Hannibal Rising

By: Thomas Harris

Narrated by: Thomas Harris

He is one of the most haunting characters in all of literature. At last the evolution of his evil is revealed.

Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck.

He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him.

Hannibal’s uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle and his uncle’s beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki.

Lady Murasaki helps Hannibal to heal. With her help he flourishes, becoming the youngest person ever admitted to medical school in France.

But Hannibal’s demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn.

He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death’s prodigy.©2006 Yazoo Fabrications, Inc.; (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“There are images of morbid beauty here.... Harris' handling of the wartime violence is also impressive, as swift and vicious as the blitzkrieg itself.”—Los Angeles Times
“Gripping detail.... [Harris] moves the story along at an impressively fast clip.”—Boston Globe

For me, narration underscores the tone

This book chronicles the formative experiences in Hannibal Lecter’s childhood, taking the reader through Lecter’s late teenage years. Having read and listened to Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal and enjoying all three, I was eager to hear this one.
I don’t share the view of many reviewers who state that Thomas Harris is not a good narrator. For me, his accent and the way he reads the text enhance the tone of the story; Harris’s subtle narration guides the listener into the depths of a soul as it begins to freeze and carries us out so calmly we hardly notice the ground is solid a moment after we emerge.

Loved hearing how it all began

Excellent story. Held my attention till the end. Love that it was read by the author.

Hannibal Rising

Hannibal Rising is another Masterpiece by Thomas Harris. It takes a step back in time to the young Hannibal before he became the insane Genius of his adult years.

This book was the last in the line of the Hannibal Lecter series. But in chronological order, it should have been the first. It makes one wonder if Thomas Harris had this entire book in the back of his mind, or should I say his Mind Palace, when he wrote the first four books of the Hannibal Lecter series.

FANTASTIC

Simply fanastic. Harris has done it again. His ability to have you visualize the scene with his intricate detail of the slightest details is what enhances the story telling. He grips your attention from start to finish and still refuses to release it long after the book is over. You just want to tell everyone to read it so you can relive the mezmorizing details over and over. Like I said "FANTASTIC".

Captivating villain, sloppy story with many inaccurasies

Hannibal Lecter is one of the most fascinating villains created. However, the author Thomas Harris spent little time researching Lithuania, which resulted in several blunders in this book, that could have been easily corrected. First of all, names: Hannibal Lecter is nowhere close to being a Lithuanian name. Every school kid in Lithuania knows who fought and won the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, and it was not some warlord. Not a single girl in Lithuania was ever named Mischa, unless she came from Russia. It is a Russian name. The thugs have a mix up of names. Vladis Grutas is not a Lithuanian name. Vladis is a Latvian name. Grutas is name of a village in Lithuania. Petras is a Lithuanian name, Kolnas is not. Zigmas is, Milko is not, Bronys is, Grentz is not. Another sloppy mistake is when Hannibal gives an eggplant for Mischa to play with, because she likes purple color. Eggplants do not grow and never grew in Lithuania due to cold climate. Also, Thomas Harris does not seem to be familiar with the Soviet Union rules. Hannibal hops on a train in 1951 from Paris and crosses the Polish boarder to Lithuania. Has the author even heard of the Iron Curtain? Nobody could enter or leave the Soviet Union, except in extremely rare cases and under gross supervision from KGB. Lastly, Thomas Harris narrated the story speaking in a Southern accent, so out of place for the action taking place in the Eastern Front or Paris. Vladis Grutas and his thugs characters' dialogues were recorded spoken in a German accent, which is so misleading. Lithuanians do not speak in German accent, not even close. Hannibal Lecter is a truly captivating villain, and his rising story deserved to be better written.