The book is the popular young adult novel, “The Man who Spoke Snakish.” by Estonian author Andrus Kiviräh.
The Man Who Spoke Snakish is the imaginative and moving story of a boy who is tasked with preserving ancient traditions in the face of modernity. Set in a fantastical version of medieval Estonia, The Man Who Spoke Snakish follows a young boy, Leemet, who lives with his hunter-gatherer family in the forest and is the last speaker of the ancient tongue of snakish, a language that allows its speakers to command all animals. But the forest is gradually emptying as more and more people leave to settle in villages, where they break their backs tilling the land to grow wheat for their “bread” (which Leemet has been told tastes horrible) and where they pray to a god very different from the spirits worshiped in the forest’s sacred grove.
There will be a discussion on campus with Professor Thomas A. DuBois, Chair of UW-Madison Department of German, Nordic and Slavic, for members of the Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS) book-club.
For more information about joining the international book-club please contact IRIS Assistant Director for Outreach, Nancy Heingartner, nheingartner@wisc.edu