The Animals In That Country | 
pickBloody hell! Points for originality and weirdness. This dystopian tale of a virus that leads to humans understanding what animals are saying was a head f*~!. I loved the protagonist Jean, a hard-drinking, misanthropic grandma and of course her dingo sidekick Sue 😳😱. Thanks for putting a copy of this in my hand (literally) @Rissreads 🙏. #ozfiction
Premise: a virus that allows humans to understand the speech of other animals. The result is something like The Girl with All the Gifts meets the Chronicles of Narnia. It's very good but made me sad.
Starting this read I received from @CarolynM from our #recipeswap package… it looks very interesting 🤨🧐📖
pickBlindingly original - it‘s so special to me when a book genuinely doesn‘t remind me of anything else I‘ve read. When an epidemic causes humans to start understanding animals, a woman ends up crossing Australia with a half tame dingo. I loved the philosophical questions this posed without giving answers and I loved the animal ‘voices‘ which were so strange, evocative and disorienting.
Hey pals - been a hard few days so I‘ve dropped the ball on #wintergames2021 a bit after being very devoted for two weeks! I‘ve worked 14 days straight and had a lot of funeral and Christmas prep to do while my partner has covid and is in another town which is non ideal.
Back at my parents and pleased to announce successful retail therapy at Waterstones. One book is backwards because now @indiaro has Litsy I can‘t post her Christmas present…
Congratulations on the award! https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/27/laura-jean-mckay-wins-the-arthur-c...
pickThis book was really different but in a good way. If you contract the virus the ‘Zoo flu‘ you can talk to animals, which isn‘t such a great thing. It sends most people bonkers!
It was fantastic to have a grandma character that wasn‘t sweet. I loved the gutsy, drinking, smoking, swearing grandma Jean. ♥️
This is a picture of my Mums pug Pippa.
#Ozfiction
pickA bizarre road trip through Australia during a zooflu pandemic—a virus that enables humans to understand animals. Jean is at the wheel—she‘s a hard-drinking granny looking for her son and granddaughter. Sue—half dog, half dingo—is riding shotgun. Author Laura Jean McKay‘s skill in using language to create a disorienting sense of otherness astounded me. It is a probing look into our relationship with other creatures on this planet. #ozfiction
Andy‘s voice breaks. “I heard … heard the pregnant mice say that they‘ll … what do you call it? … *self-terminate* because things aren‘t right. They can do that. Did you know they can do that?”
(Internet photo of a Somali elephant shrew… because who wants to see a photo of depressed lab mice?)
The road curls inland toward the city. Sue wants us to turn off at a little arsehole of a coastal town that crouches around a bay like a kid who won‘t share lollies.
Maybe some of those petrol fumes get to me because when I look up at the birds they seem to say, clear as if it was written in the sky,
Let it be.
Let it be.
Like they‘re the fucking crow Beatles.
(Internet image)
pickThis story follows Jean and her pet dingo Sue on a cross country journey through the dark, strange and menacing new world in search of her infected son and granddaughter. Where animals talking is not cute but sinister and ominous. Wow! McKay blew my mind with this one. Jean is a character I will never forget! If you enjoy something a bit different, a bit weird give this a go! It's one of thoes books that will shift your perspective. Out Nov 10th.
so-soWoah! I thought Bunny was weird - this is really out there. When you catch "Zooflu" your eyes turn pink and you start to understand what animals are saying. It seems you also go mad, although it's not clear to me if this was supposed to be a consequence of that understanding or another symptom of the disease. I enjoyed the central characters (human and dingo) but I'm not at all sure I understood what the author was trying to say. #ozfiction
pickFew authors would feel lucky to be releasing a book during a global pandemic. Laura Jean McKay might be the only exception! The Animals In That Country revolves around the outbreak of a new highly-infectious subtype of influenza, an eerily prescient premise for an incredible book about family and belonging. My full review on Primer here: https://primer.com.au/animals-in-that-country-review/
pickApril Wrap-up 📚
The Animals in That Country 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Lock Every Door 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I Am Not Your Final Girl (ebook) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Very belated Feb round up. It was a sloooow reading month and a hectic life month. But I read some 5 star true crime, an exceptional ARC, a solid book club read, and somehow managed to stay on track with #readharder2020 so I‘ll take that as a win
pickIt would be easy to call this a pandemic novel but it‘s so much more. The zooflu is instead a vehicle to explore the complex inner worlds of the animals we share our space with. This examination is at times brutal, graphic, and almost consistently finds humans wanting.
The heart of this novel though, is Jean and Sue. A grizzled, alcoholic park ranger, and wise, half-bred dingo. This book is a wild feat of imagination, thrilling at every turn.
