Les aventures d'un ratolí nascut al soterrani d'una llibreria de Boston dels anys 60. Firmin aprèn a llegir i devora llibres, però està clar que un ratolí llegit és un ratolí marginat. Allunyat de la seva família i dels seus
amics, Firmin busca l'amistat en el seu heroi, un llibreter en un escriptor fracassat. Una novel·la deliciosa sobre el poder redemptor de la literatura i de l'amistat.
A darkly comic tale of exile, unrequited love and the redemptive power of books.
Firmin is born in the basement of a ramshackle old bookstore. He's a sensitive, creative soul but misunderstood. Because Firmin is a rat. Not only that, but as the runt of the litter, he is forced to compete for food and ends up chewing on the books that surround him. Firmin soon realizes his source of nourishment has given him the ability to read and this discovery fills him with an insatiable hunger for literature and a very unratlike sense of the world and his place in it.
As Firmin navigates the shadowy streets of his decaying area, looking for understanding, his excitement, loneliness, fear, and self-consciousness become remarkably human and undeniably touching. But the days of the bookshop and of the close community around it are numbered. The area has been marked out for 'urban regeneration' and soon the faded glory of the bookshop, the small local theatre, the unique shops and small cafes will face the bulldozers and urban planners...
Brilliantly original and richly allegorical, Firmin is brimming with charm and wistful longing for a world that understands the redemptive power of literature and treasures its seedy theaters, one-of-a-kind characters, and cluttered bookshops.
