Hannibal & Gideon

Author Maarten Inghels feels the lack of a certain amount of danger in his life. After the backlash surrounding his previous novel, ‘The Miracle of Belgium’, he decides to seek out new adventures and to further investigate the historical character Hannibal, who has fascinated him for years. Along with an elephant, he follows in the footsteps of the man who in 218 BCE crossed the Alps with thirty-seven elephants to take the Romans by surprise.

Inghels sets out to learn more and discovers the existence of so-called Hannibalists, adventurers who have tried to take the same route as Hannibal. He gradually becomes one himself. He goes in search of an elephant who can accompany him, but because of tighter than ever animal rights legislation, that is no simple matter. Eventually a zoo in France, close to the border with the Italian Alps, lends him Gideon in exchange for exclusive content on its social media. With Gideon’s halter in his sweaty hand, Inghels begins the steep climb.

As their journey goes on, a close bond develops between Gideon and Inghels, and the author allows himself to be led by the elephant instead of the other way around. After they eat hallucinatory mushrooms along the way, Gideon even begins to talk back to him and to complain about his lack of freedom. Eventually, Inghels decides to let Gideon choose his own path, and he travels on alone, to his surprise encountering a refugee who is crossing the Alps in the opposite direction in search of a better life.

‘Hannibal & Gideon’ is presented as a factual travel account, but through surrealism it plays with the unbounded possibilities of fiction. This travel novel takes the reader on an adventurous journey and offers a form of escape, but ultimately leads to an unexpected confrontation.