WHAT WE FED TO THE MANTICORE

On Wildness and Communication: Exploring the Inner Lives of Animals in Fiction Talia Lakshmi Khouri on the Inspiration Behind Her Debut Collection Read more...

"set to take its rightful place among some of the best environmental fiction in recent memory." Read more...

Finalist, Carol Shields Prize for Fiction Read more...

Poland: Wydawnictwo Yumeka;

"When I first came across Talia's story “The Good Donkey” in The Common, I was gobsmacked. That story, which now opens her collection, is about a donkey and his beloved owner, who is trying to open a zoo in the middle of a warzone to bring some sense of joy to the area. He paints the donkey like a zebra because he can't afford a real zebra, and the donkey loves his owner so much he tries to make it work. But as much as they hope to spark happiness, to avoid the war, it comes for them, and they realize there's nothing that either of them can do to save themselves and the ones they hold closest. I cry every time I read this story, but it's also happy tears—to see someone writing such moving, powerful prose." — Elizabeth DeMeo, Editor, Tin House

"Kolluri's prose reads like a beautiful song as it soars over the savannah and under the sea. She has a gift for writing realistic beliefs and behaviors for her animal characters while translating their lives in ways that demonstrate what they have in common with her readers."

"This remarkable collection leaves an indelible mark." (starred review)

"WHAT WE FED THE MANTICORE is a work of incredible imagination and daring, asking us to recognize the inner lives of whales, donkeys and pigeons to be as complex and deep as our own. The stories in this collection are gorgeously written and richly emotionally textured; in Talia Kolluri's hands, the familiar world we live in comes freshly to life. I looked up from the last page to find that my own world—and my heart—had become bigger." – Claire Comstock-Gay, author of Madame Clairevoyant's Guide to the Stars "If like me, you fell in love with Fiver and Hazel and Charlotte and Wilbur as a child and have been looking ever since for stories that work that same magic—here they are. This spell-binding collection reminds us that every animal story is a human one, and every human story an animal one. These stories work like incantations." – Ayse Papatya Bucak, author of The Trojan War Museum: and Other Stories "The voicing of other species is an ancient, vulnerable, and utterly human practice. For millennia, we've placed our stories inside non-human animals not only to celebrate these creatures, but to see the ways our own natures bend and twist in a new set of stripes. The fiction in this deft collection proves that what we call 'humanity' exists within a menagerie of other beings, but it also showcases the mind of the one human animal regaling us with her singular wit and wonder. How lovely to get to know a storyteller like Talia Lakshmi Kolluri while she winks at us from inside the minds of a tiger, a vulture, a donkey, a whale." – Elena Passarello, author of Animals Strike Curious Poses “Kolluri delivers a dazzling, daring bestiary brimming over with textured, tender lives. A most magnificent debut!” – Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders

"Kolluri's exquisite menagerie will certainly resonate with animal-loving youth." (starred review)