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Some writer just “get it��: the human-animal connection. In the last book I read by her, Sigrid Nunez mines her narrator’s growing affection for a giant Great Dane. In Mitz, which was actually written (and now reissued) a few decade earlier, it is a little marmoset who tugs at the heartstrings.

I read this book for three key reasons. The first: the author is Sigrid Nunez who writes with understanding and grace. The second: the aforementioned marmoset happens to belong to Virginia and Leonard Woolf, surely one of the most prolific and ingenious literary couples. And third, I am a self-abashed animal lover, as long as the tale isn’t cloying or manipulative.

Life follows art; Virginia Woolf herself penned her book Flush, a biography of her spaniel. (And indeed, two successive spaniels are featured here as well). The sickly little marmoset, a temporary loan from their friends the Rothschilds, ends up taking permanence resident in the Woolf’s abode. There, she pays witness to their writing routines and cozies up to Leonard (jealously claiming him when he is openly affectionate to Virginia). There is a fine scene when she enables the couple to make a getaway in Bonn at the time of Hitler’s ascendance and later when the winds of war threaten London.

Much is alluded to and not delved into: Virginia Woolf’s depression (she will eventually become a suicide), the physical ailments of Leonard the tragedy of Virginia’s nephew’s early death, an always, the war in the shadows. But this isn’t meant to be a biography of the Woolfs or an excavation into the causes of internal and external wars. It’s about a biography of a tiny pet monkey. Viewed from that prism, it succeeds quite well. Thank you @softskullpress for an advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review. 4.5 stars. #mitzthemarmosetofbloomsbury #mitz