Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #391580 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

The Times, August 19, 2003
'A publishing phenomenon'

Synopsis
Brown Morning recounts the story of two easy-going friends amid the sinister machinations of the regime under which they are living. On the surface everything seems to be fine. People go about their everyday business, they meet in cafes and chat, and sit in the sunshine. Then, gradually, new laws are introduced. Or, rather, old laws are amended. It begins with the pets the State Scientists have discovered that brown dogs and cats are better suited to the modern urban environment than other animals. They are healthier, live longer, and have smaller litters. The end result is a world in which all is brown. The military police wear brown uniforms, the dogs and cats are brown, even the language begins to change as the word 'brown' is tagged on to everyday phrase. A short book by a previously obscure provincial writer, from an obscure publisher, has, by stealth and by word of mouth, become The French literary sensation of the past year. Shooting up the bestseller charts in the wake of Le Pen's 18 per cent share of the vote, and adopted by schools and human rights organisations, sales to date of Brown Morning are approaching 300,000 copies in France alone.

A miniature Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brown Morning is a story that will stay with you, as it has with thousands of other readers.

About the Author
Franck Pavloff is the son of a Bulgarian anarchist who fought in the Spanish Civil War. Pavloff has lived in France since the end of World War II. Pavloff's writing career, which includes children and adults fiction, poetry, and detective stories, began after he spent years working with NGOs in South America, Africa and Asia, as well as for children support organisations in France. At present, Franck Pavloff specialises in children’s law and works as a psychologist for the appeal court in Grenoble. His writing is strictly linked to his work and his travels.

Customer Reviews

small but perfectly formed
This only took me four stops on the tube to read, and I really grinned all the way through. Not because it's funny, mind - the subject matter is fascism, and it satirises the awful and ridiculous concept of marginalising people according to a certain descendency or lifestyle. There is a definite sense of the ridiculous in the narrative, which charts the lives of two characters in a society where the colour brown is gradually eliminated. Their brown pets are dissallowed, as are brown books and clothes etc. Eventually anyone who has ever owned a brown pet in the past becomes a victim of this. It really transposes the anti-semitic story into its most basic form and highlights the absurdity of such prejudice. It just drums home how incredible it is that this prejudice was actually acted upon to such a fatal degree. I liked the cartoonish style and the very simple, plain language which tells it as blankly as possible. Brown=bad. Brown=eliminated. This is really a must-read for anyone, and makes a very effective historical analogy.

Brown
This short book brilliantly relates the issue of fascism. It describes the horrendous and ludicrous idea of discrimination due to someone's appearance, lifestyle or association.

There is a subtle undertone of humour in the story which conveys the lives of two characters in a world where the colour brown is slowly being exterminated. Brown pets, clothes etc are banned. Gradually anyone who has previously owned a brown pet becomes a victim. The book encapsulates how ridiculous and sometimes fatal actions can result from prejudice.

Toto-A reader
Brown is a good book that tackles important issues.
I thought that it was a brilliant book as it makes you think about things on a different level. . . . . . if you're not too simple. . . . . .but i have only given it 4 stars because it was too short.
My reccomendation is: read it, but borrow it from the library first as it is not worth the price as it is too thin.
i had it read in a few mins!