The Pied Piper’s Poison

by Christopher Wallace

Winter 1946, and strange things are happening at Tarutz quarantine camp in southern Poland where a group of refugees have fallen victim to a horrific, unidentifiable disease. A young doctor is sent to identify the mysterious affliction now working its way through a growing list of victims.

Winter 1648, and the ancient town of Hamelin is struggling to survive the most savage war Europe has ever known. Besieged by a vicious mercenary army, confounded by the endless machinations of its leaders, and gripped by starvation, fever and vermin, Hamelin is desperate for any respite.

Is there a connection between the two calamities? In a novel of gritty intelligence, Christopher Wallace reveals the truth behind the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, involving the reader in the devils and demons who patrol the great European plain ready to seize their moment whenever chaos invites them in.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

'A pungent tale of World War Two converges with a more distant memory of the Thirty Years War in this powerful, compelling debut novel.

'The year is 1946. The war is over. A young British army doctor finds himself ordered to investigate a curious plague in a Polish refugee camp. What he finds there is deeply unsettling and harrowing…

'Meanwhile, a colleague is much more concerned with unravelling uncannily similar events three hundred years old, events twisted by the centuries into its current, misshapen form, as the fairy-story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin…

'Set in the Borderlands between Germany and Poland, this powerful first novel is reminiscent in mood, complexity and accomplishment of Pat Barker’s World War One trilogy or Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong.' From the synopsis on the jacket of the hardback edition of this novel.

I don't think this is a very accurate description of this novel, but then I don't think any of those on Goodreads are very good either and I would advise any potential readers to take the comparison to Pat Barker or Sebastian Faulks with a large pinch of salt because while not exactly wrong, I think it is extremely lazy.

There are a lot of books listed under the name Christopher Wallace but the Christopher Wallace who wrote this novel, is Scottish and also wrote The Resurrection (1999), The Pirate (2001) and, maybe, Shotting the Messenger in (2011). He is definitely not the author of Twentieth Century Man or the various books on basketball, they are by American author(s? I don't know if there are more than one).

Oddly enough I don't know when I bought this book or when I read it. A long time, fifteen years?, is a good guess. What I remember is that I didn't like or enjoy it as much as I expected, and I expected something special, odd, quirky or certainly compulsive, I didn't find that but I have held onto to it and carted it about so clearly I thought there was something good about the novel and I intended to read it again.

I haven't and I probably won't have the time. I think the novel was a failure, but a good failure, which is why I am awarding it three stars.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this first novel by Christopher Wallace. The first half of the book is interesting, but the second-half becomes increasingly disjointed and far-fetched until it loses all plausibility and tension toward the end.

[Shivanee Ramlochan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd, historically lush retrospective which from time to time gets swallowed up in its fine, cerebral narrative.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting allegory on warfare.

[Bernice · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had the makings of a good book but missed the mark. In winger 1946 a young army Doctor is sent to a camp in Orlando charged with discovering why refugees are dying of a hideous and unidentifiable disease. The story is interwoven with pages from a researches theory on the true demise of the children and adults of the fabled Hamlin township. Who was the Pied Piper of Hamlin? Was he a fictitious figure and is the fable an attempt to disguise what actually happened at Hamlin during the three hundred year war?

[schmorireads · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had this on the shelf for forever. Picked it up on a day I just wanted to read something. I had to google the old fable about the pied piper. Had never heard about it.

I kept on with this book because at the end of every long grueling hard to grasp chapters there was always a spark of something that was interesting, but by the end of it, I couldn’t keep going. I couldn’t get past the abstract at the end. Just a really “blah” read.

[Christine Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the dissection of the Pied Piper legend but I’m afraid the analogy to the post war scenario passed me by.

[Lindsey (Bring My Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a very dark novel, one that I'm sure will stay with me for some time. There are some startling truths about humanity in this book, some particularly hard to stomach. It was written very well, going back and forth between "present-day" and the time of the the Thirty Years War in a way that never felt strained or awkward. While there were some portions that were very heavy with history, it didn't feel stifling and I enjoyed the book more for it. If you liked this book or were looking for something similar, you should consider reading The Coachman Rat by David Henry Wilson. Similar myth-based novel, this time about one of Cinderella's coachman rats.

[E. Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure what to think. I can see why so few readers leave a review of this book. By all rights, it is a cerebral narrative of an old fairy tale...and with all fairy tales, there is a strong sense of the nonsensical. I'm a bit disturbed by the book, a bit unsettled by some of the depravity, but I could not put it down, and I am glad I read it.

[Marjorie Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. Loved how it came together at the end. I thought it surprisingly insightful.