Hermine: Ein Tierleben

by Maria Beig

"It is the extraordinary empathy of the protagonist of Maria Berg's Hermine: An Animal Life that coaxes the reader forward from one fractured fable to the next. Hermine's ability to be moved and terrified by the plight of the lowliest and most expendable creatures on the farm she grows up on is an empathy in short supply in her family, where Mother threatens to throw a frightened child to an angry sow. Hermine is the pariah of the human as well as the animal brood, but it is the animal life that will eventually hold redemptive promise for her because, as she tells a herd of war-addled deer, 'There is nothing in the world so wicked as humankind.' This novel shimmers darkly with the penumbra that haunts the 'visionary gleam' of childhood" Kellie Wells

"How Angela Carter would have loved this chimaera--a bestiary and memory book in which creatures take on malefic and revelatory powers. Imagine Bruegel's rural scenes etched into the blackest of glass and held up to the moon. As our world empties of animals, this extraordinary book raises the question: how can our imagination survive their loss?" --Rikki Ducornet

117 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[S̶e̶a̶n̶]

A lot of violence done by animals and done to animals, though it grows gentler toward the end.

[Taylor Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Matthew Neill Null for recommending this one.

[Matt Jaeger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly conceived and executed, a life of a woman as told through the context of the animals she encounters in her life. Perhaps a bit too morose, however.

[KC · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thumbnail description of this book is incorrect. It's meant for another book.

Hermine: An Animal Life is some of my favorite kind of writing. Seemingly simple, very specific, fragmentary, with a ruthless narrator you may not trust.
The sum of all that is incredibly powerful, beautiful, timeless, mesmerizing.

[Russel · Rating 5 out of 5]

one cool fucking zoo 10/10 highly recommend even tho you could probably file this under Not Really My Thing (there are ZERO explosions but the formal presentation of the book is punk enough that you find your self almost not missing them though really couldn't we at least have blown up a deer just one fucking deer maybe an owl maybe some of those german kids too)

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This deserves more readers.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful surprise of a book.