FAUNA IBD

Sinopse

Fauna follows the lead of the bacon-skinned Pig with a menagerie of twisted tales about the lives and times of our fellow-feeling creatures. There are guinea pigs in the underworld, elephants in a virtual world, vengeful birds from a far-off world, and so much more beastliness. There will be nowhere for the humans to hide.'Brilliant imagination and sharp storytelling aside,áDr. David Hartley shows us a delightfully fresh way of looking at who should, really, be our closest friends.'-ááNik Perring (Author of Not So Perfect, Freaks!)á'Fiercely original, these are stories that are at times disturbing, absurd, and darkly comedic, and which refuse to conform to the constraints of time and space. A startling collection, that begs to be read aloud. Hartley is a brilliant storyteller, with the kind ofáimagination that leaves you feeling a bit fearful for your own safety.' - Lucie McKnight Hardy (Author of Water Shall Refuse Them)á'I havenâÇÖt read anything quite like these brilliant, dark and often fairy-tailish short stories. The tension is found here on the edges and boundaries: human/animal, natural/man-made, happiness/horror. With humour and an incredible versatility in voice and style - not to mention technology-hacking rabbits and horses who time travel - Hartley asks us to look hard at our own world and never, ever, underestimate the animals. ' - Tania Hershman, author of Some Of Us Glow More Than Others and My Mother Was An Upright PianoáExtract:áA Panda Appeared in Our StreetáááááA panda appeared in our street, skewered to the railing outside my house. Let me paint the picture: thereâÇÖs the road outside my house, then thereâÇÖs this long strip of grass, then thereâÇÖs the houses opposite. And the grass has got these railings all the way around it, for kids to kick their footballs off and stuff, and this panda was just there that morning, stuck on a row of the spikes, directly opposite my house.áááááSo, I went up to it and I was like that to the kids who were playing out, I was like, whoâÇÖs is this panda, lads? And they were like, dunno, dunno mate and they didnâÇÖt seem to care. So, I knocked on to my neighbour, Gail, and she comes out and IâÇÖm like, Gail. Check this out. A panda. And sheâÇÖs like, hmm, oh yeah aye. So how are you keeping Jon, are you well?áBut IâÇÖm like, Gail, itâÇÖs a panda! What should we do? And sheâÇÖs like, leave it, itâÇÖs just some kidâÇÖs toy.áááááAnd thatâÇÖs when I realised. The people of the street, they werenâÇÖt seeing the same thing I was. They were seeing a stuffed toy, like a teddy bear type thing, all synthetic fur and glass-bead eyes. But I was seeing something else. I was seeing a real-life panda skewered on a row of the railing spikes. And the poor bugger was still alive.áááááThere was blood on the floor and the panda was squirming and crying out a bit. I didnâÇÖt know what to do. I thought about trying to lift it off, but you shouldnâÇÖt do that in case you hit an artery. Or it might get angry and start attacking me, or it might run off and hurt some kid. So, I thought, ring the RSPCA, Jon, but if IâÇÖm the only one who can see itâÇÖs a real panda, they might end up locking me away instead. So, I just left it. I guess I thought someone else would figure it out, or it would free itself or something.á