"The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel" by Magdalena Zyzak *****

• A LibraryThing Early Reviewer selection
• Polish author
• Scheduled for publication in 2014
• Setting:  Fictitious country, Scalvusia, in 1939 
• Vocabulary:
• borborygmus:  intestinal rumbling
• ensorcell:  to bewitch
• bescumber:  to discharge ordure or dung upon
• gnathic: of or pertaining to the jaw
• p.2..."...I expreienced a sadness not unlike when one remembers one once had a childhood."
• Barnabas...the "unwitting lynchpin" in the story
• p.120..."Men don't betray each other after they have searched bushes together.  It's a matter of honor."
• p.209..."His life had become romantic at last.  His imagination had collapsed onto his boredom like a one-ton unicorn onto a pygmy pig."
• Review:  This is an Eary Reviewer edition I got from LibraryThing.com. It is the author's debut novel and I am stunned that this is a first.  This satire/allegory/theater of the absurd story is reminiscent of "Waiting For Godot".  I laughed, chuckled and almost wept over the plight of this cast of characters and their slapstick absurdity.  At the same time, it is a tragic tale of ignorance and blind acceptance of fear based rhetoric.  The kind of twisted logic that cost six million people their lives during WWII and continues to cost lives in the present day around the world.  The readers can choose to appreciate this brilliant novel as a funny tale of fools, or can leave themselves vulnerable to a profound tale of the absudity and tragedy of the creatures we call humans!