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The Little Snake cover image

ABOUT THIS BOOK

PUBLISHER: Canongate Books

FORMAT: Hardback

ISBN: 978-1786893864

RRP: £9.99

PAGES: 144

PUBLICATION DATE:
November 8, 2018

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The Little Snake

A. L. Kennedy

This is the story of Mary, a young girl born in a beautiful city full of rose gardens and fluttering kites. When she is still very small, Mary meets Lanmo, a shining golden snake, who becomes her very best friend.

The snake visits Mary many times, he sees her city change, become sadder as bombs drop and war creeps in. He sees Mary and her family leave their home, he sees her grow up and he sees her fall in love. But Lanmo knows that the day will come when he can no longer visit Mary, when his destiny will break them apart, and he wonders whether having a friend can possibly be worth the pain of knowing you will lose them.

From one of Britain’s most gifted and celebrated writers, The Little Snake is a magical and deeply moving fable about the journey we all take through life, about love and family, about war and resilience, about how we live in this world, and how we leave it.

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A. L. Kennedy

In 1993, A.L. Kennedy featured on a Granta list of Best Young British Novelists (along with such luminaries as Kazuo Ishiguro, Iain Banks, Hanif Kureishi, Ben Okri, and Alan Hollinghurst, to name but a few) and did not subsequently disappoint: her work has been consistently original, exciting and ground breaking.

Born Alison Louise Kennedy in Dundee in 1965, she attended school in Dundee before taking a degree in Theatre Studies and Drama at Warwick University. After a series of jobs, she began her writing career with the short story collection, Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains, published by Polygon in 1991. That was followed up by a succession of highly-acclaimed novels and short story collections. Kennedy has recently been seen on the stage with a stand-up act: a brave move, as she is a writer who does not court the limelight willingly.