What if people could talk to the animals--and it turned out to be a nightmare? In The Animals in that Country, Jean, a hard-drinking Australian granny who gives tours at a zoo and dreams of opening an animal sanctuary, is caught up in an epidemic that causes people to understand animal communication. They don't suddenly speak English as in a children's book; instead, humans can now perceive the messages sent via smell, body language and sound. Mild cases can understand only mammals; serious ones advance to understanding species less similar to us, and some victims are essentially driven mad.
Jean's estranged son is one, unable to resist the siren song of the whales calling "come home"--an invitation that of course would end in death for land-dwellers. He kidnaps his daughter Kimberley, Jean's granddaughter, and Jean sets off after them, in the company of a beloved dingo who never shuts up. They travel through a society quickly falling to pieces, and in some cases unnervingly reminiscent of Covid's realities. There are conspiracy theories. People not only wear masks, but sunglasses and earplugs, in a desperate attempt not to be overwhelmed by the signals washing over them.
Laura Jean McKay (Holiday in Cambodia) has clearly done a lot of thinking about humanity's multifaceted and fraught relationship with other species, as well as what it might feel like to be everything from a horse to a grub being swallowed alive. But there is no preaching--it's all used in service of a gripping, unforgettable story. --Linda Lombardi, writer and editor