Title: Giraffe /
Authors: Ledgard, J. M.
Publisher: Jonathan Cape,
Year: 2006
Subjects: Giraffe Fiction.; Zoos Czech Republic Fiction.; Czechoslovakia Fiction.
Abstract: If purely fiction Giraffe would be a tragic story, sure to touch our hearts. However, the knowledge that it is based upon an actual incident serves to make Ledgard's strong narrative even more lamentable. This listener was not only saddened but incensed. On a mild spring day in a small Czechoslovakian town 49 giraffes held in captivity were shot and dismembered. This was the largest herd of giraffes ever confined; twenty-three of them were pregnant. The slaughter was ordered by the communist government, with no explanation then or in time to come. These quiet, graceful animals had been caught in Africa and brought to a zoo. The story of their capture and eventual massacre, in Ledgard's story, serves as a political parable as seen through the eyes of Emil, who traveled with the animals, Jiri, a shooter hired to kill the giraffes, and the most poignant observer of all, Snehurka, a giraffe cow.