Book Review: A Brief History of Mankind As Told by Animals by Joukje Akveld

 Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Een kleine geschiedenis van de mens door dierenogen.

This one seemed appealing to me! Let's have a look!

In this book, we are taken on a trip through time as we see the rise of man through the eyes of various animals over the centuries. From the first dikdik being hunted by our long-ago ancestors to the current-day animals living among us. Each animal is given a brief story to tell, accompanied by illustrations and a brief explanation by the author about the real historical context of the short story.

This was a neat idea for a book! I've definitely read books that are pretty similar to it before (such as Wolf's Heart/Wolvenhart by Annemarie van den Brink and Suzanne Wouda), but this is yet another unique take on the kind-of same concept. And both really work. 

Each story is unique and diverse, each told by a different animal (and usually different species, too) throughout history and covers another aspect of mankind and their relationship with animals. It tackles animals in various contexts, such as animals as heroes, fighters, pets, livestock, bringers of disease, or even slowly going extinct (or even being extinct). So we're not just given a rundown of mankind's history through the eyes of animals, each story is also relevant to an aspect of human-animal relationships. It makes for a diverse yet engaging read. 

The stories are all short and to-the-point, but never feel rushed and they're sometimes even written in different formats (e.g. script format), and of course the factual clarifications of the author are also a neat way to convey the truth and message of each story. Human-animal relationships are and have been rocky throughout history, and the book doesn't shy away from that. It doesn't get super graphic, but it definitely also tackles the heavier subjects such as extinction or animal abuse.

The beautiful illustrations also really elevate the tone of the book. It's a large book (not thick, but very tall and also quite wide), so we really get to take in all the details. Of course, the illustrations do not factor into my rating overall, but they were a very nice bonus. 

So yeah...overall a really solid book. Despite the huge size it's not a super long read (mostly because of the short length of each short story and their explanation), but like said before the book doesn't feel rushed, either.

Rating: 4/5