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The Axeman's Carnival

Catherine Chidgey · Literary Fiction

37 Pulse Score

Based on recommendations from independent creators

coming of agefound family
coming of age

#436 All Time

About this book

"If it keeps me awake," says Marnie's husband Rob, a farmer, "I'll have to wring its neck." But with Tama come new possibilities for the couple's future. Tama can speak, and his fame is growing. Outside, in the pines, his father warns him of the wickedness wrought by humans. Indoors, Marnie confides in him about her violent marriage. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worlds--and all the precarity, darkness and hope within them--bleed into one another. Like a stock truck filled with live cargo, the story moves inexorably towards its dramatic conclusion: the annual Axeman's Carnival. Part trickster, part surrogate child, part witness, Tama the magpie is the star of this sto

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