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.
‘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. ’
*The 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*
‘A heartfelt novel.’
*Psychologies*
‘A taut exploration of loneliness and devotion, The Animals in That
Country is rich with raw heartache and strange, carnal poetry.’
*Sue Rainsford, author of Follow Me to Ground*
‘A powerful, uncanny tale.’
*The Guardian*
‘A hidden treasure … Read it!’
*Foyles Bookstore*
‘Wow! The Animals in That Country is refreshingly original and
totally bonkers, and I read it at a furious pace. Jean Bennett is
one of the most memorable characters I’ve read in a long time. I
loved her brass and her messiness, and when the end of times comes,
most of us will be lucky to have half her loyalty and
determination. The story is hugely imaginative and fully realised,
with McKay in total control of her creative vision. She explores
the potential of human/nonhuman communication, and the result is as
poetic as it is surprising. A great debut novel.’
*Alison Huber, Book Division Manager Readings*
‘This novel is one wild ride, from beginning to end. I loved Jean’s
character — middle-aged, flawed, and foul-mouthed — desperately
trying to keep herself together and to hold on to the family she
has left. Sue the dingo is a glorious character, full of wild
instinct yet all-knowing about the humans she encounters. This is
one of the most unique, quirky stories I’ve read in a long time and
a telling insight into how we see and relate to native wildlife.
Laura Jean McKay’s is a fresh, innovative voice with a story that
grabs you by the muzzle, leading you on an apocalyptic trip that
you won’t forget easily.’
*Jenny Barry, Booksplus Bathurst*
‘This book drips with angst and excitement … a truly original story
teeming with intrigue.’
*Suzie Bull, Farrells Bookshop*
‘Reminiscent of Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Animals, McKay offers an
exciting and necessary new voice in Australian fiction. We’ve all
wished we could talk to animals, but McKay teaches us that we
really should be careful what we wish for. By turns bizarre and
profound, this is a striking debut.’
*Jaclyn Crupi, Hill of Content Bookshop*
‘In this warm, wild, and irreverent debut, Laura Jean McKay takes
us into the minds of animals to reveal the complexity of their
lives. The Animals in That Country avoids the trap of
anthropomorphism, showing instead the absurd, intense, and shifting
bonds between humans and animals.’
*Mireille Juchau, author of The World Without Us*
‘McKay is a master at building tension through sparse, abrupt
language that mirrors Jean’s decades of alcohol abuse, and the
excellent world-building is enhanced by the exquisite chemistry
between Jean and her canine companion Sue. Visceral and
discombobulating yet tender, The Animals in That
Country will appeal to readers who enjoyed the animal-led
stories in Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Animals, and the
foreboding road trip in Romy Ash’s Floundering.’
*Books+Publishing*
‘Deliriously strange, blackly hilarious, and completely
exhilarating, The Animals in That Country is a wonderful
debut from a genuinely original and exciting new voice.’
*James Bradley, author of Clade*
‘Engrossing, subversive, and surprisingly profound, The
Animals in That Country does something only the best fiction
can do: it has the power to skew the reader’s perspective on the
world. This story will stay with me for a long time, and its
protagonist, Jean Bennett, will be with me even longer.’
*J.P. Pomare, author of Call Me Evie*
‘Weird, wonderful and strangely moving. I will be thinking about
this strange book, about Jean and Sue, for a long long time.’
*Eloise Grills, author of Big Beautiful Female Theory*
‘An imaginative tour de force — assured, compelling, and utterly
original, this book will change how you see the world. Laura Jean
McKay's powers are in full evidence here: her singular gift for
empathy, enviable storytelling chops, and deftly elegant language
will shift your frame of reference and leave you altered, in the
best of ways. A unique and important work that explores the bond
between humans and animals — and indeed throws the whole dividing
line between us into doubt.’
*Meg Mundell, author of The Trespassers*
‘You know when you finish a book and you know that book will occupy
your mind for a long time? The Animals in That Country is one of
those. I haven’t read a book like it and I don’t think I will again
... The speech is almost poetic, full of metaphors and stunted
syntax that (initially) confounds those hearing it ... This book is
simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny and soul-crushingly depressing,
in a way I can only describe as reminiscent of Waiting for Godot.’
FIVE STARS
*Good Reading*
‘If you read The Animals in That Country, it will be the wildest
ride you take all year.’
*The Saturday Paper*
‘The writing is vibrant, energetic, and refreshing, and the
narrative leaps off the page ... a wild, engaging ride for
readers.’
*The Australian*
‘A wild and original ride of a read.’
*New Idea*
‘Laura Jean McKay, an expert in animal communication, has her
animals speaking in hallucinogenic haikus — it’s disturbing but
compelling, and somehow totally believable. I loved every bizarre,
unexpected moment.’
*Herald Sun*
‘An incredible achievement in storytelling, and absolutely worth
your time ... one of the best Australian novels of the year.’
*Booktopia*
‘Eerily prescient … The Animals in That Country offers a
timely take on the fraught ways animals feature in our lives, and
how devastating it would be if we heard what they had to say.’ FIVE
STARS
*ArtsHub*
‘This is a work of not only remarkable linguistic skill but also
one that brilliantly captures our relationship with the inhabitants
of this wild world.’ FOUR STARS
*The Big Issue*
‘The genius stroke of The Animals in That Country is the
preternatural ‘body talk’ of its animals ... an affecting book, one
that gets remarkably close to the unknowable wildness of animal
sentience.’
*The Age*
‘A standout debut novel of 2020 ... Original, hugely entertaining,
and superbly crafted, this is one heck of a road-trip novel, whose
timing and insights into human behaviour in a crisis could not be
more prescient.’
*Readings Booksellers*
‘Strikingly original ... It’s a tale that is at turns bizarre and
surprisingly affecting, populated by a cast of richly idiosyncratic
characters and posing timely questions about the ways we relate
both to animals and to each other.’
*The Weekend West*
‘This is a beguiling, thought-provoking story penned with passion,
intricate animals knowledge and great creativity ... Disturbing,
challenging, and addictive, the book prompts you to wonder about
what animals are really thinking.’
*The Weekly Times*
‘McKay is a master of voice-driven narrative. I never thought a
substance-abusing grandmother was just who I needed to take me on
an apocalyptic road trip — and that long after I gulped the book
down, I'd be haunted by the words of a dingo called Sue.’
*Sofija Stefanovic, author of Miss Ex-Yugoslavia*
‘This is an absorbing and affecting book, and one to which I’m able
to pay the highest compliment: that, in the days after finishing
it, the world felt different to me, its animals not speaking but
not silent either.’
*Australian Book Review*
‘The beauty of this book is that it never quite goes where the
reader expects it to go. McKay zigs when the reader expects her to
zag. And the whole builds to a kind of slow-moving climax ... The
Animals in That Country takes an intriguing premise and absolutely
runs with it. While delivering one of the strangest road trips
ever, McKay considers the nature of family, the human response to
the unknown and our relationship with the animals kingdom, among
other things.’
*The Blurb*
‘[A] compelling and haunting debut … Scattered with dark humour and
driven by a compelling plot, The Animals in That Country is an
outstanding and timely examination of human morality. It will
change the way you view both animals and the world.’
*Audrey Magazine*
‘McKay has written a searing dystopian critique of our relationship
with the natural world … Through poetic projections of what the
animals might say if they could, McKay highlights our limited
capacity to communicate with language, and our human-centric view
of the natural order … Earthy, visceral, at-times obscene, and
all-too-real, The Animals In That Country is nevertheless
compelling and oddly buoying … McKay is a masterful storyteller,
and her talent truly shines in this quest for family and
belonging.’
*Primer*
‘As we grapple with a worldwide pandemic, Australian author McKay’s
novel is incredibly timely and feels all the more real for it …
filled with humour, optimism, and grace: a wild ride worth taking.
An eye-opening glimpse into a world that’s turned upside down and
eventually becomes its own version of whole.’
*Booklist*
‘Part pandemic novel and part beast fable, McKay’s novel, which
takes its title from a Margaret Atwood poem, imagines a disease
that causes humans to understand animal language, down to the
lowliest insect. Acerbic wildlife guide Jean and a dingo named Sue
set off through the Australian Outback in pursuit of the former’s
son, who has absconded south after losing his mind, like so many
others, due to the new voices that now seemingly occupy every
space.’
*Publishers Weekly, ‘Going Viral: New Science Fiction and Fantasy
2020’*
‘A bravura investigation of the relations between humans and
animals.’
*The Guardian*
‘Disturbingly timely, The Animals In That Country chronicles the
journey of one no-bullshit woman and her half-wild dingo as they
race against a deadly pandemic. Jean is brilliantly crafted —
unapologetically rough and yet filled with hidden vulnerability.
McKay's tale pulled me in with its entertaining nature then dragged
me under with its profound nuance.’
*Brazos Bookstore*
‘Surprising and surprisingly-convincing characters, and a
well-realised, inventive premise.’
*ABC News*
‘A gritty and innovative wonder about an animal-borne virus (yep)
that cracks opens channels between interspecies communication. The
result is a raucous fever dream of a road story, evocative of
Kenneth Cook, Hunter S. Thompson, and Ceridwen Dovey – but
ultimately, McKay defies comparison.’
*Josephine Rowe*
‘A timely dystopian novel in which a dangerous flu sweeps across
Australia, giving those infected the power to speak with animals,
with dark, disturbing results.’
*Maxine Beneba Clarke*
‘A wildly inventive dystopian adventure … Both a hell of a ride and
a revealing thought experiment about our place in the natural
world.’
*Slate*
‘The Animals in That Country is an uncanny book, in no small part
because it was released in March and has a pandemic is at its
centre … McKay’s book is madcap and poetic by turns; concerned
about exactly what constitutes the relationships between humans and
animals, and how we see each other and interact in this world we
share.’
*The Guardian*
‘This book changed the way I look at the relationship between
humans and animals, and it has one of the most wonderful dingo
protagonists in Sue.’
*Broadsheet*
‘Bold and strikingly inventive.’
*The Weekend West Australian*
‘The Animals in That Country is not a philosophical or moral tale.
An experiment, rather than a lecture, the book invites readers to
reflect on the fact that we belong to Mother Nature, instead of the
other way around. And we are not her only child … A wildly
imaginative and adventurous story that challenges the boundaries of
both our language and our empathy for other creature surviving,
living and thriving in this world.’
*Upper Yarra Mail*
‘McKay does not offer us anthropomorphised cartoons, but a
vocabulary formed by scent and breath … As the novel progresses,
and more animals are introduced, it becomes impossible not to
believe in McKay’s creative choices. In the arrangement and the
rhythms and the personalities of each animal she translates, it is
obvious McKay withheld nothing … McKay has not written a white lie
about how lovely it would be to speak with a dog. Instead, she has
asked that necessary, and uncomfortable question: Do we really want
to know what the rest of the planet thinks of us?’
*Necessary Fiction*
‘It was an absorbing read. Really inventive storytelling.’
*Sydney Morning Herald*
‘The Animals in that Country is that rare thing: an intellectually
ambitious, formally innovative Australian novel that is accessible
to a broad readership. It’s also wonderfully macabre … This is a
work of fiction utterly capable of swaying the cultural imaginary …
well-researched, impeccably crafted, and, above all,
intelligent.’
*The Conversation*
‘Amazing.’
*Stuff*
‘The exploration of kinship, the untrusting nature of people and
how different animal species view humans are stand-out aspects of
this novel. The ‘rough as guts’ Jean is a loveable and humorous
narrator and her relationship with Sue makes for great comedic
relief during the times in the story when they are in unwelcoming
company and ‘animal free’ zones … [B]eing offered glimpses into
animals’ minds was one of the most powerful offerings of this
novel. This is a book for anyone who has ever wanted to talk to
animals, or even just looked at their pet and wondered what they
were thinking.’
*InDaily*
‘[The Animals in That Country] is disturbing and darkly comic,
disrupting anthropocentric assumptions, revealing how animals might
see our often violent intrusion into their lives … McKay’s
innovation lies in the startlingly newness of the plot and the
innovations in form in conveying animal voices as agentic and
different … The Animals in that Country marks a striking new moment
in animal representation in Australian fiction.’
*ALS Gold Medal Judge's' Citation*
‘[A] bravura investigation of the relations between humans and
animals.’
*The Guardian*
‘A cross between Thelma & Louise and Doctor Doolittle ... I really
enjoyed this book.’
*BBC Radio 4 A Good Read*
‘A stunning and disquieting account of a virus which gives infected
humans the ability to understand animals.’
*Massey University*
‘Delves into relationships, how we communicate, and our often
complicated relationships with family members. A book that explores
more than your typical road trip, with a certainly less than
typical sidekick, the book is fresh, funny, and full of
characters.’
*Forbes*
‘While humour is rampant, [The Animals in That Country] is all too
disturbingly believable. By them being given a voice, a set of
languages humans can understand, animals’ intelligence— and
rights—are recognised. [This novel] is a barking, squawking,
roaring, brawling free-for-all. And considering it was written
pre-corona, yes, preposterous in its prescience, too.’
*Wild Magazine*
‘[Laura Jean McKay's] book is like two novels sandwiched together:
one about an outback road-chase involving a hard-living,
middle-aged woman, the other a dystopian tale of a pandemic, the
main symptom of which causes societal collapse. What is admirable
is how the excitement of the first and the significance of the
second intertwine so that both become part of a whole, where the
philosophical questions raised by the power shift between animals
and humans are present without overburdening the action of the
chase. Darkly funny, this engrossing novel has a surprisingly
affecting end.’
*Landfall Review Online*
‘The winner of the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Prize for Fiction,
among many other accolades, sees a pandemic (coincidentally) raging
through Australia, in which those infected with ‘zooflu’ can
understand the various languages of animals. The big question, and
the one McKay handles beautifully, is what, exactly, those animals
are saying and what effect that has on the people who can’t help
but listen.’
*Paul Dalgarno, Herald Sun's Top 50 Summer Reads 2022*
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