Hunt

In ‘Hunt’, as in his previous novels, Elvis Peeters succeeds in raising a fascinating moral issue through what appears to be just a story: what would happen if animals could think too? ‘Hunt’ depicts the biotope of man as an animal among animals. Will human hegemony remain in place, or do we need to share our dominant position with others?

A horse moves from the country to the city in search of a better life, but becomes an employee in a stone quarry. Erik, a labourer and in his free time an amateur hunter, works there too, along with his neighbour Karla in HR, who has to prepare a round of redundancies. Since animals earn lower wages than humans, the choice Karla has to make seems to be evident.

Meanwhile a resistance movement is brewing beneath the city, as foxes dig a network of tunnels to destabilise life above ground. They are opposed by the dogs, who serve the humans as security guards. But how human are these people really? And that Rottweiler with its beautiful coat, how close to Karla does it dare to come?

When civilisation makes way for instinct and instinct for civilisation, perhaps we cease to be the people we thought we were.