The Memory of Animals

Promises to be thought-provoking.-- Lit Hub Haunting and unsettling, moving and thoughtful--with horror lurking at the edges--this is a subtle, elegant novel, an interesting and unusual take on the meaning of pandemic. Claire Fuller is a huge talent.--Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane Claire Fuller is my favorite story-teller. In The Memory of Animals her larger themes of selfhood and altruism glimmer through an utterly propulsive story. I read this in one sitting, swept up by Fuller's thriller-like pace in the simple joy of reading her characters inhabit their particular drama. Yet, in the book's aftermath, I was haunted by Neffy's fumbling humanity in the face of loss and fear, and how courage isn't always obvious--least of all to those deploying it. Fuller's books come in at the eyes, but they settle right behind the heart.--Melanie Finn, author of The Hare Between wanting to do the right thing and the vortex of mistakes from the past there is a real place, one woven from danger and desire. Claire Fuller's riveting novel, The Memory of Animals, creates a world within a world where a young woman marine biologist faces off with a global pandemic and the hopes for a vaccine by diving into her own past. She might retrieve some fragment that could secure self preservation as well as--if not humanity, then at least the human heart.--Lidia Yuknavitch, author of Thrust Claire Fuller is a fascinating writer, and The Memory of Animals is further evidence of her powers. Her story is one of survival, but her subject is humanity itself. With immense skill, she shines a light on the dark heart of our existence--the beauty and brutality of human behaviour. An unforgettable novel.--Kathleen MacMahon, author of Nothing But Blue Sky Claire Fuller is such an interesting and original writer and takes on complex themes with such a cool, clear eye. In The Memory of Animals she has produced another literary page-turner. The collision between altruism and the survival instinct at the heart of the book is brilliantly dramatized and her disturbing vision of post-pandemic moral collapse is compulsive and thoroughly convincing. Terrific!--Claire Chambers, author of Small Pleasures