ABOUT
THE BOOK

‘The whole purpose of magic is the fulfilment and intensification of desire’, claims the ventriloquist-narrator as he weaves together his stories of love and catastrophe. With relish and skill, The Ventriloquist’s Tale conjures vivid pictures of savannah, forest and city life in South American where love is often trumped by disaster. The characters we meet are unforgettable: Sonny, the strange, beautiful son of Beatrice and Danny, the brother and sister who have a passionate affair at the time of the solar eclipse of 1919; Father Napier, the sandy-haired evangelist whom the Indians perceive as a giant grasshopper; Chofy McKinnon, the modern Indian, torn between savannah life and urban future. Pauline Melville’s first book, a collection of short stories entitled Shape-shifter, won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for first book. The Ventriloquist’s Tale is her first novel.