Citizens of Louisiana only have to look up at their state flag to see an animal doing some pretty wild — and deeply symbolic — stuff out of a medieval bestiary. But the goal of A24’s “Death of a ...

THE BOOK OF BEASTS (296 pp.)—Translated by T. H. White—Putnam ($5). How does one catch a unicorn? Simple. “A virgin girl is led to where he lurks, and there she is sent off by herself into the wood.

When Marco Polo headed off from Venice, Italy, for the sprawl of Asia in 1271, the inquisitive teenager was on the lookout for wondrous things. One that he found surprised him mightily. The unicorn he ...