The Animals in That Country:
winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award

£8.99 GBP

The Animals in That Country:
winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award

Overview

WINNER OF THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

Out on the road, no one speaks, everything talks.

Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed grandma Jean has never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park.

Then, a strange pandemic begins sweeping the country, its chief symptom that its victims begin to understand the language of animals. Many infected people lose their minds, including Jean’s son, Lee.

When he takes off with Kimberly, Jean follows, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun. As they travel, they discover a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species.

Details

Format
Paperback
Size
198mm x 129mm
Extent
304 pages
ISBN
9781913348854
RRP
GBP£8.99
Pub date
8 July 2021
Rights held
World

Awards

  • Winner of the 2021 Arthur C. Clarke Award
  • Shortlisted for the 2020 The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
  • Winner of the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction
  • Winner of the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Literature
  • Winner of the 2021 ABIA Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year
  • Shortlisted for the 2021 The Stella Prize
  • Winner of the 2021 Aurealis Awards’ Best Science Fiction Novel
  • Longlisted for the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award
  • Shortlisted for the 2021 ALS Gold Medal
  • Shortlisted for the 2021 The Kitchies' Golden Tentacle Award

Praise

‘A fierce debut novel … Her writing about people is filthy, fresh, and funny; this is prose on high alert, hackles up and teeth bared in every sentence. The novel becomes both a stirring attempt to inhabit other consciousnesses and a wry demonstration of the limits of our own language and empathy. ’

Justine JordanThe Guardian

‘This is a game-changing, life-changing novel, the kind that comes along right when you need it, and compels you to listen to its terrifying poetry. Compulsively readable and yet also pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of language and narrative, this is a brilliant and disturbing book that will make you rethink everything you thought you understood about non-human animal sentience and agency. I don’t think any reader can ever forget a voice like Sue the dingo’s — wise and obscene in equal measure. A triumph.’

Ceridwen Dovey, author of Only the Animals
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About the Author

Laura Jean McKay is the author of The Animals in That Country (Scribe, 2020) — winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Victorian Prize for Literature, and the ABIA Small Publishers Adult Book of the Year, and co-winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Laura is also the author of Holiday in Cambodia (Black Inc., 2013). She was awarded the NZSA Waitangi Day Literary Honours in 2022.

more about the author