Safe Return Doubtful

American Literature – Published April 2025

Little Lazarus takes a look at life through the perspectives of two giant tortoises and their caretakers. The story is told across multiple perspectives so as the reader sees the events unfold in a non-linear format, but returns to the plot point having receiving more context.

The story ends by turning full circle with an epilogue, which describes the final moments of Little Lazarus’s life. Bible’s style of writing is in short sentences which are to the point and yet maintaining its diffuse essence; the result reads like a fable or fairytale.

In the late 1990s Eleanor, who has a tortoise called Little Lazarus, and Francois are well intentioned kids living in the town of Harmony, in the mountains of North Carolina, in a sort of adolescent relationship. When driving home drunk after a late-night party, they run over a man in a seersucker suit walking with his ancient giant tortoise, Lazarus (but not Little Lazarus..).

The dead man, Thomas, wore seersucker because he was part of a centuries old sect called the Seekers. These men drifted from town to town, ambling steadily alongside Lazarus, a supposedly clairvoyant tortoise who would answer questions of the townsfolk by manoeuvring between labelled boxes.

This set up enables many more layers from the past and future to be embellished upon; Lazarus with Darwin on the HMS Beagle, Lazarus escaping the billionaire’s penthouse and taking a walk in Central Park with a heroin addict, Lazarus posing for a Matisse masterpiece.. and very many more. So much so that the book feels much bigger than its page count (about 150).

It’s funny, often touching, and grounded in the reality of the people it portrays. It also poses complex questions of how much of our lives we control.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5