When you first hear about author Yann Martel’s new book, you may be unsure of how to react. It’s not often that you hear of a metaphorical story about the Holocaust from the eyes of two animals.
“A work of nonfiction is more ambiguous, readers invest [their own interpretations],” Martel said. “I don’t want to dictate how people read it, but it was inspired by the Holocaust and what that means for the readers is up to them to decide.”
Martel, who has always been horrified by stories about the Holocaust, isn’t Jewish or European himself. The author recalls reading about the genocide when he was younger and the impact that pieces of literature such as The Diary of Anne Frank had on him.
“[I remember] just being horrified and feeling for the drama,” Martel said. “We talk about it, and we forget about the fact that it was six million victims, all people with names and personalities. One quarter of them were children.”
With his new book, Beatrice and Virgil, the author wrote a story commenting on those unthinkable acts from his own outside perspective.
“In the beginning of the novel one character, the writer, is writing about the Holocaust,” Martel said, “and that allowed me to write about the Holocaust.”
Martel explains that the character, Henry, is in some ways autobiographical, and was a way to include himself in the dialogue of the story. Henry is a writer in the story, and so is Martel. He is multilingual—speaking English, Spanish and French, and Henry is multilingual as well.
“In a way, Henry can also symbolize the Jews in Europe,” Martel said. “He’s very gifted in the arts, plays the clarinet, is an amateur actor. He’s multilingual, and the Jews of Europe were also multilingual.”
But this still doesn’t answer the question you might be thinking—why use animals when talking about such a sensitive topic?
“I find animals to be useful when telling a story. People are less cynical about animals, especially wild animals,” Martel said. “Since I’m not directly related [to the Holocaust] I can approach it and add to the conversation.”
Martel was also very careful when it came to choosing the animals for the story. He decided to use positive stereotypes of Jewish people, as a way to determine which animals would best suit the story.
“I needed two animals to represent Jewish people, and I wanted the two to be in dialogue,” Martel said. “They can be representative of other things too, depending on how readers read the book.”
Although we know that the story is partly about the Holocaust, Martel made sure the story was left slightly ambiguous to allow the readers to draw their own conclusions. He never provides a disclaimer as to where the story is taking place, and wants readers to think about the Holocaust as more than something that happened a long time ago.
“The fact is there will not likely be a genocide in Portland, Ore.,” Martel said. “But the process starts with the disrespect of groups. This kind of ‘Holocaustal behavior’ is part of the reason why the Germans started on that horrible road.”