A bestseller in the author's native country of Estonia, where the book
is so well known that a popular board game has been created based on it,
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 worshipped in the
forest's sacred grove.
With lothario bears who wordlessly seduce women, a giant louse with a
penchant for swimming, a legendary flying frog, and a young charismatic
viper named Ints, The Man Who Spoke Snakish is a totally inventive
novel for listeners of David Mitchell, Sjon, and Terry Pratchett.
