Why read Empire of the Ants?

Book cover of Empire of the Ants

Book description

Here is the stunning international bestseller in the tradition of Watership Down but with a dark, original twist. Unique, daring, and unforgettable, it tells the story of an ordinary family who accidentally threaten the security of a hidden civilization as intelligent as our own--a colony of ants determined to survive…

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Ants
Paris

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Why read it?

1 author picked Empire of the Ants as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Catherine Austen

Author

There are thousands of siblings in this book—the offspring of a single queen ant are siblings, aren’t they?—and they are most definitely understated. There are humans in the book too, but it’s the ants that interest me, and their sense of relationship to each other. This is one of my favourite novels. It’s beautifully imagined, and so full of fascinating facts that I can never retain them all, so I need to read it again and again. I tried to choose contemporary titles for this list; this is the oldest, from the 1990s, set in the…

From Catherine's list on The best books with understated siblings.