Ramsay Wood
His second volume of fables from Kalila and Dimna picks up where the first left off – covering deceit, political skullduggery, murder, enemies, deadly monsters, kings, bees, princesses, monkeys, lions, crocodiles and how we all live and die together in peace or conflict. This is a book full of outrageously behaved animals and humans doing the most delightfully awful (yet sometimes gentle) things to each other. These are joyous, sad, amusing and sometimes brutal stories; their function being to educate both king and commoner alike in the ways of the world, the harsh realities that can often lurk beneath the surface of our cozy, everyday subjectivity.
‘Unique retelling… may well jolt literary sensibilities tuned to the solemnity or quaintness of our best known versions of animal fables.’ San Francisco Chronicle
‘When Ramsay Wood retells a story he makes a proper job of it: not for him those pale imitations of a noble original…His style is vigorous, unrepentantly colloquial, and yet – in case your purist’s soul by now is shrivelling – his text retains a high degree of that bardic dignity proper to the classic fable. As a result these stories come alive in a manner altogether uncommon and very pleasantly bracing.’ The Times
‘A beautiful book full of mirth and human interest and unsentimental wisdom and vigorous writing.’ Boston Globe
‘A must-read for anyone interested in the masterpieces of world literature – or just in a totally engrossing and entertaining reading experience. This book is an amazing gift to all of us who love good stories and great storytelling!’ Lisa Alther
‘An intricately woven web of some of the world’s oldest and greatest stories, sweetly and humorously retold, and begging to be read aloud to a new generation of listeners.’ William Dalrymple
‘These stories speak to and belong to the whole of humanity… What Ramsay has done over the last thirty years is to have made the version for our time.’ From the Introduction by Michael Wood
‘Sans frontière linguistique ni culturelle, ces fables ignorent aussi ce du temps. Au sein du recueil, les paradoxes temporels abondent.’ Le Monde
Sales
- Elex Media Indonesia
- Medina World UK & US
- Acantilado World Spanish
- Editions Desclée de Brouwer France
Material: finished copies (225pp)