Description
The hare and the hyena speak about every day matters and decide to go fishing. “The lie is the most hurtful thing in the world,” says the hare; and the hyena starts to laugh. To show his point, the hare elaborates, at the palace gates, a very special “cake” which will provoke the king’s fury and rage; after, the hare will count on the flies’ complicity, experts in all types of smells, which they will search out among the animals, who is responsible for the “cake”.
The hypothesis put forward by the hare, that the most hurtful thing in the world is the lie, is demonstrated in a fantastic and amusing story that will provoke in the reader, not only laughter, but reflection and an emotional response.
For centuries, tales have been, in many populated areas of Africa, the first schooling. Although every area has its own particular style of approaching stories, traditional African tales, besides being full of symbolic content, treasure ancestral knowledge and wisdom; it is common to expound in them cosmological and philosophical meditations about life, to rekindle forgotten values, to try to educate, guide individuals and, as in this case, to transmit teachings.
The hyena, which in this tale, takes on the hypocritical and contemptible nature of some humans, will experiment first hand, the bitter taste of the lie.
The illustrations by Roger Olmos, present expressive hyperbolic characters full of humour. With a precise and sharp line, he gives his personal view of a story that, through an amusing writing exercise, brings us close to the word, thought and cultural inheritance from the Ivory Coast.
WHITE RAVEN 2006 Special Mention PRIZE “LLIBRETER” 2006-
SPAIN CATALONIAN BOOKSELLERSE PRIZE 2006 BEST ILLUSTRATED ALBUM
Text by Paco Liván, from a popular tale from the Ivory Coast
Illustrations by Roger Olmos
Translation by Mark W. Heslop
