Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett - Wait list

Unlikely Animals

A Novel

by Annie Hartnett
Mark Bramhall
Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 22 weeks
Place a hold Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 22 weeks
“This tragicomic novel is heartfelt, touching, and delightfully quirky. You’ll fall in love with the offbeat cast of characters (both living and dead) and find yourself rooting for them right through the last page.”—Good Housekeeping (Book Club pick)
A lost young woman returns to small-town New Hampshire under the strangest of circumstances in this one-of-a-kind novel of life, death, and whatever comes after from the acclaimed author of Rabbit Cake.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Book Riot • Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize
It was a source of entertainment at Maple Street Cemetery. Both funny and sad, the kind of story we like best. 

Natural-born healer Emma Starling once had big plans for her life, but she’s lost her way. A medical school dropout, she’s come back to small-town Everton, New Hampshire, to care for her father, who is dying from a mysterious brain disease. Clive Starling has been hallucinating small animals, as well as having visions of the ghost of a long-dead naturalist, Ernest Harold Baynes, once known for letting wild animals live in his house. This ghost has been giving Clive some ideas on how to spend his final days.
Emma arrives home knowing she must face her dad’s illness, her mom’s judgment, and her younger brother’s recent stint in rehab, but she’s unprepared to find that her former best friend from high school is missing, with no one bothering to look for her. The police say they don’t spend much time looking for drug addicts. Emma’s dad is the only one convinced the young woman might still be alive, and Emma is hopeful he could be right. Someone should look for her, at least. Emma isn’t really trying to be a hero, but somehow she and her father bring about just the kind of miracle the town needs.
Set against the backdrop of a small town in the throes of a very real opioid crisis, Unlikely Animals is a tragicomic novel about familial expectations, imperfect friendships, and the possibility of resurrecting that which had been thought irrevocably lost.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 12, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593400678
      • File size: 308444 KB
      • Duration: 10:42:35

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 14, 2022
      Hartnett (Rabbit Cake) delivers a quirky ghost story set in present-day Upper Valley, N.H., inspired by the legacy of naturalist Ernest Harold Baynes. Emma Starling, 22, drops out of medical school to help care for her father, Clive, who is suffering from a rare brain disease. Clive was forced to retire from his professorship due to his hallucinations of animals and is now obsessed with finding Emma’s high school best friend Crystal Nash, who has been missing for several months. When Emma becomes a substitute teacher for fifth graders, she’s drawn back into all the drama of her hometown, including her brother Auggie’s opioid addiction and her mother Ingrid’s unhappiness. With the police unconcerned over Crystal’s disappearance, Emma decides to work with Clive to solve the mystery. The ghosts of various dead townspeople weigh in throughout, such as “real-life Doctor Doolittle” Baynes, whom Clive reveres and who now tells Clive what to do. Others lend an amusing point of view to the proceedings (“one of the perks of being dead, omniscience within town limits,” one of them says). While the jarring ending is hard to swallow, Hartnett’s clever prose and brisk pacing will carry readers through. Hartnett’s whimsical storytelling casts a spell. Agent: Katie Grimm, Don Congdon Assoc.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Two narrators perform this quirky novel. Mark Bramhall tells the story of the colorful Starling family in Everton, New Hampshire, while Kirby Heyborne portrays the animal-loving ghost who is haunting their patriarch, Clive Starling. Bramhall provides a suitably straitlaced portrayal of Emma, who returns to Everton to care for her dysfunctional family, and he infuses Clive with a slightly wacky voice when he converses with the ghost and the animals only he can see. Heyborne employs a gently professorial tone for Ernest Harold Baynes, the late naturalist who shares Clive's love of animals. When Emma discovers her talent for teaching fifth graders and rekindles an old romance, the departed townspeople who are buried at the Maple Street Cemetery avidly discuss her prospects. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2022

      Hartnett's (Rabbit Cake) latest explores loss in a fractured family, expertly comingling the offbeat and bittersweet in this domestic drama. Emma Starling's small New Hampshire hometown feels even smaller when she returns from California, where she was supposed to have been attending school. Reuniting with her family, which Harnett wonderfully depicts as a murmuration, comes with difficult surprises--Emma's father is dying of a neurological condition; her mother forgave his cheating but is having an affair herself; her brother, back from rehab, still resents her; and her ex-best friend is missing, presumed dead. Gossipy ghosts bear witness and unlikely animals lend a paw to the imperfect healing of a young woman and those she touches. Mark Bramhall excels as the voice of Clive, Emma's addled father, and brings an avuncular quality to the ghosts who narrate the unfolding events. Narrating the 1925 journal of the dead naturalist who's haunting Clive with relationship advice, Kirby Heyborne's open, unjaded voice makes a distinct character out of historical figure Earnest Harold Baynes, an animal lover and terrible wingman. VERDICT These and more incongruous absurdities fit together into a warmhearted whole that listeners won't want to end. Expect demand to be high.--Lauren Kage

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
Check out what's being checked out right now