From Publishers Weekly
In Christopher's magical fifth novel, a sympathetic history teacher takes an interest in quiet, studious Xeno Atlas, who has developed a burning interest in real and imaginary animals. I first heard of the
Caravan Bestiary when I was fifteen years old, and it changed the course of my life, Xeno declares. The young man undertakes a quest to find the ancient manuscript, which describes animals left off Noah's Ark (including the Catoblepas, a white bird with divining powers) and was assumed lost many years ago. The search entails an around-the-world journey, wherein Xeno learns the answers to long-standing family mysteries, uncovers a wealth of lost knowledge and finds true love with his best friend's sister, the lovely Lena Moretti. Christopher (
A Trip to the Stars) also saddles his protagonist with a dead mother; a mysterious, perpetually grieving, peripatetic father; a shape-shifting shamanistic grandmother; and a lonely, troubled childhood. His evocative prose yields a narrative loaded with fascinating arcana and intriguing characters.
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--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
Influenced by his grandmother's fanciful bedtime stories, punctuated by realistic animal sounds, Xeno Atlas is fascinated by animal lore and mythological beasts. A lonely boy stuck in a dysfunctional-mold-breaking family—a dead mother, an estranged uncle, a shape-shifting grandmother, and an uncommunicative, absentee father—Xeno eschews childhood pastimes, pursuing instead scholarly clues to an ancient Caravan Bestiary: an illuminated record of animals denied passage on Noah's Ark. Over time, Xeno increasingly identifies with these misunderstood, extinct, and imaginary animals (even creating some of his own), preferring dragons and hippogryphs to beastly humans. His adult travels take him full circle to his Cretan ancestral roots and to unexpected answers, finally tying up the story's vexatious loose ends. Despite the author's signature use of magic realism, tantalizing references to a rich spiritual plane, a wounded hero, and a lost manuscript, the novel's potential falls somewhat flat under the weight of its leisurely pace and overabundant detail, lacking the emotive power of Byatt's Possession or the atmospheric tension of Zafon's Shadow of the Wind. Still, readers of those and similar works will find some satisfaction here. Baker, Jennifer
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
