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MIGRATORY ANIMALS

Mary Helen Specht

A powerful debut novel about a group of 30-somethings struggling for connection and belonging, Migratory Animals centers on a protagonist who finds herself torn between love and duty.

When Flannery, a young scientist, is forced to return to Austin from five years of research in Nigeria, she becomes torn between her two homes. Having left behind her loving fiancé without knowing when she can return, Flan learns that her sister, Molly, has begun to show signs of the crippling genetic disease that slowly killed their mother. As their close-knit circle of friends struggles with Molly’s diagnosis, Flannery must grapple with what her future will hold: an ambitious life of love and the pursuit of scientific discovery in West Africa, or the pull of a life surrounded by old friends, the comfort of an old flame, family obligations, and the home she’s always known. But she is not the only one wrestling with uncertainty. Since their college days, each of her friends has faced unexpected challenges that make them reevaluate the lives they’d always planned for themselves. A mesmerizing debut from an exciting young writer, Migratory Animals is a moving, thought-provoking novel, told from shifting viewpoints, about the meaning of home and what we owe each other—and ourselves. The seed of the novel was published as non-fiction in The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column in 2010. The author was a Fulbright Scholar to Nigeria, has an MFA from Emerson College, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. Her story collection, HOUSE OF GUNS, was a finalist in the Flannery O’Connor competition.

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Book Published 2015-01-20 by Harper Perennial

Comments

A beautifully precise group portrait in which Mary Helen Specht manages to capture not just a particular set of characters but a generational mood and moment…Without forcing any answers, it asks a powerful, probing question: how should you behave when life suddenly gets real?

This is the best kind of novel, one that's filled with knowledge—about America, Africa, climate change, weaving, and snow, just to name a few of this fine book’s core concerns. But most important, and impressive, is Specht's sure handling of the interior life, and the ways in which we help to make or break those around us.

An emotionally nuanced debut…The men and women of Mary Helen Specht’s imagination inhabit a world of breathtaking vividness, where life’s pains and pleasures ripple through to marvelous effect. A heartbreaking, edifying, and resonant work of art.

Mary Helen Specht's lyrical novel reminds me of the work of both Claire Messud and Courtney Sullivan. MIGRATORY ANIMALS is a luminous debut about a group of young friends finding their place in the world. Rich with love and heartbreak, it's the book I'll be wanting to share with all my friends.

In prose as quirky and elegant as its characters, Specht proves that—after confusion, missteps, even denial—a village can embrace you…This big, dreamy novel flies by as swift as time.

A novel of tremendous scope and insight that succeeds both as an exploration of larger global concerns and an acute examination of the most intimate parts of our lives. Mary Helen Specht is a terrific writer—passionate and generous, wry and insightful. A very moving debut.