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THE ANIMALS IN THAT COUNTRY
Humorous and scary at once, Jean McKay shows what happens when people begin to understand animal language. Contemporary Australian fiction at its boldest.
Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and allergic to bullshit, Jean is not your usual grandma. She's never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue.
Then one day, disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country. This is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals first mammals, then birds and insects, too. But as the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds.
When Jean's infected son, Lee, takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin. Setting off on their trail, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun, they find themselves in a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species.
In turns humorous, haunting, and raw, McKay draws us to ask profound questions about our relationships with animals, though with a disarmingly light touch. Refreshing in its energy and originality, with two absolutely unique protagonists at its heart, The Animals in That Country is contemporary Australian fiction at its boldest.
"In wild, poetic, vivid prose, Laura imagines animals in a way that's entirely fresh and original; the solution she's found for describing how their language might work is ingenious. The Animals in That Country is that rarest of beasts fiction that has the ability to challenge the way readers think without sacrificing any of the pleasure of reading." Associate publisher Marika Webb-Pullman
Laura Jean McKay is the author of Holiday in Cambodia (Black Inc 2013), shortlisted for three national book awards in Australia. Her work appears in Meanjin, Overland, The Saturday Paper, and The North American Review. Laura has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, focusing on literary animal studies, and she is currently the animal expert' presenter on ABC Listen's Animal Sound Safari.
Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and allergic to bullshit, Jean is not your usual grandma. She's never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue.
Then one day, disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country. This is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals first mammals, then birds and insects, too. But as the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds.
When Jean's infected son, Lee, takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin. Setting off on their trail, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun, they find themselves in a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species.
In turns humorous, haunting, and raw, McKay draws us to ask profound questions about our relationships with animals, though with a disarmingly light touch. Refreshing in its energy and originality, with two absolutely unique protagonists at its heart, The Animals in That Country is contemporary Australian fiction at its boldest.
"In wild, poetic, vivid prose, Laura imagines animals in a way that's entirely fresh and original; the solution she's found for describing how their language might work is ingenious. The Animals in That Country is that rarest of beasts fiction that has the ability to challenge the way readers think without sacrificing any of the pleasure of reading." Associate publisher Marika Webb-Pullman
Laura Jean McKay is the author of Holiday in Cambodia (Black Inc 2013), shortlisted for three national book awards in Australia. Her work appears in Meanjin, Overland, The Saturday Paper, and The North American Review. Laura has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, focusing on literary animal studies, and she is currently the animal expert' presenter on ABC Listen's Animal Sound Safari.
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Published 2020-04-01 by Scribe Publications |