6 Fascinating Non-Human Narrators
Although I write strictly non-fiction, the majority of what I read is fiction. Generally narrators in novels are human, and I find myself struggling at times with their believability because I spend so much time writing about what people in my life (mostly me) have thought and done.
My favorite novel of all time is Richard Adam’s classic Watership Down, about a community of anthropomorphized rabbits. I love imagining and reading about the inner workings of animals, other non-human creatures, and even inanimate objects.
While Watership Down has an omniscient third person narrator who provides the view into the rabbits’ world there are a lot of books written from the point of view of animals, and other beings and objects. Below is a list of books narrated by non-humans, which give a different take (sometimes a creepy one!) to many situations we often read as narrated by people.
6 Fascinating Non-Human Narrators
The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
Death is a fitting narrator for this young adult novel of historical fiction which is set during the Holocaust, and revolves around a young girl who steals book the Nazis want to destroy.
Delicious Foods, James Hannahaham
A woman unable to cope with her husband’s death abandons her son battles a drug addiction. This novel has multiple narrators, one of which is crack cocaine.
The Book of Chameleons – Jose Eduardo Agualusa
Narrated by a man who has been reincarnated as a gecko, this novel is a work of magical realism, translated from Portuguese, and winner of The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007.
Tiny Deaths – Robert Shearman
A woman who has been reincarnated as an ashtray narrates a portion of this short story collection.
The Art of Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein
Our canine narrator Enzo is taking stock of his life, showing us with humor and compassion, how he came to be such a wise soul.
Holy Cow – David Duchnovny
Elsie the cow is our narrator on her journey from happy farm life to discovery of what truly happens on the farm, and her search for a better life.
Who or what is your favorite non-human narrator?! What are your thoughts on reading from such a different perspective? I really enjoy it!
Lea Christensen
May 7, 2018 at 1:17 pmArt of Racing is one of my all time favorites!! One I would add is Tale of Desperaux, by Kate DiCamilo. All of her works are gorgeous!
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October 11, 2019 at 2:12 pm[…] of my posts that still gets a lot of traffic is about books with non-human narrators. Since the majority of most fiction has human protagonists and narrators, it can be fun to get a […]