"There are so many stories to tell in this world. There is the sleeping girl, the old man with regrets, the captive princess. There is vengeance on parents; there are star-crossed lovers, adventurous youth and all different kinds of lonely people. There are heroes, and villains, and quests. And then there are all the stories about the animals and magical creatures." - Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, in What We Fed to the Manticore. 

Writing from the POV of an animal is not new, but in What We Fed to The Manticore, Talia Lakshmi Kolluri takes the familiar, and elevates it. There is nothing trite or boring about these stories, the seeds of some of which one may have come across as a newspaper headline, or a social media post. 

As varied as her characters, are the settings of the stories — from the deep sea, to war torn Gaza, to the crowded, claustrophobic streets of Delhi and the magical mangroves of the Sundarbans, we journey, and because these stories are told to us by our fellow earthlings who are much more intertwined with their surroundings than we humans are, this sense of place is crucial. 

"The white bear thought of the fox's prints in the snow that same way he thought about stars. When he watched the night sky, he felt that they rotated around a point and that he sat at the center. And he was at the center of the fox's dancing paw prints at they made their way across the snow, across the ice, and into the sea, where her prints vanished as if into a darkened dawn." - Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, in What We Fed to the Manticore. 

The stories aren't too long — there are no words wasted, and yet we get a richness of description and emotion. There is tenderness here, and wisdom. In dealing with the themes of climate change, and human excess and greed, these stories explore the complexity and depth of how our non-human cohabitants may perceive these.  Take these following lines from the title story, What We Fed to the Manticore, that are a beautiful description of the sort of hopelessness that depression brings — and surely, if we humans can be led to depression due to environmental causes, surely, animals, who are so much connected to their environment, must feel that same sense of helpless and despair too? 
"I was frightened, and I didn't feel like a tiger anymore, just a feeble attempt at what I believed a tiger to be. I was nearly worthless. I thought I should offer myself to the Manticore. He would eat all that was left of me — then no trace of my emptiness would remain." - Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, in What We Fed to the Manticore. 

There is heartbreak, and grief, yes, but also friendship and love, and hope. 

'The Hunted, The Haunted, The Hungry, The Tame,' and 'The Open Ocean Is an Endless Desert,' are my favourites of the bunch, though every story has its own special bit of magic. Every bit as reflective and beautiful as the stories, is the Author's Note at the end, that encourages the reader to consider themselves from the perspective of the creatures around them. What does the grasshopper that lives among the flowers in my patio garden think of me, I wonder — or am I being much too egoistic in assuming that I matter to it at all? 

As I attempt to create the world I want to live in, as I become more aware of interdependence, and how that world must be an equal and kind place not just for fellow humans but for every life form on this planet, I see how books like this are a necessary read.