Monkey Wars

By: Richard Kurti

Location: FIC KUR

Genre: Monkeys and India

Sustain the weak. Destroy the strong.

 Hay- Mr Mannins just been in and stole this book from my office- means it is going to be a goody!!

I have been to India and avoided those monkeys, they are scary not cute.  They are everywhere and you just wait for them to menacingly to swing down to pluck your eyeballs out. There is something sinister about those monkeys, but also they just know stuff, you can tell.

They are also cunningly destructive, they smash, break, destroy and wreck havoc. The very worst thing they do is eat mangoes and chuck the pips at you- never forgiven them for that.

This book is about two troupes of monkeys - Langurs and Rhesus, and they are not mates, in fact- they are at war!

A powerful beginning: a troop of Langur monkeys kills most of the group of Rhesus monkeys that live in the old cemetery of Kolkata. The survivors are snatched from their home in this dramatic attack.

 We see this war between Rhesus and Langur monkeys from both sides and we really get a feeling for what it's like to be in either camp. Each of the main characters - Papina, Mico, Twitcher, Tyrell - all had such wonderful personalities and voices and different ways of thinking that it was easy to relate to them, and to sympathize with the complicated feelings of loyalty and belonging and pride that go along with the horrible effects of war.
Based on a true story- the  2007 the Deputy Mayor of Delhi died after being attacked by a gang of Rhesus macaques. In order to find a solution to this sort of acts of violence the authorities tried using Langurs, a fiercer breed of monkey, to put the Rhesus off.
This novel’s got potential as a movie. In short, this is a great and very well written novel about military organization, its hierarchy, corrupt practices of politics, mistrust, betrayal, power struggles and a nicely finished criticism about manipulation.- Daniel, Goodreads.