In Taussig's fiction, common perceptions of human nature are challenged, the writer exploring themes of love, sexual desire, insanity, poverty, violence and death, the last of which he discussed when he appeared at the Hay Festival on 9 June 2007.
Others, however, responded to it more positively, BBC's Marie-Louise Muir calling it a "remarkable book"[10] and the critic Paul Blezard describing it as "pithy and funny, mature and intelligent.
In a feature for The Independent on Sunday on 8 December 2008, Taussig wrote about what inspired the novel, a meeting with "a 14-year-old with a pronounced limp and a heavy scar on the top of his head [whose] slight build and baby face belied the horror experienced in his short life.
"[13] Influenced by the work of the contemporary philosopher John N. Gray, in particular Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals, the book, amongst other things, "renders the barriers that we erect between our species and others to protect our sense of uniqueness otiose", according to the poet Nicholas Green.
Taussig's style – short on dialogue and long on descriptions and Klebnikov's thoughts – takes a bit of getting used to, but turns out to be effective for the passionate political and emotional content of his novel.