Nataka and the Backward God

Not a simple children's story: Nataka the Protean is arguing with her raven and pottering around her dishevelled garden when in an unguarded moment she allows herself to be spotted and dragged off to a nursing home. But before she goes, she fulfils the heartfelt wish of one desperately suffering animal. Little does she know that she has set in motion a chain of events with life-changing consequences for both herself and everyone around her, and is embarking on a perilous and harrowing journey of self-discovery. Assume that all animals are capable of reasoning and feeling as we do. Assume that Nataka, an Immortal commanding countless illusions and enchantments, has existed in our midst since time immemorial. How might we humans, who consider ourselves the apex species on this planet, be perceived by such an entity and her non-human companions? How might they describe our behaviours and beliefs? And how might they respond when confronted with human suffering, love, cruelty, greed and atonement? ... Above all, how might a being that lacked only the capacity to feel emotion react if she were suddenly to discover what it is to love, grieve and resent? This novel defies categorisation. It is a story of love (and hate), at once unapologetically sentimental and subversive; action packed, reflective, angry, tragicomic, fantastical and satirical. It invites us to reflect on what it means to be both human and animal, on the tension between morality, ideology, compassion and greed, and on the absurdities inherent in many of our most dearly-held values and traditions.