Billy Griffiths

And his journey intersects with the 1803 Irish Rebellion, with fossil hunting on the American frontier.

and with life with First Nations peoples in America in the 19th century.

I think it's smart and funny and full of critiques about humanity, about nationalism, about masculinity, about extinction.

I think the fact that it's told from a non-human perspective allows Chris Flynn to be really quite fierce in his critiques and his observations about the ways in which humanity interacts with our society.

Yeah, it doesn't take itself seriously and that's what allows it to

to be so comic, but also to have tragedy.

And even in the book itself, it's got this meta level, this meta commentary going on at all times.

The mammoth observes that for a story to be successful, the tragedy needs to be tempered with comedy.

Even Tyrannosaurus Bata is just constantly heckling... T-Bat.

T-Bat is constantly heckling mammoth for more lols.

Come on, give us some more lols, please.

LAUGHTER

But this is, I mean, I think it's what makes it worth reading and engaging with in an enduring way as well as just this is entertaining and fun is the narrative advices that are at play, the way in which Chris Flynn is having fun with his characters

with his writing and his storytelling.

And it reminded me of a book which is completely different, and that's Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red, which is one of my favourite books, and it is told each chapter by a different narrator.

It begins, you know, I am a corpse, and the corpse tells the story of how they are.

At one point it's I am a gold coin.

And, of course, I Am Red is a chapter that explores what it is to be read.

And through that, through these different narrators, an incredibly rich world has opened up.

And to make a comparison between a Turkish classic and mammoth is perhaps a little stretch, but what's at play is...