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The Animals In That Country
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
20 posts | 16 read | 20 to read
When the animals start talking, were not ready for what well learn. Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and allergic to bullshit, Jean is not your usual grandma. Shes 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. Then one day, disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country. 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. But as the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds. When Jeans infected son, Lee, 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 it means to be human and what would happen, for better or worse, if we finally understood what animals were saying.
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review
MrsMalaprop
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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Bloody 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

Rissreads I‘m glad you liked it, I think 🤣 1y
CarolynM Great review. I liked the whales😆 1y
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welltemperedwriter
Animals in That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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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.

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Ddzmini
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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So this was a very different take on a virus infection… good read

CarolynM Glad you enjoyed🙂 I still have a chuckle about the whales😆 2y
Ddzmini @CarolynN right this is my first Australian book but I liked it so I‘ll have to get more 🤗 2y
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Ddzmini
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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Starting this read I received from @CarolynM from our #recipeswap package… it looks very interesting 🤨🧐📖

CarolynM 😘 2y
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Emilymdxn
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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Blindingly 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.

CarolynM I liked the whales😆 2y
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Emilymdxn
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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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…

Soubhiville I hope your partner‘s recovery is quick and easy. 2y
Deblovestoread Sorry things have been rough. Hope you have time to rest and recharge and that your partner is better soon. Happy holidays! ❄️🎄❄️ 2y
Bookwomble Sounds like a well-needed bit of book-centred self-care 💕📚💕 2y
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Crazeedi Hopefully home will be healing and rejuvenating. And your partner heals quickly!! 2y
Ruthiella Hope you get some much needed R&R now and that your partner recovers soon! Your self medicating retail therapy was a good move! 2y
BarbaraBB Great picture! 2y
CarolynM Hope your partner recovers quickly. I can't wait to see what you think of The Animals in that Country 2y
marleed I hope this next week is better - and that Covid is tamed for you and your circle. 2y
54 likes8 comments
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Tonton
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
CarolynM It's a strange book, but I didn't think of it as SF. 2y
Tonton @CarolynM Maybe included as speculative fiction? So many categories in genres… 2y
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Rissreads
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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This 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

Reggie Oy, Pippa! Whata cutie! 3y
CarolynM It's a weird one. I agree with you about the main character and the dingo too. And I was very amused by the whales😆 Hope you're doing well, Nerissa😘 3y
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Lindy
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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“I‘m a female! I‘m a star!”

CaffeineAndCandy So pretty 💜💜💜 3y
45 likes1 comment
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Lindy
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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A 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

Lindy “In this country the animals / have the faces of / animals.” Epigraph in the tagged novel is from Margaret Atwood‘s: 3y
CarolynM Did you know it won this year's Victorian Prize for Literature? I thought Jean and the dingo were great and I liked the unexpected take on how the animals see us (especially the whales!) but I was a bit bemused about what it all meant. 3y
Lindy @CarolynM It‘s definitely award-worthy. As is often the case with speculative fiction, the larger purpose here is perhaps to ponder big ideas. Our hubris in regards to our relationship with nonhuman beings. Kinship. The hierarchy of needs. 3y
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Lindy
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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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?)

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Lindy
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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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.

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Lindy
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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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)

LeahBergen 😆 3y
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Bookalong
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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This 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.

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CarolynM
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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Mehso-so

Woah! 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

TrishB Definitely sounds weird! 4y
rockpools That sounds quite something! 4y
ChamomileAndCupcakes I bought this for my mum for Mother‘s Day! We heard it reviewed on ABC radio and thought it sounded weird and cool :) haven‘t heard from her yet what she thinks of it though 😂 4y
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keepingupwiththepenguins
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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Few 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/

CarolynM A friend was raving about this other day. I think I have to read it🙂 4y
keepingupwiththepenguins @CarolynM I think you do too 😉 It's so good! 4y
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bookish.mum
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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April Wrap-up 📚

The Animals in That Country 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Lock Every Door 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I Am Not Your Final Girl (ebook) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

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ClairesReads
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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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

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ClairesReads
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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It 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.

Suet624 Wow! So interesting! 4y
ClairesReads @Suet624 it was great 4y
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ClairesReads
The Animals In That Country | Laura Jean Mckay
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Thanks Scribe Publications for this ARC 🙌🏻🎉