To Leave with the Reindeer

To Leave with the Reindeer is the account of a woman who has been trained for a life she cannot live. She readies herself for freedom, and questions its limits, by exploring how humans relate to animals. Rosenthal weaves an intricate pattern, combining the central narrative with many other voices - vets, farmers, breeders, trainers, a butcher - to produce a polyphonic composition full of fascinating and disconcerting insights. Wise, precise, generous, To Leave with the Reindeer takes a clear-eyed look at the dilemmas of domestication, both human and animal, and the price we might pay to break free.

Olivia Rosenthal is a French novelist and teacher of creative writing. She lectures at Université Paris VIII, where she and a colleague founded one of the first Creative Writing MA programmes in France. Winner of numerous prizes, including the Prix Wepler, the Prix du Livre Inter and the Prix Alexandre-Vialatte, she is the author of a dozen novels. Rosenthal has also written plays and worked as a performance artist, collaborating with filmmakers, writers and directors for numerous festivals.