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Book Summary and Reviews of Anima Rising by Christopher Moore

Anima Rising by Christopher Moore

Anima Rising

A Novel

by Christopher Moore

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • May 2025, 400 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

From New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore comes a hilariously deranged tale of a mad scientist, a famous painter, and an undead woman's electrifying journey of self-discovery.

Vienna, 1911. Gustav Klimt, the most famous painter in the Austrian Empire, the darling of Viennese society, spots a woman's nude body in the Danube canal. He knows he should summon a policeman, but he can't resist stopping to make a sketch first. And as he draws, the woman coughs. She's alive!

Back at his studio, Klimt and his model-turned-muse Wally tend to the formerly-drowned girl. She's nearly feral and doesn't remember who she is, or how she came to be floating in the canal. Klimt names her Judith, after one of his most famous paintings, and resolves to help her find her memory.

With a little help from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Judith recalls being stranded in the arctic one hundred years ago, locked in a crate by a man named Victor Frankenstein, and visiting the Underworld.

So how did she get here? And why are so many people chasing her, including Geoff, the giant croissant-eating devil dog of the North?

Poor Things meets Bride of Frankenstein in Anima Rising, Christopher Moore's most ingenious (and probably most hilarious) novel yet.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"This is a wild adventure through history, art, and literature for Moore's many fans and those who enjoy historical fiction with a side of fantasy and wry humor. Highly recommended." —Library Journal (starred review)

"[H]ilarious...This shaggy-dog story will test some readers' patience, though there's plenty of fun to be had. Fans of Moore's other artist-inspired novel, Sacre Bleu, will be entertained." —Publishers Weekly

This information about Anima Rising was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Christopher Moore Author Biography

Photo: Flash Alexander

Christopher Moore is the author of eighteen novels, including the international bestsellers Lamb, A Dirty Job and You Suck. His lastest novel, Razzmatazz, was published May of 2022. He's currently working on a historical set in early 1900s Vienna.

Chris was born in Toledo, Ohio and grew up in Mansfield, Ohio. His father was a highway patrolman and his mother sold major appliances at a department store. He attended Ohio State University and Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. He moved to California when he was 19 years old and lived on the Central Coast until 2003, when he moved to Hawaii.

Before publishing his first novel, Practical Demonkeeping in 1992, he worked as a roofer, a grocery clerk, a hotel night auditor, and insurance broker, a waiter, a photographer, and a ...

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