Of course that is what it makes the book all the more powerful – for all their differences in culture and status from most of those who will be reading the book, the characters are easy to identify with and very real. From the frustrations of the doctor as to why people won't come to her clinic, and her growing realization of how foreign doesn't just apply to nationality, but life experience as well, to the brutal self-assessments of Animal when he examines his own motivations, they all have traits we can recognise or feelings we can associate with.
Animal's People is about people who are forced to live in brutal circumstances yet never surrender to them, and continue to rise above them on a daily basis in the slim hope that some day will bring improvement. Sinha manages to incorporate enough moments of beauty into their world to offer a small measure of justification for their hope. A small measure may not seem like much, but to a parched soul, it is a bounty.
Animal's People is a wonderful book about a horrible set of circumstances that might just change the way you look at the faces staring back at you in the newspaper from photos of a disaster on the other side of the world. Aid agencies are too quick to turn people into victims and doing them a disservice. Indra Sinha takes steps to reverse that process and turn them back into human beings.
Animal's People by Indra Sinha is available for purchase by Canadians from the Simon & Schuster web site or an online retailer like Amazon Canada
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