Like Life of Pi Beatrice and Virgil uses animals to discuss the human condition in this case to address the atrocities of the Holocaust. At the center of the novel is the relationship between two Henrys a novelist and a taxidermist who collaborate on a play about a donkey and a howler monkey who have survived a genocide. Heartbreaking and utterly original the novel asks enduring questions about life and art truth and deception responsibility and complicity""