"The Animal Lover" is equal parts mystery, romance, comedy, and adventure that crisscrosses the globe and whisks you from modernday Africa back to the jungles of World War 2.
Upton Magna, the sadsack son of evil Solomon Magna, a millionaire businessman in London, has been sidelined and sent to a backwater city in West Africa to find exports for his father, but he’s not doing very well. On a whim he starts following the mysterious, gorgeous Ella Bazaar on a madcap journey in search of an okapi that has been stolen. (If you don’t know what an okapi is, don’t fret. All will be explained.)
At the same time, Upton starts reading the 1939 diary of one Hercule Perpignon, dashing hero and hunter (at least for a while, this being a story about animal love) on a coconut plantation in wartime West Africa. When the gorgeous Sylvie arrives, magical, mystical, inexplicable things start to occur.
As Hercule’s adventures with the lovely young mistress of the plantation get more intense, so do Upton’s with Ella Bazaar. Coincidentally, or maybe not, strange things are happening in parts of the world where the pernicious Solomon Magna’s empire has spread its tentacles, and someone seems to be orchestrating his downfall.
So, what is the connection between the possible demise of the Magna empire, Upton, and the diary? Or is there any at all? And who is the animal lover? If you think you know, think again. You are probably wrong. And you won't find out until the last page.
Reminiscent of 'Water for Elephants' and 'The Life of Pi,' 'The Animal Lover' will take you on a journey through past and present that you won't soon forget.
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