Firmin

"As Francis Bacon knew, "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." Firmin the rat, born in a bookstore basement in Boston's Scollay Square during the last days of its famous bookstores and infamous burlesque houses, understands this maxim perfectly." "Forced to compete for food with his larger and meaner brothers and sisters, Firmin begins to devour his surroundings. Absorbing more than pulp and glue, he miraculously learns to read and soon begins to identify more with humans than rodents. Alienated from his family, he seeks the friendship of his hero, the bookseller, and a down-on-his luck science fiction writer who frequents the shop." "Through a series of misadventures and against a backdrop of urban destruction, Firmin is led deep into his own imaginative soul - a place where Ginger Rogers holds him tight and tattered books, storied neighborhoods, and down-and-out rats alike can find people who adore them." "By turns tragic, comic, nostalgic and subversive, Firmin is a story for everyone who has been transformed - for better or for worse - by an early diet of great literature."--BOOK JACKET.