The Animals in That Country
Description:
Out on the road, no one speaks, everything talks. 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. As disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country, Jean realises 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. As the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds, including Jean's infected son, Lee. When he 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. Bold, exhilarating, and wholly original, The Animals in That Country asks what would happen, for better or worse, if we finally understood what animals were saying.
Reviews:
(2 weeks ago) |
25 Sep, 2025
Killer exposition. Really, really, really good. I thought I was going to be obsessed with this book. Made the disappointment of the rest of it even sharper. The dismal apocalypse setting is not a frame for anything interesting to develop. I would actually recommend this, maybe even highly, but only in combination with a DNF point of the pig scene. That's the only scene where we get a taste of the types of themes you were probably interested in a highly-skilled, astutely observant author exploring on this kind of premise. The book is definitely funny throughout, but not funny in an interesting way or a way that contrasts to the ever-increasing dismalness. And there's no lesson in the dismalness. It's just boring. Three stars generously, but honestly my feelings are closer to 2. McKay is clearly a really powerful writer, and what she chooses to do with this book is a total cop-out.
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Challenge:
Read Around Oceania Challenge
Country:
Australia
Australia
Language:
EN
Genre:
Adult Science fiction
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