Destiny can take many shapes.  For Henry, a writer struggling to finish a book about the Holocaust, it arrives in the form of a puzzling envelope from a stranger.

The envelope takes him into a taxidermist's workshop.  Filled with lovingly preserved animals from all corners of the globe, this place is unlike anywhere he has ever been.  Among the hundreds of stuffed animals are Beatrice and Virgil: a monkey and a donkey, they are also the characters in a play the taxidermist is writing. When the taxidermist asks Henry for help with the play, he is drawn in.  But what is the play actually about?  What have the animals suffered at the hands of the author?  Who is he?  And what does he really want from Henry?

With the imaginative reach and spirit that helped Life of Pi delight over seven million readers around the world, Beatrice and Virgil asks profound questions about violence, kindness, and the power of stories to change us.

About the Author

Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963. After studying philosophy at Trent University, Yann spent a number of years travelling abroad until he decided to devote himself to his writing at the age of twenty-seven. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed 2002 Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi, which has been published in forty-five territories, sold over seven million copies worldwide, and spent fifty-seven weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Yann's collection of short stories, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and his first novel, Self, were published internationally to critical acclaim. He lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.