A couple of years ago, I finally read The Giver, a book that students at my writing programme recommended to me time and again when we were studying dystopia, mythopoeia, fantasy … almost anything, in fact.
And that’s the book that kept coming to mind as I read Aparna Kapur’s An Absence of Squirrels.
An Absence of Squirrels is a fantastical, dystopian story about a perfect leader who wants only the best for her perfect island.
Once, however, she was compared to a squirrel, and ever since then she’s hated those creatures. And that’s why, the tooth-shaped island of Thutta is made even more idyllic by a complete absence of squirrels. In fact, even saying the word “squirrel” leads to memory erasure brought to you by a hat that assures you that the Captain is everything that is perfect. You can trust her. She knows what’s good for the island.
Enter Katli–or a profusion of Katlis, our protagonist.
Why a profusion?
Because each day, Katli decides which Katli she wants to be. The agreeable one, anxious to please; or the irritable one who is impossible to like. The detective, or the model schoolchild. And each day, she is different.
For me, this was the loveliest idea in the book, even though I would have liked to dwell on it just a bit less. Katli is organised and systematic about whether she wants to be Katli One or Katli Seven. But I think everyone goes through something similar. Who should we be? How should we act so that people will like us? I loved the idea of donning a persona each day, or switching from one to another as situations change.
Humorous, imaginative and pacy, An Absence of Squirrels is a quirky book that kept me reading. Chapter numbers (and their absence) made me chuckle. The fact that squirrels (both word and creature) form the seed of a revolution against the all-powerful leader is an utterly delightful idea. While I would have liked just a little more from the end after the elaborate plans the schoolchildren lay, I enjoyed this unusual dystopian story, which is lighthearted and fun, rather than ominous and gloomy.
| Title | An Absence of Squirrels |
| Author | Aparna Kapur |
| Tags | Dystopia, Fantasy, Humour, Middle-Grade |
| Ages | 10+ |
| Rating (out of 5) | 4 |
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