Alison Flood 

Werner Herzog reads potty-mouthed bedtime audiobook

Fitzcarraldo director gives spoken-word treatment to controversial children's book pastiche
  
  

Werner Herzog
'The best possible person in the world' ... Werner Herzog. Photograph: Dan Tuffs Photograph: Dan Tuffs

Legendary film director Werner Herzog has agreed to narrate an audio version of the surprise hit Go the Fuck to Sleep, a comic bedtime book for parents that has become an unlikely bestseller.

Published today, the picture book begs sleepless children to "go the fuck to sleep" in a series of quaint, expletive-ridden verses. It soared to the top of book charts last month after a pirated PDF went viral, and calls this week from a New Zealand lobby group to ban it are only likely to add to its appeal.

"The flowers doze low in the meadows / And high on the mountains so steep. / My life is a failure, I'm a shitty-ass parent. / Stop fucking with me, please, and sleep," writes author and award-winning novelist Adam Mansbach, who was moved to pen the book when his own daughter was suffering sleepless nights. "The cubs and the lions are snoring, / Wrapped in a big snuggly heap. / How come you can do all this other great shit / But you can't lie the fuck down and sleep?"

Mansbach said that "the best possible person in the world" was narrating the audiobook: Herzog. The film director's recording will be unveiled at an event to launch the book, illustrated by Ricardo Cortes for small American publisher Akashic Books, at the New York Public Library.

The news came as the Christian group Family First called on New Zealand's booksellers not to stock Go the Fuck to Sleep. "While in an adult context, the book may be harmless and even amusing, we have grave concerns about its effect on aggressive and dysfunctional parents, and also on children who are attracted to the book," said director Bob McCoskrie. "Because the book looks like a children's story, it could easily be mistaken by children as being for them. Some parents may even foolishly read it to their children. As well as that, the offensive language and the tone of the conversation is also concerning. Verbal abuse is a huge concern and can be very damaging to both children and adults."

McCoskrie said he would rather "parents spent their hard earned money on a book on quality parenting, or a book that they can enjoy reading to their child".

Family First said that it had written to New Zealand's Booksellers Association asking it not to distribute the book to retailers, but had received no response. The book trade body told local press, however, that Family First "needed a sense of humour".

"It is not a children's book and booksellers will not be selling it to children," said chief executive Lincoln Gould. "It is a very funny adult's view of how difficult it is to get children to go to sleep."

 

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