Author Yann Martel is to follow his Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi with another story focusing on animals.

布克小说奖获奖作品《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》的作者Yann Martel将要撰写下一步以动物为主题的小说。

Beatrice and Virgil will be Yann Martel\'s third novel

Beatrice And Virgil, a literary allegory（寓言） for the Holocaust¹, will be published around the world in June 2010 - eight years after Life of Pi.

It will ask "profound（深奥的，深远的） and philosophical² questions about the nature of love and evil", said the publishers.

The Canadian author's winning novel is one of the most successful Booker books to date.

Canongate Managing Director Jamie Byng said: "I was stunned³（震惊） by Beatrice and Virgil and all of us at Canongate are enormously excited about taking this book to as many readers as we can."

The book tells the tale of a character called Henry who is drawn⁴ into the world of a taxidermist（剥制师）.

Henry becomes entangled⁵（纠缠，混乱） in the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey（吼猴） - named Beatrice and Virgil - and the epic⁶（史诗） journey they undertake together.

His title characters take their names from The Divine Comedy - Virgil was Dante's guide through Hell and Beatrice through Heaven.

Mr Byng said: "Life of Pi was always going to be an extremely tricky⁷（狡猾的，机警的） book to follow up not least because of the expectations of Yann's many fans.

"Thankfully Yann has risen to the challenge by writing another exceptional novel, a wildly imaginative（富于想象力的） and multi-layered story that engrosses⁸（占去，使全神贯注） from the first page and leaves you asking questions long after you have turned the last."