"The Bat" (The Red Grouse Tales) by Leslie Garland

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Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
The Bat; a coming of age story involving a search after truth, doubt and a bat!

What is true? What is truth?

An old and now sceptical Thomas looks back on the events of his last term at school when his class returned to a new beautiful class teacher, a donation of stuffed animals and birds by an eccentric benefactor and the increasingly strange events which followed. Zoological specimens appeared to be not quite as dead as they looked. A bell-jar which had contained a stuffed bat shattered during an exorcism. Strange events then turned to being sinister and frightening.

As a then naive young Thomas searched for the truth, he found himself, questioning ‘good and evil’, realising that his task was not as simple and straightforward as he would have wished and in so doing losing his innocence and having to accept that truth may have as much to do with belief as facts.

An adult, speculative, spiritual and philosophical coming of age story.

(Warning to sensitive readers; the story is an adult one and so does contain references to sex)

My Review:

***I received this eBook as a free review copy from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review***

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” St Thomas Aquinas, 13th Century.

This quote summarizes the central theme of this book very well and is often referred back to throughout the novel.

The novella itself is part of a series of stories told by a group of friends, who meet on a weekly basis in the Red Grouse Inn. On one such night, a certain series of curious circumstances led the narrator, Thomas, of this particular tale to recount his story from his schoolboy days. The reader gradually finds out along the way about a generous, albeit mysterious, donation of decrepit stuffed zoological specimens to the old school. Ever since then, seemingly supernatural cases crop up throughout the village. All seeming to lead back to the dead stuffed animals housed within the school building.

To be honest, I haven't read many books like this before. What made this book stand apart from others, is that while it does have a storyline, it is accompanied by many theological and philosophical debates. I was more used to novels in which it is purely focused on the plot, but it is clear that in the case of this novel, the ensuing discussions spawned from the story were as important to the book as the actual tale itself.

Unexpectedly, I found that this combination worked out much better than I had anticipated at the start. The plot was interesting to follow. I felt a bit like a detective, trying to piece the story and the mysterious happenings together into a picture that might make sense and is something I can personally believe to be the correct course of events. Over the course of the novella, the reader realizes that there are in fact two stories, if not multiple, contained within one, which I actually enjoyed and fully appreciated at the end once I realized what was going on.

The core theme of the book is truth - or more accurately, our perception of the truth. The discussions and the back of forth between the different sides of the same coin were really intriguing and written in such a way that every argument had a valid point. The purpose was clear: to provoke thought and consideration in the minds of the readers. To not take all the facts of life at face-value. To perhaps look beyond the obvious and find a truth that's right for you. To question yourself: what is the truth? What is my truth? I personally really like deep discussions that might go against normal social conventions or thoughts, so I sincerely appreciated the thoughts the author put behind this novella because while it may be a quick read, there are many memorable quotes that stick in the reader's mind and thus might even impact how they perceive the world at large.

However, halfway through the book, these debates started becoming excessive to the point where I felt that many of the same arguments about belief, faith, truth and religion have been rehashed over and over again, just worded differently. Even though this is a book clearly grounded in philosophical thinking, gently prompting the reader to think about these things while continuing on with the tale instead of having entire sections of theological discussion revisited again might have been more enjoyable and captivating.

The writing style itself was pleasant to read with a lot of very elaborate imagery that conveyed the desolate atmosphere that seemed to permeate through the village after the first haunting incident occurred. It was a very sophisticated tone, but in certain parts of the story, I was unsure if it was entirely suitable for a young schoolboy and his group of friends, who I thought might not necessarily always express themselves in that way.

Due to this being a retelling of a tale, there are some transitions between the present time and the past. This has been executed very well, as I was able to distinguish, most of the time, between the present Thomas thinking about his story and interacting with his listeners and the actual Thomas uncovering the happenings in his village.

All in all, this is a short read but definitely worth the time as debates about truth are especially relevant in our current society, where news and media can document events differently and deliver their own versions of the truth, distorting our perceptions. In that way, this story, despite its supernatural and mystical elements, draws parallels to our own lives: just like in this book, we have to decide for ourselves what's true.

Final Thoughts: A well-written and thought-provoking read with strong relevance in our own culture.