City of Rats

The clever English-language debut from late Argentine writer Copi unfolds in letters to the author by a Parisian rat named Gouri. After Gouri and fellow rat Rakä impregnate the daughters of a local rat queen, the couples marry, allowing Gouri and Rakä to join the royal court in a willow tree along the Seine. When a curious toddler interrupts the rats’ lives, however, it sets off a series of incidents that leave the child’s mother and another human dead. Fleeing the scene, the rats bob down the river with the child, coming ashore only to encounter an amnesiac escaped murderer, Mimile, who takes the group in until the police arrive and blame him for the two deaths upstream. A trial ensues, the rats escape, and an encounter with the Rat Devil results in Paris’s Île de la Cité breaking free from the mainland and floating away, providing the rats opportunity to found the City of Rats. Unfurling like a classic film serial, Gouri’s account of his breakneck voyage one-ups itself in ridiculousness with every new letter, and Copi guides the expedition with a steady hand and his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. It’s a memorable depiction of Paris life in miniature. (Mar.)