Review – The Little Snake by A.L. Kennedy

Synopsis:

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.

My Review:

I finished The Little Snake by A.L. Kennedy last night and oh my heart, it is UTTERLY UTTERLY ENCHANTING AND SO MAGNIFICENT! At the start of the book I didn’t know what I was expecting but I would never have imagined this book would affect me so much this way!

It is magical and heart-warming, it is incredibly moving and bittersweet. It is about a magical snake, an unusual snake who has befriended a little girl called Mary. It is Mary who taught the snake Lanmo what is love and how to love. In the world that Mary lives in, it is full of poverty and war, full of injustice and cruelty; but Mary’s innocence and her kind heart have proven goodness does exist in this world.

A.L.Kennedy’s writing is miraculous, lovely and humorous; but it is piercing and sad at times. It is an outstanding and endearing fictional and fantastical portrait of the current refugees crisis around the world.

This is a short book but it makes a big impact. It doesn’t need much or many pages to pull at my heart string. The Little Snake has become one of my very favourite reads this year!

Doesn’t matter if you want to read it yourself or you want to read it to your children, this is a book I highly highly recommend to all of you!

The Little Snake is out today and please do go check it out! Thank you so much Katie and Canongate for gifting me this beautiful copy to review!

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