar, who leaves his hedgerow home and travels to the house of the title. Here, warring tribes of mice live alongside humans and their pets – enemies whom the mice conspire to drive out. It’s a fairly entertaining story, but there are a few factual errors and cases of animals using human terms of which they would have no knowledge.

[KP · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my second read, and took a while to raise that is not the story of pedlar, it's the story of the house of tribes, all of the mice. I enjoyed the way the wheels turn as the turnings of the season.

[Thistle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Told from a mouse's POV... I'm not sure more than that. The writing style just didn't work for me at all and I DNFed it pretty quickly. He's written a ton of books, so the issue is probably me and not him.

[Gregory Shea Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read. Entertaining and easy read.

[Chee Keong]

House Of Tribes the story book about mouse🐁🐭and rats🐀🐹 is my second favourite Garry Kilworth's story book after this story book of his called Frost Dancer the story about hares🐰🐇.

[Sally Cripe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great escape. I adored it. I was really there with Pedler. I was really there in the outside, and in the inside. This book was so delightful. Character buildup was slow, but rewarding.

[Azerane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enter a world familiar yet told from the perspective of a yellow-necked mouse, Pedlar. An engaging insight into the world of mice, imaginative and amusing. Along the lines of an in-depth retelling of Aesop's fable, The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.

[Sus anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ich dachte es wäre ganz süß... zum einschlafen hat’s gereicht. :D

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a reread for me. I had read it eons ago and I didn't mean to re-read it, but it happened...I read the first few pages again and I was hooked.

What can I say? This novel is like Watership Down with a dash of Warriors cats, if I had to compare it to something. The animal characters are well written with different Tribes: each with their unique specialties and quirks.Adding in folklore and legends, that made the tribes all the richer for it. I'm not going to lie it gave me the heebie jeebies at a few parts, because I'm not a huge fan of rodents, but still I loved this book. The only things that bothered me was Pedlar seemed to be a bit of a Gary Stu, definitely had the "I'm Special and I know it" vibe to the guy. Some parts did drag, but over all well written. I think I'm going to have to read my other Garry Kilworth novels I have been neglecting.

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me several months to read this, but that in no way reflects how clever and entertaining House of Tribes is. Kilworth brings his animal characters to life in this fantasy adventure about mice and their devious plot to upset a house of humans. It is the story of Pedlar, a yellow-necked mouse who embarks on a 'journey of discovery'. House of Tribes has it all - action and adventure, romance, humour... Perhaps what is most clever is that Kilworth has given us a tale about the human race all through the eyes of a tiny mouse. Kids young and old should enjoy this.

[Franziska · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had already read 3 other books by Kilworth before "House of Tribes". Kilworth is a great writer and is able to let the animals in his story become unique characters.
House of Tribes is a lovely story, I liked it very much, though I needed some time to warm up to it. Also I think it is a bit slow in some parts and I would have liked to know a bit mord of Pedlar's journey in the end.

A very nice story, though not as deep and thoughtful as Hunter's Moon or Frost Dancers.

[Stina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love this book. The characters are so charming and it is very fun to be in the mind of a mouse and see how stupid we humans must look!

[Ice Bear · Rating 4 out of 5]

My wife read this book first and passed it over to me. Lovely story about an abandoned House, or not as it turns out. A good perspective view from ground level to the world we see differently.